Making it through the terrible Tues-days

July 31, 2011

“What’s a little guy gotta do to get a nap around here?!”

After completing our first week of Brighter Beginnings Through Conductive Education, it was obvious that we’ve gotten a little lax in our morning routine, and working for long periods of time. Conductive education isn’t as rigorous as intensive therapy, but the efforts taken to fit into all of the other activities seems to be taking its toll, especially on Nathan.

Even though sessions don’t start until 9:30, we’re still up just a little after 7, packing snacks, lunches, clothes and equipment, trying to balance allowing Nathan to sleep as much as possible, yet still giving a little bit of time for him to wake up before shoveling as much breakfast as he’ll eat before getting out the door around 8:15.

While we were in Cinci, we put all of our other activities on hold. Since we’re sleeping in our own beds and logistically able to make it to all of our appointments, we’re still trying to cram as much as possible into our schedules.

This means our Tuesdays will be jam packed for the next couple of weeks. When we leave the house in the morning, we leave knowing we won’t get back home for at least 11 hours. On paper, the morning session ending at 12:30 and not having speech group at 3, sounds like plenty of time. But as each child walks out the doors, without walkers, and only the absolute support necessary, it’s not uncommon for us to not be leaving until 12:45-12:50.

If we tried to head all the way home, we’d have 20 minutes for both Nathan and I to get lunch and head back on the road. Instead, we’re stopping at my parents house, trimming around 20 miles off the trip, and giving us time to actually swallow in between bites. The thought of Nathan getting a nap sounded good, but this week he was only able to settle down for 15 minutes before it was back in the car again.

This week, we rolled into speech with less than 2 minutes to spare. He seemed excited to be there, and see his friends with his communication device in front of him. I sat in the waiting room, working on my computer until the hour was up. The therapist walked the other kids out, and then sat next to me to talk about Nathan. She spoke about the topic for the week being feelings, and all Nathan wanted to say was “I am tired.” “I am tired.”

As if that wasn’t enough, the road in front of us didn’t lead to home. From 5:30-6:30 on Tuesdays, Nathan has his equine-assisted therapy. And as we all have suffered through, it’s in non-climate controlled barn, in miserable heat. Nathan only made it about halfway through before just slumping over. He was just spent. We headed home, got a little more food in him and let him head to bed.

On Wednesday, he seemed to pick up on the routine and caught a better nap in the car on the way after Conductive Ed. He probably only made it about 10 minutes into the 50 minute trip before catching as many zzz’s as we would allow. Even once, we got home, I got a little bit of drink in him and it was snoozing for another two hours.

Thursday, he has his private speech therapy from 3-3:30, so we stopped again at Grandma and Grandpa’s. Getting another snooze en route, he finished both events very well, impressing his therapist. By Friday, he had just run out of steam and struggled to make it through the morning session.

We’ve all tried to get more rest over the weekend and we startup week 2, Monday morning. We have two more tough Tuesdays to get through (the last week, we have equine-therapy off, as the stables prepares for the Ohio Polo Classic.) I think we have a better understanding of how to maximize our time and try to best get through all of our activities.

There’s no place like home, and eventually, we’ll take the time to appreciate it.

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