Coping with the Daily Struggles of a Child with SPD

Some weeks are just harder than other. Yes, I know it's only Tuesday! I think that the last two weeks have made this feel like one extremely long week.

My daily prayer that my beloved husband reminded me of last night: Is that God will give me the endurance to see how special and unique she is in all of her oddities. I often pray that I can understand that she sees things, feels and smells things and her world around her in a way that I can't understand. I forget in all the struggles and drama of daily tasks that I take for granted.

Days always start bright and early starting with getting my little Bug dressed for the day.(yes, she can dress herself. It  just takes an hour or sometimes longer. When we need to get going early, I do it.) I dread socks and all the drama they cause. I keep telling myself that I am going to invest in some seamless socks. Then I look at them online and just can't seem to justify the cost of them with having only one income coming in. Usually the socks come off a couple of times while I am trying my hardest to get her to wear them. She tells me they are sharp. So, I take the socks off and check to make sure there isn't anything poky inside them. The seams must feel like she is being stabbed with nails!

Then comes the jeans. ( I love sweats they are a mom's best friend if you have a child with SPD) You know that feeling when you put on a clean pair of jeans and they are a little snug until you move around in them. It doesn't help that you have a diaper underneath these jeans. Trying to convince her of that with jeans and any other pair of pants is quite an undertaking. It would save me a lot of sanity if I just brought sweats or dresses for every day of the week. Did you know that they also make seamless pants for the kiddo's with SPD? Yes, I have also looked at them. Sigh!!!!

I forgot the first part. The diaper! I have to make sure the tags are in a certain place. I have gotten pretty good at diapering a wiggling 8 year old. Then you have to make sure that you pull them down when they are secured and adjust them to just the right place. (don't think they make seamless diapers :o) or do they

Finding pants for an 8 year old is interesting. They really get trending when you hit the 7-8 girls sizes. Usually they are quite tight. I have reverted to boys with the straight legs. Just don't tell her that!

Shirts are usually not a big deal as long as they are not tight fitting or too lacy. Tags are sometimes an issue.

I think last night I had a break down which truly for me is a rare thing. It was over something so stupid. First let me explain something so you can understand the rest of the story. After a week of drama and this is only the tip of the iceberg. I will write about more in another post.

Bug loves flowers. The kids get to pick out a treat every Sunday when we go to the grocery store. Little Man usually will get a hostess cupcake or something along that line. Bug gets a flower usually a rose or a carnation. Sometimes daddy lets her get a bouquet of flowers. I have to look at tiny parts of the flower some 40+ times a day. She noticed all the differences in them. She can tell you that one petal on the daisy or any type of a flower is slightly lighter, darker, its longer or even a different shape. I can tell you details about flowers that I didn't know possible. ( I threaten my husband to no longer buy me flowers as a gift) If you don't stop to look it is full of drama. Everyone has to endure this in the household. This is when I have to remind myself that this is important to her and that it is her world to see things that most people take for granted that our Creator has created.

I know better than to throw the flowers away in the day unless I bag it up and get the trash outside ASAP. Usually they disappear in the night when she goes to bed. Last night I was so sick of the flowers and hearing all the details about them. She pulled them out of the trash with the biggest smile on her face running around the house singing and dancing. All the while the petals are falling off. They are upstairs downstairs. All the while the dogs are following her around and tasting each petal and spitting it out on my newly mopped floor. I know I feel pretty selfish when I see her smile and how happy she was with that dead bouquet of flowers. I tried to take them away which much drama. Daddy seen the greater joy that I missed and talked me into letting her have them the rest of the night out of the vase. Last night I felt like such a heel with my attitude. Some days just feel overwhelming. I am sleep deprived and still have not caught up on my rest from Bug being in the hospital.

Does it really matter that I have petals all over the house on my clean floor that both dogs had chewed and spit out a couple of times? No, I have a vacuum to clean it up. It can mop the floors again. I indeed didn't see her joy and the happiness that those flowers out of the vase brought to her little heart. ( I just hope she doesn't want them out of the vase every time) or does it really matter that I hope it doesn't become a regular occurrence! No, what mattered was her heart that I tried to break because my own heart was being selfish and foolish.