A Time to Relax.

Then there was a friend, Wendy. Yet another person put in our lives to help Drake. She is a GSO firefighter, but more importantly, she is a message therapist. She hasn't worked often with children, but surprisingly enough she has done a few special needs kids. She never judged or felt insecure with Drake, she just had a way about her. She quickly figured out he liked to swing and that being held close was a comfort. With most people, he just cried no matter what we did. With Wendy, he found peace with her, he seemed to let go even if it was only for 15 minutes at a time. I tried not to watch everything she did, I felt he needed that break from me too. I would peek in from time to time just to watch her put her hand on his heart and listen. I almost felt guilty for watching such an intimate moment, but it was amazing to see him give in to her. We would joke later when I called it the "Jesus" position. He stayed so curled up and closed to the world. But, when Wendy started working both legs would stretch out, arms layed out flat, head turned to the side with eyes closed and he finally relaxed. It was a beautiful thing to watch, I even got a little jealous at times and asked how do you do that? She said I don't take it personally and I guess he could sense that! Since I knew I couldn't take the personal aspect out, I let her do her thing every other week and enjoyed the fact that Wendy was another blessing given to us through Drake.

YUCK

So shortly after meeting The G.I. doctor, DR.Hill, his first question was what are you doing here? Of course, he wasn't crying for the 45 minutes we were their, isn't that always the way? He seemed short and in a hurry, wasn't at all what I expected in a doctor. He changed a medicine he was on for reflux thinking this could be causing headaches. Seemed like a simple fix, I hurried to the pharmacy to get the pill which would help Drake stop crying.

Guess what, it wasn't the reflux medicine. So I hesitantly called the Dr. back only to find he was actually concerned and scheduled a 24 hour probe. Yes our first overnight stay at the hospital. I was secretly thinking, good, finally someone in the medical field can see first hand how much he cried.They put a horrible tube down his nose and strapped him head to toe on a aboard to get x-rays as he screamed in terror! I can't imagine not being able to hear or see well, what he endured that morning had to have been a cruel world to him.

We did get through the night and the results said he was refluxing something like 72 times a day. YUCK, I'd cry too. His meds were doubled and yes, It did seem to help. Didn't stop the constant crying, but it did help!

Priceless !

At this point Drake is 4 months old. Who puts their baby in school at this age? Wasn't I a stay at home mom? Didn't I give up a career as one of "Greensboro's Finest" to be with my children? All these thoughts ran through my head as we entered the school in January.

I made a plan for us, the four of us(T,S,G & D) would take Drake to school. I thought if I had Daddy and Grant to take my mind off dropping Drake at GSO CP, that it would be exciting. WRONG!!! I know you'll never guess this, but I cried, no actually I sobbed as we were leaving. I wasn't suppose to do this till kindergarten, the whole thing actually caught me off guard. I knew this was the place for Drake and our family, but dropping your baby to others, was a step I wasn't prepared for. I now know what it's like for parents leaving their children in daycare while they go back to work for the first time. And yes, I did leave crying that day, but once again, time healed that wound and quickly.

We started Drake at 3 days a week, that was my agreement and there weren't rules saying different at the time. I think by the end of the month I started 4 days and actually enjoyed dropping him off! I saw how he reacted to his environment for the first time, that he knew he was somewhere besides floating in space!!! I could tell he knew when we got there, don't ask how, I just knew.

I tried for several months to come up with ways of letting him know where we were going in the mornings. I forgot to mention, he cried for the 45 minute commute EVERY morning and EVERY afternoon. As I told this to Lori one day, she immediately jumped into action! She first came up with the idea of a vibration pillow, it worked 75% of the time. Then she came up with a way of taking a weighted pillow and laying it across his lap to hold his hands down. He had this severe hands flying, I'm falling type spells. This feeling would scare him and he would start crying all over again. As a reminder, at this point he still cried 85% of the day and had very little calming once he got started. And once again, God did prevail, these techniques helped at night time too. He actually started sleeping for a few hours at a time, in stead of minutes. What a miracle!!!

After several weeks went by, I found comfort in leaving Drake at the Greensboro Cerebral Palsy Infant Toddler Program. I started getting my "grove" back, as some call it. No I haven't lost the pounds I added during all this, no my house is still a mess and the laundry's still behind and yes, I still cry from time to time. I Do though have a good outlook about Drake, about my family, about how the world isn't so cruel after all. How does that commercial go, PRICELESS!!!