On Our Way to Maryland!

We are really excited to be leaving for Maryland tomorrow. Maya loves the airplane and her family members in Maryland, so she is super-excited for the trip. Shayne is so excited he is about to explode. This year Maya is a lot more interested in playing with other kids that she was last year, although she played with Sydney and Jonathan pretty well at the beach a few times last year. Anyway, when playng with her, there is no doubt that her cousins will notice that she is a little different, even if they didn't last year. This is mainly for Alison, Tammy and Sarah...if you want to maybe mention to your kids that Maya doesn't talk much, but she likes to play still, that would really help. Tell them that just because she isn't saying much doesn't mean she doesn't like them or isn't having fun. Also, if they want to play something specific with her, showing her what to do instead of telling her what to do usually helps. If she starts screaming and hitting herself, which we are really hoping she doesn't (she didn't last year), and any of the kids see her, it can be upsetting. You can just say something like, "When Maya doesn't know how to say what she wants, sometimes she gets really mad. Her mom/dad will take care of her. She will feel better soon." Again, we are hoping to avoid any of those episodes, and really hoping she develops her social skills a little more with her cousins this year. Thanks again for all of your interest and support with us and Maya. We are so excited to see everyone!

I Give the Second B12 Shot

Actually, compared to everything else, giving her the second B12 shot (the doctor gave the first one) was not bad at all. I decided to wait until a few minutes before I normally wake her up. I wake her up most days around 8:45, because if I don't she will sleep all morning and stay up half the night, her natural clock being very much like her mama's. Anyway, it was over in .5 seconds and she barely stirred. We only have to do it every three days. As far as any impact it seems to be having, we are seeing a lot of language, eye-contact and social interaction, all great to see. She seems to be continuing to move forward in all areas, especially the past 2 days. Hopefully she is through the rough patch and on a more permanent upward-curve. We are so happy to have our happy girl back (well, mostly happy...)

Gluten-Free Oats...Awesome!!

Maya started asking for oatmeal last week. Great, right? Usually...Well, it goes against all motherly instincts to forbid oatmeal, let me tell you. Luckily, a farmers market type health food store down the street just started carrying gluten-free rolled oats and they are great. Maya loves them and so do Shayne and I. I have been making them with a little brown sugar for breakfast for the past few days and it has been working like a charm.

B-12 Shots

So yesterday we had our appointment with the doctor so he could show us how to give the B-12 shots. I am actually glad they come in shot form, because it is virtually impossible to give her anything orally these days. I try to give her a teaspoon of multi-vitamin and mineral liquid each day and she usually forcefully expells at least half of it, even if she is laying down and I am holding her mouth. She is very determined not to ingest vitamins. I have tried mixing it with everything, and she can instantly detect the most minute amount, and will reject the food or drink with a simple, "Plah!" So the needle is tiny and the dosage is very small. She didn't seem to be very bothered when he gave it to her. We only have to give her one every three days. He said a lot of people just do it when they are asleep and often they don't even wake up, so that is what I will try on Thursday.
So the appointment went well and he said that the rough period we went through is "totally expected" and that it often takes a few months before you see significant improvements. A few months...so I guess we are going to stick with it for awhile. We are happy to be back most days to where she was before at least, because now we can go places again. We had forgotten how diffucult it was for us 1 1/2-2 years ago to really go anywhere or do anything. At the time it didn't seem as bad because we were used to it I guess. On Monday we went to downtown Phoenix on the light rail train, and walked around downtown for awhile around dusk, so it wasn't too hot. It was really fun. It took 2 1/2 hours all together and she was happy the whole time. That is pretty much how it was before, so hopefully we are on the upswing. I am glad to be, especially considering we will be flying across the country a week from today.

Even More Picky

Things are getting more difficult with the diet, as she has decided to stop eating some of the foods she was eating with no problem earlier. Some things she has stopped eating for the most part are:

• rotisserie chicken
• GFCF pancakes or waffles
• pasta
• sometimes eggs

I said to her this morning, "Do you want a pancake?" and she said, with a look of disgust on her face, "Pancake-plah!" While this may not seem like a big deal, we are already so limited, so this is not good. Hopefully we will be able to find some new foods she likes...

Last Week: A Recap

So last week was pretty rough until about Friday. We knew that this was a trial and error thing and that things were going to get worse before they got better, but she really regressed a lot for a little over a week. We were seeing behaviors and sensory issues that we haven't seen for two years in many cases. Full-blown, face-hitting tantruming, and very little talking to name a few. It was very emotionally difficult for everyone to go back to that after coming so far. Right as we were about to throw in the towel with the whole diet thing, we gave her a piece of cheese on a cheeseburger (I read that gluten can take 3 months to work out of the system, where you usually know about casein in about 3 weeks). It had almost been 3 weeks, so we gave her the cheese, and she was great the rest of the night, and has seemed to be on the upswing since then, having days that are comparable to what we were having before. The only marked improvement from before has been her use of "my" (ex. my leg hurts, my popcorn, etc.) and her interest and improvement in fine-motor activities such as cutting, gluing, coloring and drawing. I will get my scanner hooked up and scan a few things so you can see what I am talking about.

Unexpected Events While Sticking to a Special Diet

I haven't posted in awhile...Things have been pretty hectic...

So while we were up camping a week ago Sunday-Tuesday, we packed very carefully so that we would be able to stick to the diet. We were only planning on being gone over night. That all changed in a hurrry when the car wouldn't start. We tried to do the best we could, a hamburger (she doesn't like the bun) and french fries for dinner, a sausage and egg for breakfast and then we were home by lunchtime.

She was still having a really hard time with being flexible on the trip. We were all tired of dealing with the car, but she had a full-blown meltdown once we got to the garage. We (Maya, Shayne and I) stayed outside, so it could have been worse, but it was pretty bad.