autism meltdown

To Go Or Not To Go

~ NickyB. ~ 16 Comments

It is becoming increasingly difficult to get MJ out of the house!  Unless it’s to his favorite restaurant, we often have to drag him out of the house. Sometimes I just don’t have the energy to deal with his behavior, so lots of times we just end up staying home! Other times however, it is a situation where he has to go or we have to force him to go. Today we wanted to go out to a family breakfast but to a different restaurant than he is accustomed to.  We let him know ahead of time that it was a new/different restaurant. He took forever to get dressed, brush his teeth, and do the other necessary things before leaving the house. He was in a bad mood and it immediately put me on edge because I did not want him to have a meltdown.  When we got to the restaurant, to help the process, we quickly ordered his usual favorite (that he gets at the other restaurants), and set his tablet up on their free Wi-Fi. He was still grumpy, banged on his tablet a few times, and wouldn’t interact with any of us.  Thankfully he began watching one of his favorite shows and then his mood got better.  The food came and he immediately began to devour it. That is when I was finally able to relax and enjoy my food and our time at breakfast. I hate the anxiety that I often feel when we go out to certain places. But I understand that sometimes he will have to be forced to go where he doesn’t necessarily want to go. We don’t want him to be a child that does not go out and about and experience different things. The difficulty at times is finding the balance between that and his comfort level.  


He was not happy at all when we got there. 


Using my phone, but still not happy 😩


He sure did clean his plate though! Hoping it will be better the next time we try it.  

#alwayswantstostayhome

#sometimesyouhavetogomj

#havetofindthebalance

#thankGoditwentwell

Advertisement

Daughter Saves The Day!

~ NickyB. ~ 31 Comments

Thanksgiving weekend has been great so far.  It’s always nice to have guests and sit down to a great meal. I love the family time that we have due to everyone being home for a few days.  However there was one meltdown that occurred on Thanksgiving Day.  MJ began crying nonstop after a toy throwing accident.  He felt bad about it and apologized but he just couldn’t stop crying.   As I was going to be “supermom” and try to help him through it, I stopped in my tracks.  I witnessed my 8 year old daughter “taking over.”

  She was asking, “MJ what’s wrong.”  

She was telling him, “Everything is gonna be ok.”

  She was wiping the tears away on his face.

  She was hugging him and telling him, “l love you.” 

 She was actually saying, “MJ let’s take some deep breaths…Breathe in, breathe out.” He was doing everything that she said to do. 

  She completely handled the situation in the way that I would have. She has been paying attention! I quietly walked out of the room and waited for about 10 minutes before I checked in on them.  I was so proud to see MJ calm, not crying, and watching a movie.  I wanted to cry for joy at that moment but held it in as I had guests in the house.  When everyone left and it was time for bed, I grabbed and hugged my daughter.  I told her how proud I was of her. I told her that she really understands her brother.  I told her that as a family we always have to take care of each other and love each other. I thanked her for her help that night.  She smiled the widest smile and said, “Mommy I love MJ and I wanted him to feel better.”

I went to bed truly giving thanks for my sweet little girl…and finally had that cry of joy. 

  

Should’ve Been A Nice Day At The Park

~ NickyB. ~ 14 Comments

The other day we all decided to go to the park. My husband would play basketball with people that are 20 years younger than him (he still believes he can play better than them lol), while the kids and I took a walk.  It started out well.  MJ was further ahead of me than I like, but he now stops and waits for me at certain places in the park.  During our second lap, my daughter noticed that no one was on the swings.  It’s been a while since she swung on one, so I said “ok go and swing.”  MJ used to LOVE the swing.  It would calm him down.  The OT he had years ago would always make him swing at the beginning of each session.  Anyhow, They both began to swing when all of a sudden MJ purposely and continuously threw himself off of the swing.  This wasn’t him being playful (at first I thought he was joking around).  He was having a mini meltdown.  I HATED that I had to make my daughter stop swinging but MJ would not stop.  Eventually he got up and we started walking again.  I could tell that he was still upset but he walked with us back to the basketball court. I am still not sure what triggered it but I think we will try it again this weekend.


Took this pic after the second time he fell off of the swing.  I thought he was joking at the beginning 😏

Another “Crying Episode”

~ NickyB. ~ 25 Comments

Picture courtesy of Pinterest

Last night Mj had another crying episode.   This one lasted for 2 hours.  It started about an hour before bedtime.   The trigger seemed to be that he couldn’t figure out what snack he wanted…but I’m still not sure what it was.  After 15 min of him trying to choose a snack, he finally ate something and seemed to be ok.  A few minutes after that he started crying again.  I comforted him the best way that I could and told him everything will be ok.   He went to bed crying.  He kept saying “but I’m sad”.   We talked about his birthday parties (he had one at school too) and the awesome weekend we had…He was still crying.  I hugged him and sang.  He was still crying.  I continuously asked him what was wrong and massaged his head.   He was still crying.   I turned on his favorite show.  He was still crying.  By this time it’s way passed his bedtime.   My husband decided to try. He lied in Mj’s bed for about 30 min.  They both watched a little of the basketball game and he calmed down a little bit but was still crying.   At the 2 hour mark we kissed and hugged him, said prayers and told him to try and go to bed.   We checked on him after 20 min and he was asleep.  I absolutely hate when this happens.  It’s so difficult to figure out what is wrong and what the trigger is (sigh).   This morning he seemed ok.  I sent his teacher a text message to give her a “heads up”.   She said he was unmotivated today.   Praying and believing that tomorrow will be better.