Well, Shelby has been gone for two weeks now.  It's been so odd not having her around.  The trip to Florida was a needed one for her.  She is such a 'mommy' around here.  Not many 11 year olds have the maturity level that she has.  She's still just a kid, though, and this trip allowed her that freedom!

So, Bailey has been a big girl....sleeping all by herself, with the help of Barney of course!  After the other two little episodes in the middle of the night, not much else has gone on with her sleeping.  Except, that is, one other night.  Let me explain:

We had revival last week.  Any change in Bailey's usual structure or routine usually ends up in some sort of weird, possilby seizure, activity.  This was one of those times.  By Wednesday night I guess she was tired and kind of out of sorts.  She came home from school and went and laid in her bed........which she has never done before.  Later, we go to church to eat supper with Dr. House.  She doesn't eat.  She's just lethargic, falling asleep sitting up.  Rosy cheeks and whiny.  Nothing ever came of it, but I was not looking forward to her sleeping alone with the door shut that night.  So after she fell asleep, I quietly cracked open her door. 

Around 4:45AM, I am awakened by Michael, "Donya...did you know she's in here?!"  I sit up and can see the sillouhette of Bailey's head.  She's standing on Michael's side of the bed.  "She was patting me real lightly and saying, "DaDaDaDa" super quiet."  We cracked up!  What in the world?  Anybody who keeps up with Bailey's development knows that this is completely uncharacteristic of her.  This meant that she had to have uncovered herself (again), gotten herself out of the bed (again), opened the cracked door, walked up the little steps in our hallway, pushed open our bedroom door, and walked over to Michael.....and all in the dark!  Never has she done anything like this...in fact, we didn't even know she could! 

Michael said, "Great, next thing we know we will find her with the fridge open eating cheese in the middle of the night!"  hahahaha!  how funny!  This really cracked us up!

well i guess i should have explained the video just a bit before posting it! rest assure, michael is eating sunflower seeds....he does not have a dip of any tobacco product! hehehehehehehe ;)

"Umm, Mama, Bailey's throwing up!" ---Reprint May 4, 2008

You know it’s gonna be one of those days when she wakes up but never really ‘wakes’ up. She’s laying around, falling back to sleep wherever she’s laying, whether it’s on the floor, leaning on the arm of the couch, in the hallway...literally, wherever. Something’s just not right today. And you know it’s coming, not when, but you do know that it will come. The puking, splotchy skin, the jerking, the smacking lips.

So, we proceed to get ready for church....and she’s not a happy camper. Three of the youth girls stayed the night with me and we’re all running around getting dressed. Kelly has the job of bathing Bailey and washing her hair. It’s sounds like a cat fight outside that bathroom door! She’s smacking her lips like she could hurl at any moment. I tell the girls as we’re leaving, “let’s bring a towel, Bailey will probably throw up and begin seizing soon”.

So here we go down the road, cramped up in the mini van. Half way there, the second mama, Shelby, announces, “Mama, Bailey’s throwing up!” “Quick, get the towel!!” Brittany leans up with the towel and holds it under her mouth. (Anyone who spends time with us has to be ready to take the ‘mommy’ role at any moment if Bailey is around) The youth are a little grossed out....while me, Shelby & Brody are in complete control and not stressed out a bit. How Funny!

Bailey stays with me during Sunday School, waiting until just before closing prayer to puke again, with a roar of “EEWW!” from the teenagers. I sit in the back row with her during the main worship hour. Lethargic, she mostly sleeps. On the way home, more puke. All over her, the car seat, floor, and whatever was lying in the floor. (I have found that a good 80% of my time is spent cleaning puke, pee & poo from Bailey)

All afternoon she sleeps, all splotchy, seizing here and there, no drinking or eating. Around 6:30 she wants some peaches that the others are eating. Since she’s slept most of the day and seems to be in better spirits, I give her a few bites. (Remember, she’s not puking b/c of a virus or b/c she’s sick, it comes with the seizures) Around 10 PM, it’s just me and her awake. She’s sitting beside me on the couch, without warning, peachy puke comes out like she’s Linda Blair or something! Needless to say, I spent a good 30 minutes cleaning up regurgitated peaches....Yummy! I hope I’m grossing no one out, these things are so common in our house! Don’t worry, she’s fine now. These things only last a day....she was fine the next morning.

Super Big Praise

2/20/2010     Good morining everyone!  I have a huge praise to share with everyone!  This is one story I am glad to tell.  It may seem frivilous to some,  but others will be shoutin' the praise right along side me!

Background first, if I may....Bailey has never slept, at all.  I think I have talked a bit about this in earlier posts.  Anyway, for about a year now, Shelby (the best big sister EVER) has been sleeping with Bailey.  She generally still wakes during the night, but if someone is in the bed with her she will eventually go back to sleep.

Well.....Shelby is in Florida right now visiting our families.  We were so worried about her leaving because we weren't sure how Bailey would do at night.  So here is a breakdown of the last three nights...

Tuesday night, we decide to leave her Barney video on very quietly.  We put her in the bed and as soon as she realizes that no one was getting in there with her she screams.  We just shut the door and wait.  So she did scream for about 30 minutes or so.  Not too bad, but a screaming 8 year old is so much louder than a screaming infant, for sure!  Well, I forgot to put pajama pants on her.  That's a big thing when it's cold because she doesn't know how to cover herself up.  I was worried, so I sent Michael in to check on her before going to bed.  UGH!  She was poopy!  Great, now I have to wake her to change her and she will probably never go back to sleep.  So I  rouse her up as best as possible, but lucky for me, she was in a total state of confusion!  She does that a lot when she wakes froma nap.  She will start this weird laugh and will have her back all hunched over. She was drooling up a storm.  So she didn't mind at all that I was changing her. (which was super hard to do because she was laying in the bed, a bunk bed, which made it hard to clean under neath her)  She got right back into bed with only a few minutes of crying!  Around 4:30 in the morning she wakes up...which I totally expected.  And so I go to get in the bed with her.  I open her door and look down, there's Bailey.  She's all tangled in her blanket and laying on her stomach.  I have no idea how she got there.

Wednesday night, the crying was lessened.  But around 11:30, just as we were going to bed, we could hear her usual, "Come get me" moan...."MAAAAMAAAAAA"  I wish you could hear it.  She sounds like some  old lady with emphazema, real low tone and drawn out slowly.  We debated letting her cry it out, but Michael was sure that something was different and I needed to go check.  I open the door and there she stands!  She was standing at the door, which is what she does if a door is shut because she doesn't know how to open doors.  I don't even know how she managed to get herself uncovered and out of the bed; seeing that she can't do either one very easily.  I put her back in the bed and she whined for a moment then was out.

Last night, a miracle of sorts.  I put her to bed around 9:45.  I turned on the tv really low and just acted like this was the normal routine.  I helped her into bed and told her to lay down.  And guess what?  She did!  she snuggled right up and I quickly left the room and shut the door behind me, waiting to hear the screams begin......silence.  What?!  Can it be?!  Could it really happen?!  YES!  Yes it did...........for the first time in over a year, Bailey Dyan Wiggins went to bed like a big girl, all by herself and didn't make one sound about it!  WooHoo!!!!!!!  And it gets better, she slept until 7:50 this morning!  Which also means that I got to sleep until 7:50 this morning!  Praise God!

Little Battles, Big Praises!

hey there everyone....dont forget that i have another blog.....dottywottywiggins.blogspot.com!  thanks to all of you who always read my posts!

(2007)

On traveling.....Whether in the van, restaurant, hotel, church or wherever...she is bent on showing her not so sweet side. Here's the lowdown on most of the services that Bailey attends. She does well during song service and special singing. (needless to say, she thrives on music) Then anytime there is prayer...you know...the most quiet time of a service, Bailey lets out a huge BBBUUURRRPPP!!! No big deal to her, it's just a normal bodily function....but oh how I wish I could just crawl under all of the pews and slip out the back door as if I'd never been there. But that's not all. Michael will get up to preach. Bailey doesn't understand that it's a time to be quiet. I used to always have an arsenal of things to distract her. I have a few business cards, pictures, about 1,932 (maybe not that many) pieces of Juicy Fruit (she's addicted) and little things. Well, all of that works.....for about all of 10 minutes.

So now she decides that she's not really wanting to sit in the pew, she wants to get up and walk around. AH! What am I to do? I could get up with her (from the 2nd row) but she'll scream when I grab her hand. Again, now would be a great time for disappearing cream! By the end of the service, I feel as though I've run a marathon. Bailey and I are both in bad moods.

*Back at the hotel* We're getting our PJs on. Bailey is given her meds. We get settled in. Shelby is sleeping with Bailey and does okay.

*Next night* We decide to sit on the back row; at least I'll be the only one distracted this time. And of course, it's the one night that she's falls asleep during service and causes no trouble at all.

*Later in hotel* Bailey is given her meds, we get settled in, PJs are on; but Bailey decides that she doesn't want to sleep. She's crying, Shelby's made, I'm frustrated. So the decision is made for us to play musical beds. I get into the bed with Bailey....which is what she wanted. By this night, I've had all I can take. I'm tired with the pressures of dealing with a special needs child. So here we are, lying in bed together. We are facing one another. She's so sleepy, but just can't give it up. She bats her eyes slowly, each blink showing more exhaustion. She's staring straight at me with silent, helpless eyes as if to say, "Mama, I'm sorry that I cant express what I fee., want or need in the way you'd like; I don't wish to be this way and I do the best I can."

What a humbling experience. As a parent, I realize that I'm (me and michael, actually) all she has. It's my job to 'know'. It's my job to make the special world she lives in a happy, calm and comfortable place. It's in those quiet times with her that I realize that regardless of the inconveniences her disabilities bring, I wouldn't trade her for a 'normal' child any day!

Well, I'm now going to leap ahead to the present years. It may seem like a huge gap that I've left out, but really, things have been the same for the past 5 years. She is basically on a 2 year old level...but even at that, she doesn't speak, she can't dress herself, she is not totally potty trained, etc. So, I don't know why we even put an age on her developmental level. She's delayed, easy enough!

For the sake of story telling, I am going to incorporate posts I've made about Bailey from my other blog. So for my faithful few followers, it may seem a bit redundant...but bear with me. New things will also be added as well. So just check back frequently to see if it is a new post or an old one.

For those of you who have never read the stories, I think you will enjoy them. I really do try to find the humor in it all!

Needless to say, we changed medications.  She was put on Keppra.  For the next three years, things are fuzzy.  Dates are jumbled together.  I am not the most organized person, I should've been logging every little thing.  There is no excuse as to why I didn't, other than I was too busy tending to her and helping my husband in the ministry and taking care of Shelby and then getting pregnant again!  HEHEHEHE

I will say that she began to walk in July of 2004.  She was nearly three years old.  I have video of that one!  I am so glad that I do.  For a while she would march in place if not walking to a destination...she couldn't just stand stationary.  It was quite comical, actually.  And she walked with her arms in the air, like she was just praising the Lord!  And that is exactly what I was doing!

By this time, I was no longer angry with my situation.  Did I (do I) become frustrated at times? ABSOLUTELY!  But I know that the Lord made her the way He did so that her life could bring honor and glory to Him....which is what He deserves.  You wouldn't believe how Bailey's life has been used to open the door for me to brag on Christ  and what He has done in her life!

Let's see, some other things about Bailey during this time.....she became very aggressive.  She would lash out at everyone for no reason.  Usually scratching.  She would even  scratch herself.  She has a very high tolerancy for pain.  She even sat in an ant bed one time and was covered by the ants.  She had welts everywhere....and she was just sitting there...not making a noise.  Crazy!  She would bite her arms when mad.  Also, more 'autistic' qualities began to develop.  She's an arm flapper.  I've gotta get video posted on that one.  She also developed finger repititions, mouth quirks, card shuffling....she never played with real toys.  (for instance, just this morning before putting her on the bus I had to pry a cough drop wrapper from her hands that she's been holding since yesterday)  She also doesn't play with other kids...she likes to watch them...just doesn't play with them.  She's absolutely addicted to Barney!  My soul I don't even know how that happened, but I sure do hate it!  Barney is horrible.  I cannot....do you hear me?  Cannot stand him.  But when you have a child who is in her own world and the only thing that calms her is Barney, you learn to live it.  One good thing is that she adores Southern Gospel Music....actually, she would rather watch it...on DVD...Needless to say, we have an extensive selection of Gospel DVDs.