Bedtime Getting Better :)

These last couple weeks we worked on incorporating some of the therapy techniques for bedtime that Stephanie gave to us. The goal is not to incorporate all of them in at once, but to pick a few and add those ones in slowly. She gave me a list of around 20 ideas. I know not all of them are going to work. Stephanie is still getting to know Juli so some of them might not be 100% perfect for Juli. The list is there for me to pick the ones that I think I can easily incorporate and try them out. Stephanie made sure to give me enough that I can have quite a few to try and quite a few more to try if those first ones don't bring the desired result: her falling to sleep faster and sleeping more soundly....

I am so happy to say that it has been successful so far. I started by doing some "brushes" on her arms and legs. These are done with a specific brush that I use to give her some deep pressure brushing going up and down her arms and legs. This is supposed to be soothing for her and help her to regulate herself therefore being able to help calm her. I do them 15 times on each leg and as well as each arm.

After these we proceed to her "pushes" as she likes to call them. These are deep compression pushes that I also do 15 times to each of her legs and arms in that order lol. One after the other she bends her legs and arms at a 90 degree angle and I hold her ankle and knees in my hands and push the two together towards each other. She loves these!!!  She even attempts to do them herself as she knows they make her feel good. So adorable!

These two techniques help to calm her enough that I am able to help her brush her teeth!!  Only in the last week have I been able to do that for the first time.  This definitely brought tears to my eyes :).  Before that it hurt her too much for me to be able to brush her teeth. She had to do it herself and had Stephanie help her during therapy classes. (Thankfully dentist reports came back with perfect teeth)... Needless to say this was a very joyous occasion for me.  The smallest things bring such big joys lol.

With her brushes, compressions and teeth brushing I almost feel like we are achieving a normal bedtime routine for her.  All of these things do take between 45-60 minutes to do (we will work on reducing that too) but at least they are really helping.  After all of that instead of it taking her over 2 - 2 1/2 hours to fall asleep it is now taking her an hour less!!!  And I know as we keep tweaking her bedtime calming techniques that time will decrease some more.

It is also helping her sleep better as well.  She is not waking up as much during the night in the past two weeks.  This is awesome. And it's especially important now that school has begun again. She needs to get good sleep so that she can really enjoy and advance at school.

I am so proud of her and how much she is improving.  She is becoming my big girl and I am such a happy Mom.