"Essential" Changes

So when all else fails, you keep trying something new.  So as many of you know we have certain chronic issues that we struggle with with Juliana.  Namely keeping her awake and alert and some anxiety.  Keeping in mind the amount of medication she takes, it's no real mystery why she's always tired, or has no endurance.  We have tried stimulants with her to try and combat the lethargy, but that was terrible.  It turned her into a nervous jittery wreck.  As crazy as it sounds we give her some coffee in the morning and it did seem to help some.  Then we started giving her fish oil and I did see definite improvement in focus, but it's just never enough to keep her awake and alert all day at school.  So I have been talking to a lot of people that swear by essential oils, and I thought, why not.  We've tried everything else, things with much worse side effects, why not try something natural like oils.

And so last week we started this journey in essential oils.  I became a little obsessed because once you start scratching the surface, you realize THERE ARE OILS FOR EVERYTHING!  Like seriously you could literally replace your entire medicine cabinet with oils.  Oils for mood, oils for head aches, oils to calm you down, oils to bring you up, oils for aches and pains, oils to help regenerate damaged cells!!!!  Like seriously why haven't I heard of this sooner!  So we started with some oils during the day to bring her mood and energy up and one for focus and alertness.  Then we have one at night to help calm her down and get her ready for bed.  After one week of using the oils I'm pretty impressed.  I'm not going to lie and say she all this energy we don't know what to do with it.  The fact of the matter is she takes quite a bit of seizure meds and she has to work so hard for every little movement that she wares out quickly.  But what I will say is that I see her much more focused and much more present.  I will definitely continue to use them if simply for this benefit.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but let me tell you, it's huge for us.

Let me give you an example.  Today we went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and Nature.  A typical day, b.o. (before oils) would have included a nervous scratching and pinching fit about 30-40 minutes after we arrived, once she had had enough and was overstimulated and that leading into a coma nap in order to escape it all.  This was typical.  Don't get me wrong, it was not that bad and eventually we knew she would fall asleep which made things pretty easy, but it always hurt my heart that she was missing out on life.  Today, we arrived at a crazy packed museum the week of spring break.  Kids everywhere.  She was awake and calm and actually enjoyed the whole museum.  We did a lot of the activities together and then, we actually went and saw an IMAX movie on Mummies.  Now this was probably not the best parenting choice because it was way over their heads and slightly graphic and visual when talking about the mummification process.  Now old Juliana would have either a. Fallen asleep for the entire showing leaving wondering why I even paid for a ticket for her or b. cried and screamed until someone left the theater with her.  Today, guess what, she stayed awake and watched the entire one hour presentation one mummies.

Then we left the museum and went for lunch to Chuy's where she actually ate a great lunch - another struggle we have from time to time is her eating.  All in all a great day!

Here are some pics from our amazing day:
Kaleidoscope Faces!

 Doing a little shopping

 Look at her eyes!

 And her smile!  She loved being the cashier.

 Look at the face.  She is with it!

 Standing on her own!

So who knows.  Maybe it's a placebo effect, because I did tell Juliana that these were magic oils that were going to help her.  You know what, I don't care.  I will take it!  So if you are interested, I am also selling these magic oils.  Check out the website at http://www.mydoterra.com/kristybrooks1/
But if you are interested - contact me and I can get you free shipping!