water fun in CO

It requires some creativity because the weather changes every 5 minutes here! It hasn't gotten above 70 or so for a couple weeks but the girls are waiting to do regular summer activities. So we came up a solution. Water fun....

followed up by getting warmed back up! 

worrying

Madeline has been averaging 5 hours a sleep for days now. I am going to stop all meds today, they are not working and I suspect one is making the problem worse. Our doc informed us yesterday that she can't help us any longer, we have to go to a child physiologist next. We have one that we used over the summer, fall, winter for play therapy sessions. I was not impressed with him and have not contacted him regarding this latest anxiety issue. We got a referral to another physiologist, I've heard his name around town before, all very good things. I was warned that he was booked out until August, but for once luck was on my side. I called directly after a cancellation so I go in next week for an intake appointment about Madeline. 

I am starting to get quite concerned, I have been before, but Madeline is getting depressed. I spend all my time intervening between her and Gabrielle because Madeline is being mean. Doing things like stopping on her feet, slamming her hands into things, incidents that happened at times before, but now she is doing them all day long and is unfazed by consequences. Or Madeline is melting down into a puddle on the floor every two seconds because she is so tired. She spent half the weekend just lying around, absolutely not normal for her. She wouldn't eat one day saying she was too tired to and she keeps complaining that her stomach hurts. She was up all last night. She started off in downstairs with Ryan and Gabrielle, by 10:30 was up in my room just lying there. She watched a movie in the room off and on during the night. I didn't catch her actually sleeping until 4am, she just quietly laid there most of the time. For a child like her, quietly lying there is not a good thing. 

one month old

Julian has turned out to be a easy going baby. He doesn't nurse nearly as often as the girls did, absolutely refuses to comfort suck, fussing until someone finds a binky for him. He will sleep in the swing for some naps, liking to be held for the rest of course. He sleeps best the first part of the night if he isn't in my arms but laying next to me. Some nights I wake up to find little eyes shining back at me, he is just lying there content as could be. 

He is looking like quite the old man with the receding hair on top!

why I cried today

Do you see it! Isn't it absolutely beautiful? She wrote her name. From memory, unprompted, by herself. That is HUGE, and all credit goes to M. the wonderful language therapist that we have been seeing 5 days a week. 

no magic answer

Apparently there isn't one for child insomnia. Meds are not working well for her. The prescription ones make her tired, but doesn't stop the nights wakings. They leave me with a child who still wakes up repeatedly but is unable to stay awake which is even worse then before. Now she'll wake up for a few minutes, then dooze off, wake up again, repeat many, many times. She is too tired to watch TV even. I'm waiting on the pedi to call me back about Gabrielle's cough (yep, she still has that chronic cough from Jan, everyone is at a loss as to why it won't go away), and then we'll talk about upping the dose. 

round two of meds

Benadryl stopped working last night. I was shocked it even worked for a couple nights to begin with. I'm breaking out the other meds tonight, wish us luck!

meds, therapy, and school

The docs had two suggestions for us. We got a script for Clonidine which is a blood pressure med, it is used at low doses for child insomnia. They wanted us to try Benadryl first though. The only reason I had never tried it before because I've given it to Madeline before for hives and never noticed sleepiness as a side effect, she was still running around like she always does. I've given it to her the last two nights and she has slept for the most part. I'm not holding my breath that it really the Benadryl or the fact that she is just utterly exhausted. She thinks she is getting "real meds" and now she is sleeping is also interesting info. 

Language therapy is going wonderfully. She has completed two weeks already and loves it. I can't remember if I post back when she got accepted to the private school officially, but yes she is in. Now the next issue begins. The school is having to reorganize the grade due to budget issues. K will now be a stand alone grade, 1st and 2nd will now be combined. The wonderful teacher that would of Madeline's teacher will be the K teacher. The other teacher I have not met but have been told from other parents that she is great as well. Madeline met the K teacher and loved her. They gave us the option of putting Madeline in either K or 1st, we have the summer to decide, and can change our minds later if it turns out to be a bad fit. The main issue with 1st grade besides she will be with more advanced students, is that in that both 1st and 2nd grades, there is only 1 girl. That student is in 2nd grade and is quite gifted, I only mention this because there are no other girls in the class and Madeline would obviously be a much different student then her. 

There are several girls in K so that is not an issue. My biggest concern is holding her back if I don't have to. Madeline isn't a young student in her current grade to begin with, her b-day is only 3 months after the cut date. I don't want her to be oldest student in her grade by at least a year. I'm mulling it over and will probably see how she progresses this summer in therapy.