Sensory play is awesome! And Updates :)

Hi everyone :)

Are you familiar with sensory play??

If not, let me enlighten you :) Sensory play isn't just for kids with special needs, it's fun play for kids of all abilities!

"Sensory play includes any activity that stimulates your young child’s senses: touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing. Sensory activities and sensory tables facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore. Spending time stimulating their senses helps children develop cognitively, linguistically, socially and emotionally, physically and creatively."

Huxley LOVES sensory play! It encourages him to open his hands more, to reach/grasp objects, and to explore with all his senses! 

Mr. Huxley enjoying water play on the left, exploring how water feels on his hands and finding little objects too!

Playing with yogurt on the right, sensory play for taste, smell, and texture

Sensory bottle that I made, exploring the texture of ribbons and the noise of the crackly bottle, the bottle is filled with little coloured objects for his eyes to explore.

Huxley playing with kinetic sand on the left in his stander, on the right playing with bright colored noisy paper on dad! 

Feathers were a hit, can you tell?


In other news, QA brought us a table that works with Huxleys tomato chair! Now he can play like a big kid! Oh my goodness, it looks like he is at school. Oh my heart!

This lovely rainbow looking display below is my new favourite thing. It's an essential oil kit! A special needs forum i'm a part of has many users of essential oils and they were raving about the results on not only their kiddos but on themselves too. I've made a rub for Huxleys muscles, several different diffuser combos that help for various different reasons, and I plan on making many other treats with it! So fun! 

Finally I will share with you a medical update.. We finally got Huxley in to see the only pediatric ophthalmologist there is on the island! We have been waiting for months. He's worth the wait though, he is amazing. If you haven't noticed this about Huxley, his eyes wander sometimes. Dr. Pegado said that his muscles over time might be able to strengthen enough to resolve the wander but there is a 50/50 chance that he might need a super non-invasive surgery to correct in the future but he does not need glasses and otherwise his eyes look good. The picture below gives a good example of the wander. It's a muscle tone issue which of course is par for the course with cerebral palsy. 

Thanks for reading <3 

Tha

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Sensory Play and Early Child Development. (n.d) retrieved August 22 2015, from PBS.org Web Site: http://www.pbs.org/parents/child-development/sensory-play/

The dark days are mostly behind us..

Hello dear family and friends

I missed posting last week because it was a zoo at work but today is a grey day and its causing the street to be quiet. 

There's our boy all snug as a bug in his little bed in the NICU. 

Having a baby in general is an incredible journey and many mothers feel a surge of emotions a few days after the baby is born (it usually coincides with milk coming in) and not all of those emotions feel good. I feel that it is so important to spread awareness as a doula and a mother that having a baby is an exciting time but its okay if it also feels bad. 

After Huxley was born I was in shock and a constant state of fight or flight. Everyday that I sat with him in NICU I tried to 'pull up my socks' and be the bravest I could be. Hux was about four months old when I felt like I just couldn't be brave anymore. I needed help. I was so fortunate to be referred to an amazing clinical counselor  named Traci McGee. Here's a blurb from her website: 

Typically, mothers access the Post Partum Support Program by a referral from a public health nurse, physician, midwife, social worker or an agency that is part of the Greater Victoria health community. The Post Partum Support Program is sponsored by the Vancouver Island Health Authority (Island Health).

It is an amazing free service available for mamas in need in the Greater Victoria area. 

The two things in these sessions that I felt helped the most: 

1) It is okay to feel the way I was feeling. It is odd but sometimes as humans we just need permission to feel vulnerable and afraid. 

2) I needed to find my tribe. (My words not hers haha). I was a part of several new baby groups but unless you have a child with special needs you can't fully understand what its like. I needed to find people like me that had children like Huxley! I don't know why I didn't think about it myself but that simple suggestion from Traci guided me to the biggest support we have. 

HOPE FOR HIE

The link above is the foundations page but the Facebook forum which has a 1000+ members that all have children like Huxley has been an incredible resource and place of refuge. The moment I joined the group and started reading the posts I felt a big wave of relief wash over me. The children described were Huxley. Finally I wasn't alone anymore. 

We are SO lucky to be living in this age of social media. I cannot imagine how trying it would have been to have Huxley in the years before the internet and social media. 

Whatever your struggle is, I'm certain there is a group out there waiting to meet you. It is okay to be vulnerable and it is okay to seek help.  

Our days are filled with love, hope, and so many hugs. Sometimes the darkness creeps back up but one smile from our beautiful boy and it all melts away. 

That's all for now folks, so much love. 

Inchstone Update :)

Hi Everyone :)

My amazing attentive and determined hubby has been working a lot with Huxley to get him comfy with the 'Tomato Chair' and here's a VIDEO to show you how its working!

Sitting and eating!

He ate macaroni and cheese like a big kid!!

Happy in his chair!

Sitting with mama!

Happy boy working hard :) So proud of my hubby and his dedication to Huxley.

xo.