We put Noah in it and he immediately knew the difference, and the screaming began. He kept sliding downward even though it does have crotch support, you cannot put Noah in the straps because that sends him into even more of a frenzy, he cannot handle being tied down. But if you think about it, what a frightening thought that would be for any of us, being tied down in a bath of water, completely helpless. I'm sure that has to be scary. It was definitely a two person job, I tried to rinse his hair using the shower head, something we've tried to practice after pool therapy for sensory issues that he has with people touching his head and neck. That made him even more mad.
His daddy tried drying him off quickly, and dressing him, all the while I tried to drain a tub that wouldn't drain, I finally got it to drain at a trickle, but obviously something is wrong with the drain. And why wouldn't it be because that is how everything goes. Always a problem of some kind for me to conquer in the land of special needs.
So I guess we go back to the toddler tub for a while again. I'm not sure what to do, but spending an hour calming an upset Noah all because we threw him in a bath seat, isn't healthy for him. He shouldn't get that worked up, to the point of not being able to calm down to go to bed.
Noah still isn't sleeping through the night and in fact his time of getting up has increased. I keep going over the cause, is he too cold? too hot? is he dreaming? is it the barometric pressure or weather changes? He much has the schedule of a newborn up every couple hours. Sometimes I can take him to bed with me, but it takes him a while to get comfortable and fall asleep. Other times Chris gets out of bed, even on work days, to try to help soothe him on the floor in his room when I'm simply at a loss as to what to try. And Noah lacks the ability to utter a single word to us to tell us what his problems may be.
At the end of the day, Chris incorporates into his nightly prayer, "Dear God, please let Noah sleep tonight", and I just want to throw my hands up and say what else am I supposed to try? Yet, I have to keep trying, have to keep going, because that's the only option I have is to continue to help Noah each and everyday with everything that he is experiencing and going through. None of my days are easy, I've long ago accepted that. But I do always wish I could make life easier for Noah.
We did have an amazing highlight to our day; a beautiful haircut and experience for Noah. I hadn't really intended to get his haircut today, but I stopped by a place close to home called Cool Cuts 4 Kids. I just wanted to see what the environment was like, if I thought Noah would be comfortable there, if I could still hold him on my lap, just get a feel for things. They weren't busy, so I opted to just give it a try. They found a really great Elmo DVD for Noah that he was able to watch in his own little salon stall, he was beyond happy. Alice was his hairdresser and is also the store manager, and she was like a gift today. An angel sent to understand little Noah and his needs. Her personality was soothing and calm, and although the lobby wound up filling up quickly with seven customers waiting, she was patient and didn't rush him. She allowed Noah to turn his head as he chose and I really think he enjoyed that. It gave Noah more control over his experience. He laughed and giggled, and she gave him the cutest little duck point at the bottom. The best looking haircut I think he's ever had. It is truly adorable. She made notes in the system so we could get the same cut again.
Alice said they do a lot of special needs children and get lots of requests. Truly she has a special touch to go with a special child. What a blessing she was today for us. We needed a good experience. We were overdue. And Noah left looking so very handsome.
Love,
Noah's Miracle by Stacy Warden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.