Yesterday I had to up her Aderall to an entire pill b/c it was not doing her any good, but today she scared me.
She fell asleep in the car on the way to counseling (which is very rare) and I could not rouse her for almost a minute. It was very strange.
Then, with her counselor, she fell asleep again and was hard to rouse. She was breathing fine and her heart was beating fine.
I confirmed with the pharmacist that ADHD meds do not make a person sleepy/tired/lethargic, so it must be the trazadone at night having lingering affects, since she is starting to become calmer from the medication.
I was proud of her that she asked to go to sleep with no sleeping aid, then asked for half a little later when she couldn't stay still and go to sleep.
We took her to Cook's Children's Hospital today for her EKG and no problems there. Very happy that her heart is handling the meds she is on.
She is calming down quite a bit, doesn't have much anxiety and not much depression either.
UPDATES: After only a couple of days, she was unable to fall asleep again at night with half a trazadone and is now back on a full pill, and is not falling asleep during the day.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Meds...
So, we tried upping JoElle's daytime med to an entire pill b/c it seemed like she needed a little extra help.
Bad idea!
She went looney, couldn't hold it together, crying, couldn't calm down... I had to give her half a pill of trazadone just to calm her down.
Needless to say, we are sticking to half a pill, but we did have to up her to an entire sleeping pill within just a few days of seeking the psychiatrist. She is sleeping well now, it is wonderful! She has not slept in over 2 years, not peacefully, not enough....
We are blessed to have been sent to Dr. A. I trust he will help us and help JoElle. She called him Dr. Pepper and he told her she can call him that if she likes, since he loved to drink Dr. Pepper.
We are starting to get our little JoElle back and I am so happy. Every day is still tough, we still are learning so much. But she did tell her counselor, Alli, that the pill her Dr. gave her helps slow down her thoughts and she is happier.
Tomorrow will be two weeks on medication.
Sometimes it is still so hard to believe that at 4 she has such bad depression and anxiety and has battled this for over a year now, but nobody would listen to us.
Yet at the same time, she still has so much joy! Not always, of course. But tonight, as she prayed at bedtime, she expressed to God how much she loves Him, more than anybody else, and she thanks Him for making her.
Bad idea!
She went looney, couldn't hold it together, crying, couldn't calm down... I had to give her half a pill of trazadone just to calm her down.
Needless to say, we are sticking to half a pill, but we did have to up her to an entire sleeping pill within just a few days of seeking the psychiatrist. She is sleeping well now, it is wonderful! She has not slept in over 2 years, not peacefully, not enough....
We are blessed to have been sent to Dr. A. I trust he will help us and help JoElle. She called him Dr. Pepper and he told her she can call him that if she likes, since he loved to drink Dr. Pepper.
We are starting to get our little JoElle back and I am so happy. Every day is still tough, we still are learning so much. But she did tell her counselor, Alli, that the pill her Dr. gave her helps slow down her thoughts and she is happier.
Tomorrow will be two weeks on medication.
Sometimes it is still so hard to believe that at 4 she has such bad depression and anxiety and has battled this for over a year now, but nobody would listen to us.
Yet at the same time, she still has so much joy! Not always, of course. But tonight, as she prayed at bedtime, she expressed to God how much she loves Him, more than anybody else, and she thanks Him for making her.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Alexa is really growing up fast
I haven't posted much lately, so much has happened. Alexa is really growing up, she doesn't seem like a little toddler anymore at times!
Her words are still growing exponentially, she had her language explosion a few months ago and is enjoying stringing words together to form sentences and questions.
Some of her favorite things to say lately:
"Can I have that?"
"I want to touch it"
"Want to pray?" is another favorite! She ALWAYS remembers to pray when she eats and before bedtime, also at other random times!
Today, she learned "Happy Birthday" and she was singing "Happy Birthday" to herself as she played with cups on the kitchen floor, her singing voice is so adorable,really soft and sweet, she has a pretty high voice. She sang Happy Birthday to Nana last week and loves it now!
She likes the word "pumpkin" since it is almost Halloween.
Some other words she says very clearly and all the time: water, Nana, Ana, Madi, Peyton, Dan, Granny, Grandad, bed, JoJo, baby, potty, bath, moon, it's hot, it's a hot day, it's cold, boo, Jesus, amen, fries, apple, Dora, ...so many more, just some I can think of!
She can sing almost every word to all of the Yo Gabba Gabba songs on EVERY episode, along with most of the words to our adult choir songs on our practice CD's, the entire Avalon CD, Little Levite CD, and several other kids praise CD's. Also, she sings almost every word of many songs like "Twinkle Twinkle", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and can almost get every letter in the alphabet.
Alexa is learning to read and write, too. She can write "A" "e" and "o" and tell you what letter it is, she also recognizes a handful of written letters, possibly more: A, B, C, D, E, J, O, S for sure.
She knows a few colors without any help, green, pink, blue, purple, orange, red.
Alexa is getting pickier about having messy hands, although she likes to get messy, she wants it wiped off rather quickly. She loves to wash her hands in the bathroom, all I have to do is say, "Let's go wash our hands" and she runs to the bathroom, gets on her stool, tries to turn on the water and sometimes can, uses soap and scrubs her hands and rinses.
She is like Daddy in that she loves to eat lotion, when he was her age, so did he! She esp loves Jergens, almond flavor, she comes and asks me "Can I have lotion?" and then say "MMMMM, yummy!" when she starts to lick it off her hands!
Alexa has such a great personality, although quite hardheaded at times, she is also a great listener and very compliant much of the time. She is easy going most of the time, but gets upset so easily at certain things, esp her sister. When she gets upset, she throws things, runs off and hits something, bites JoElle and me, bites herself, throws herself on the floor, but rarely cries when she gets upset. She is learning to cope with her emotions much better though, I try not to laugh as she attempts to work through them on her own.
I normally don't have to repeat my requests for Alexa, she does whatever it was the first time, but JoElle has to be asked over and over and over...ad nauseum. There are many times Alexa is defiant, but on all of the litle things, like "Go get your shoes on", time to go bye bye, turn off the tv, turn it back on, put that in the trash, go brush your teeth, close the door...etc etc. she is GREAT about!
Alexa is super friendly, she makes friends easily, loves to hold hands with other kids, even if she just met them, loves to smile at everyone and laughs when her new little friends smile back at her! She can usually get strangers to say hi back to her, like today at the mall, she got two men in the 20s to say hi to her, I didn't expect them to even acknowledge her!
Alexa is huge for her age and for being a girl, at her last checkup for 18 mo, she was measuring 90 percentile or so for height and for weight. She has outgrown her 18 month old pants/jeans in length by several inches and can wear 24 mo length. She has been wearing 3T shirts for quite a while now, although some 18 mo to 2T fit ok. At this age, JoElle had a tiny waist and was short, so she wore 18 mo clothes until Alexa was born, and she was 3 years old!
Alexa just entirely skipped a shoe size last month, she jumped from a 5 to a 7; she wore 6s for a few days, then they didn't fit, I couldn't believe it! The same day I had to buy her new sneakers, size 7, my sister had bought Madison new shoes, also size 7 and she is almost 3! But her feet look proportionate to Alexa's size, unlike JoElle's feet, they used to always look big for her size. JoElle wore size 10 shoe for almost a year, now she is in 12s I think. She needs 5T/ XS 5-6 size pants and shirts now!
Alexa loves to drink my coffee and she will fight more for it!
Her words are still growing exponentially, she had her language explosion a few months ago and is enjoying stringing words together to form sentences and questions.
Some of her favorite things to say lately:
"Can I have that?"
"I want to touch it"
"Want to pray?" is another favorite! She ALWAYS remembers to pray when she eats and before bedtime, also at other random times!
Today, she learned "Happy Birthday" and she was singing "Happy Birthday" to herself as she played with cups on the kitchen floor, her singing voice is so adorable,really soft and sweet, she has a pretty high voice. She sang Happy Birthday to Nana last week and loves it now!
She likes the word "pumpkin" since it is almost Halloween.
Some other words she says very clearly and all the time: water, Nana, Ana, Madi, Peyton, Dan, Granny, Grandad, bed, JoJo, baby, potty, bath, moon, it's hot, it's a hot day, it's cold, boo, Jesus, amen, fries, apple, Dora, ...so many more, just some I can think of!
She can sing almost every word to all of the Yo Gabba Gabba songs on EVERY episode, along with most of the words to our adult choir songs on our practice CD's, the entire Avalon CD, Little Levite CD, and several other kids praise CD's. Also, she sings almost every word of many songs like "Twinkle Twinkle", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and can almost get every letter in the alphabet.
Alexa is learning to read and write, too. She can write "A" "e" and "o" and tell you what letter it is, she also recognizes a handful of written letters, possibly more: A, B, C, D, E, J, O, S for sure.
She knows a few colors without any help, green, pink, blue, purple, orange, red.
Alexa is getting pickier about having messy hands, although she likes to get messy, she wants it wiped off rather quickly. She loves to wash her hands in the bathroom, all I have to do is say, "Let's go wash our hands" and she runs to the bathroom, gets on her stool, tries to turn on the water and sometimes can, uses soap and scrubs her hands and rinses.
She is like Daddy in that she loves to eat lotion, when he was her age, so did he! She esp loves Jergens, almond flavor, she comes and asks me "Can I have lotion?" and then say "MMMMM, yummy!" when she starts to lick it off her hands!
Alexa has such a great personality, although quite hardheaded at times, she is also a great listener and very compliant much of the time. She is easy going most of the time, but gets upset so easily at certain things, esp her sister. When she gets upset, she throws things, runs off and hits something, bites JoElle and me, bites herself, throws herself on the floor, but rarely cries when she gets upset. She is learning to cope with her emotions much better though, I try not to laugh as she attempts to work through them on her own.
I normally don't have to repeat my requests for Alexa, she does whatever it was the first time, but JoElle has to be asked over and over and over...ad nauseum. There are many times Alexa is defiant, but on all of the litle things, like "Go get your shoes on", time to go bye bye, turn off the tv, turn it back on, put that in the trash, go brush your teeth, close the door...etc etc. she is GREAT about!
Alexa is super friendly, she makes friends easily, loves to hold hands with other kids, even if she just met them, loves to smile at everyone and laughs when her new little friends smile back at her! She can usually get strangers to say hi back to her, like today at the mall, she got two men in the 20s to say hi to her, I didn't expect them to even acknowledge her!
Alexa is huge for her age and for being a girl, at her last checkup for 18 mo, she was measuring 90 percentile or so for height and for weight. She has outgrown her 18 month old pants/jeans in length by several inches and can wear 24 mo length. She has been wearing 3T shirts for quite a while now, although some 18 mo to 2T fit ok. At this age, JoElle had a tiny waist and was short, so she wore 18 mo clothes until Alexa was born, and she was 3 years old!
Alexa just entirely skipped a shoe size last month, she jumped from a 5 to a 7; she wore 6s for a few days, then they didn't fit, I couldn't believe it! The same day I had to buy her new sneakers, size 7, my sister had bought Madison new shoes, also size 7 and she is almost 3! But her feet look proportionate to Alexa's size, unlike JoElle's feet, they used to always look big for her size. JoElle wore size 10 shoe for almost a year, now she is in 12s I think. She needs 5T/ XS 5-6 size pants and shirts now!
Alexa loves to drink my coffee and she will fight more for it!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Alexa's 18 mo checkup
Alexa had her 18 mo checkup- she is a big girl!
27 lbs 4 oz and 33 inches tall- 80th percentil for both height and weight.
She had fire ant bites ALL over her feet, stings were really swollen. Alexa screamed before her shots, during and after for quite a while, not anything like JoElle, she would only cry because it hurt going in, didn't cry once I picked her up.
27 lbs 4 oz and 33 inches tall- 80th percentil for both height and weight.
She had fire ant bites ALL over her feet, stings were really swollen. Alexa screamed before her shots, during and after for quite a while, not anything like JoElle, she would only cry because it hurt going in, didn't cry once I picked her up.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Words everywhere!
Wow, so many new words each day, Alexa is learning to say so many things!
Eye is definitely her fave right now, along with Mommy (rather than Mama.
Uncle Aaron taught her to say "ear" the other day, and Nana taught her to say "hand"
She loves to say "Doda" for Dora, she is excited to see Dora all around the house! She also started to say "Daddy" instead of Dada. Alexa likes to pray and says "Amen!" Alexa also started saying "spoon" and "water"
She has learned a few more new ones, can't think of them at the moment!
She likes to sing the ABC song, she has a few of the letters down at the right time, B, P and Y.
One of her favorite songs is Hokey Pokey, she really gets a kick out of it, she will sing Patty Cake all by herself, and sing "roll em up" over and over as she rolls her hands. Twinkle Twinkle is still a fave, she can sing most of the words coherently.
Eye is definitely her fave right now, along with Mommy (rather than Mama.
Uncle Aaron taught her to say "ear" the other day, and Nana taught her to say "hand"
She loves to say "Doda" for Dora, she is excited to see Dora all around the house! She also started to say "Daddy" instead of Dada. Alexa likes to pray and says "Amen!" Alexa also started saying "spoon" and "water"
She has learned a few more new ones, can't think of them at the moment!
She likes to sing the ABC song, she has a few of the letters down at the right time, B, P and Y.
One of her favorite songs is Hokey Pokey, she really gets a kick out of it, she will sing Patty Cake all by herself, and sing "roll em up" over and over as she rolls her hands. Twinkle Twinkle is still a fave, she can sing most of the words coherently.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Alexa's Teeth- 15th one
Alexa's top left "eye" tooth came in, the pointy one. She is still very fussy and in pain as it is not all the way through the gums.
One more tooth to go, on the left bottom, then she is finally done, until the 2 yr old molars start cutting! Whew, this has been a long long time, she has been super fussy with each new tooth, sometimes getting two teeth cutting through the gums on the same day.
One more tooth to go, on the left bottom, then she is finally done, until the 2 yr old molars start cutting! Whew, this has been a long long time, she has been super fussy with each new tooth, sometimes getting two teeth cutting through the gums on the same day.
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