Fall 2014

 

Superhero Central!

The fall was a busy time. Nate’s sleep was still a work in progress. In October, he continued to wake up multiple times a night and wake for the day earlier than the birds. It was beyond frustrating because when a kid doesn’t sleep, they are miserable for the day, especially Nate. He was starting to make strides behaviorally and I wasn’t ready for him to take a step backwards.  During that time, we also, on the advice of our pediatrician, removed cow’s milk from his diet. I dreaded that day as it was the only thing he would drink other than water. But, after all of the bouts between constipation and diarrhea, taking Miralax on and off at the beginning of 2014, it was time. It didn’t take him that long to begin to realize that water was the only option at that point. Plus, his stomach was thanking him. He was no longer going 8 times a day!

In October, we announced that we were teaming up with the Pediatric Low Grade Astrocytoma Foundation (A Kid’s Brain Tumor Cure Foundation) to help raise funds to pediatric brain tumor research. We officially created Team Nate the Great and began fundraising. We were excited that our simple bracelet idea was transforming into this. We, at that point, knew how lucky we are with the prognosis that Nate has. Our job now is to spread awareness and help find a cure in any way that we can. Team Nate the Great

We continued through the fall with all of its beautiful activities….apple picking, pumpkin picking, Halloween, and getting ready for Thanksgiving. The boys love to spend their days outside as much as possible and we were finally excited for Halloween! Benjamin decided to be Luke Skywalker and Nate was, of course, Pete the Cat. If anyone knows him, knows of his love for Pete the Cat and those groovy buttons! :)  Benjamin was so very proud of himself for finally going Trick-or-Treating. He was always a little too scared to go previous years, but this year, he was determined to press those bells and say, “Trick or Treat!.” Nathan even accompanied him up to some of those doors. It’s amazing to watch your kids grow and thrive, even for the silliest reasons.

playing in the leaves

walking the rail trail

pumpkin picking

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The beginning of November, we finally caved and met with a sleep consultant in Boston. They reviewed all of my endless data (I may have an issue with data collection!), decided to tweak his schedule, and told me that it was imperative to be strict about it. Yeah, we’ll see! :) So, his new bedtime was 10:00 at night and he was to be woken (if he was still sleeping….ha!) at 6:00. He needed to nap from 12:00-1:00 and that’s it. No more, no less. Strict. He was not a fan of the new schedule. Waking him up from the nap was torture and most days was ready to fall back asleep as soon as he left his room. Not fun. 

We had already planned to go to Florida during the second week of November, which meshed well with that new sleep schedule. Just kidding! But, we made the best of it and worked around that nap schedule as best as we could. We decided we were finally ready to attempt a theme park. Legoland had opened recently and we knew that Benjamin’s eyes would bug out of his head and he deserved a day that belonged only to him. He was beyond excited!! He went on every single ride, even the roller coasters! We were incredibly proud of his bravery as he stood in line, not hesitating at anything. He was the happiest he had ever been. All the while, Nate spent his entire day in the stroller, wanting nothing to do with any of the rides; which, worked out perfectly because then we each got some one on one time with Benjamin. In the last 30 minutes of us being there, Nate decided he was ready to try 2 rides. He got out of the stroller and went on 2 rides in the Duplo section. Benjamin was so proud of his little brother!

Nate is silly!

Cool kids!

Back to the sleep….the doctor wanted an update after 2 weeks with the new schedule. By November 17, Nate was averaging 8.5 hours of sleep during a 24 hour period (3 year olds typically average 11.25 hours). He was averaging 6.5 hours straight (3 year olds typically average anywhere from 9.75-11.25 hours). So, we were still a little behind, but he was making progress. On a brighter note, we hit the $17,000 mark in our fundraising efforts for Team Nate the Great and the PLGA! This was the news we needed as we headed into December and the dreaded 4 month scan.

                            “If you always give, you will always have.”