Oh sleep, where are you?

One thing about having a child who has ADHD tendencies is that sleep does not come easily.  There is too much for them to do and too few hours in the day.  As Amelia says “we can’t sleep TOO much”. 

While she doesn’t find trouble, she isn’t exactly a quiet little mouse.  There are nights that I put her to bed at 8pm and she will still be awake and playing when I go to bed at 10pm. 

Here’s what I hear (done in the voice of her “friends” Mickey, Minnie and their friends, all stuffed animals that she has):

Mickey:  You can’t stay in the bath too long or you’ll become a prune.

Donald:  Princesses can’t become prunes.

Mickey:  But her Mommy can and then she won’t have a mommy anymore.

Me:  AMELIA YOU NEED TO BE QUIET AND GO TO SLEEP

Mickey:  I can’t help it, that’s how I talk.

Donald:  She said to go to sleep.

And on and on and on.

One day last week she was awake from 130am-6 in the morning.  She had school and I had work the next day.  While it is not easy for me to function, somehow she seems to make it though.

Monday of this week she woke up at 4:30am and it did not make for an easy day that included a stress test for me.    Of course, she then went to school and apparently punched 2 boys…because they wouldn’t move out of her way.

Well, I do teach her to defend herself but geez! 

Not sure if it was lack of sleep or what, but this Momma’s at her wits end. 

Before all of the advice starts rolling in, yes, I’ve probably tried everything your going to say and thanks but no thanks on the medical advice.  I am in constant contact with her pediatrician and we are raising the dosage on Melatonin starting tonight.  I know there are a million more all-natural remedies but I won’t give anything without the pediatricians approval—I figure if she went through 8+ years at school I can go by that and, of course, my Mommy instinct.  After all, every person is different.  I also have some other things I’m asking her about.

So anyways, I know there are others who deal with this.  I have a few friends whose children have ADHD, Autism and many other “disorders” and we talk about it frequently.  That doesn’t mean that if your child isn’t sleeping that they have one of these, some kids are just hard at bedtime.

So how was last night?  She went to bed at 9pm and slept until 6:15 this morning—I see a boxing class in her future.  LOOK OUT BOYS!

(sorry for the rambling, sleep is not easy to catch up on)

A rose for my Rose

Once we got out of the insanity of holiday time Amelia has gotten back in the game!  Last night she learned some words in order from Ms. Rachel and did very well. 

Amelia has been on top of her game lately, listening well and picking up things quicker than I can keep up with, it's all so exciting!  She even learned my phone number and is proud to share it...probably a little too much LOL

But last night as she was working Ms. Ali asked her if she liked flowers.  Of course my princess loves flowers, she likes to "dance around with them".  So Ms. Ali told her if she does well that she would give her one, as soon as I got back to get her she told me she had to go get her flower!

So here's Amelia, Ms. Ali and the beautiful rose!  And, yes, she danced with it last night.

Are kids really cruel?

I wanted to share an article that I posted in my newsletter this week. 

Amelia is very sensitive and I think it makes me overprotective of her, I'd love your input:

http://shreveport.macaronikid.com/article/417100/are-kids-really-cruel

Holidays and vacations are hard to come back from!

Amelia had been doing really well listening at her classes at LearningRx, she would even tell me “mom, I’m going to try really hard to be good”.  She was so proud.

Then the holidays came around…holidays are the “debil”.  Something happens to kids when they spend too much time with their families and get spoiled, they don’t want to come back from it.  And Amelia wasn’t alone, I saw multiple students having trouble focusing, poor things just wanted to go eat some more chocolate pie! 

So last week going back to classes were a bit treacherous, she loves Ms. Rachel but couldn’t stay focused.  She’d say she was tired and grumpy and wanted to go to sleep.  Apparently she does have an arm for baseball judging by the bean bag throwing going on…YIKES!

But, as usual, Ms. Rachel was patient and did her best with what she had to work with.  She knows when Amelia’s at her limit and we cut it off and go home, another thing I love about them.  This is on Amelia’s level, it’s what she can take. 

Coming soon I’ll tell you all of the awesome things she has learned, it’s exciting and even more exciting the things that I have learned!

Letting Amelia be herself

For Christmas I wanted to get something special for Ms. Rachel, Amelia’s trainer at LearningRx.  After conferring with my friend who owns Too Dark Motorsports, we came up with an idea.  She made an ornament that said “Ms. Rachel-Thank you for being you and letting me be me”.  Amelia wrote her name on the back and we presented it to Ms. Rachel along with a gift card.

You see, when I was considering putting Amelia into the LearningRx program one of my fears was that she would lose that big personality.  Sometimes that big personality can make me crazy, the drama from that child wears me out.  But her personality is what makes her.  The blunt comments, funny things she says, her big imagination and doing the voices of Mickey Mouse and all of his friends—I love that so much!  There have been a few embarrassing things said and done, but what child doesn’t do that to their parents?

Someone once told me that we all have to conform…OUCH!  That one gets me, I’ve never been one to really conform.  I can get along with most anyone and can smooze the best of them, but conform I do not.  While sometimes it can be painful, I would be so miserable conforming to what people seem to want me to be.  I want Amelia to be strong and true to herself as well, so anything I can do to let her be herself I encourage.

That’s one reason I love Ms. Rachel; not only does she let Amelia be Amelia but she loves exactly who she is!  She just giggles at Amelia’s nuances, she will usually call Ms. Ali into the room so she can hear what Amelia did.  Ms. Ali is the person that assigns the trainers to students and she’s become quite fond of Amelia as well.  They both do so much for my heart, to hear them say they love being with Amelia and how they tell friends and family of her latest silliness. 

I know that once Amelia starts kindergarten at school things may not be as easy but for now having these ladies be part of our lives is a blessing. 

Thank you Ms. Rachel and Ms. Ali for bringing a smile to my face and joy to Amelia every week!