Overstimulated

This seems to be a word I use a lot.

Yet again, I must begin by saying I am no professional. I base all of my opinions and responses to Jacob's behavior on things we are learning from books, training, and advice. But here's the skinny:

Infants raised at home learn to process stimulation with the help of their mother even before birth. Sounds, motion, nutrition, and even things like stress and excitement can be felt in the womb. And much of an infant's stimulation is provided by their mother after birth through skin-to-skin contact, nursing (or nurturing bottle feeding), patting (burping), rocking, being carried, being spoken to, being touched, and being taken to new environments. Smells, sights, sounds, touch and taste are all stimulated by mom.

Jacob did not receive the same stimulation during his first months of life that an infant raised at home would receive. He spent extended amounts of time alone in the same confined environment. So  becoming over stimulated is not just a matter of him experiencing large amounts of new stimulus. It is also a matter of not having developed the appropriate coping and processing ability due to lack of exposure during key developmental periods. Translation: not only is he constantly seeing and experiencing new things which by themselves would be overstimulating, he also does not have the coping ability to process all the new stuff which is also overstimulating. It's a double-whammy.

Signs of over stimulation that we look for are:
-irritated behavior/whining: whining is something Jacob has just learned in the past 2 weeks
-avoiding eye contact and trying to disengage from an activity or environment: institutionalized orphans can struggle with this to the point that they can't look away even though they want to
-self-soothing like rocking and thumb-sucking
-responses that don't match the circumstances: like hysterical laughing or extreme excitement when nothing particularly funny or exciting has happened
-jerky or exaggerated movements: for example turning his head will look like his noggin may spin right off because he whips it around rather than a controlled movement
-sleep disturbances: difficulty getting to sleep, stirring within the first hour of going to sleep, waking in the night, waking too early, appearing over-tired during the day

From The National Sleep Foundation: "When the body is overstimulated, the brain is flooded with neurochemicals that keep us awake, such as epinephrine and adrenaline, making it difficult to wind down at the end of the day. The neurochemicals remain present in the brain and can interrupt your normal sleep cycle. The result can be insomnia, bad dreams, and daytime fatigue caused by sleep disturbance."

With time Jacob will learn to disengage from a stimulating activity on his own and express a need for help before passing into over stimulation. He is already figuring some of this out by using his sign for 'all done' and whining. It is our job to pace the amount of highly stimulating environments and activities we introduce him to in order to help him develop his own coping skills without stretching him too far. It is also our job to help him recover when he has been stretched beyond his ability. Hence the cocoon.