H update

Stole this from an email to a friend. . . .

We've finally bit the bullet and are taking H home one afternoon a week.  She still really should be coming home every afternoon, but logistics wise, I don't know how to pull that off.  ([Lil'S's] nap is 11 to 1 or 2, and he doesn't do well with interruptions to that--I don't want to mess with his sleep in order to get H her sleep.  [S] will be coming home this Tues to pick her up, and I have to find someone to stay with sleeping [Lil'S] while I get her next Tuesday, but at least we'll have Christmas break after that, right?)  She's been getting stomachaches that have been increasing in frequency since we started her eye drop treatments, so it's obvious she needs her sleep so that she can better handle the stress of it all.  Although she's only "allowed" 12 absences, her principal said he wouldn't be coming after us for them.  They usually only make a big deal if absences are really excessive.  Phew!  A friend of mine told me today that her son missed 18 days for various reasons through his kindergarten year, so that made me feel better.  I hope I'll be more likely now to give her a school holiday when she needs it.  Yes, she may be missing out on some academics, but there's a ton she's missing out on learning here at home too.  We've been unable to expect even the most basic of responsibilities because she's just too tired (or wired) to follow through on things regularly.  If she wasn't so much better when she's well-rested, I'd think she had severe ADHD.  Honestly, she very well could have mild ADHD--her sleep has made me wonder, as difficulty falling asleep has always been a problem for my ADHD brothers and I--but she wouldn't be able to receive a proper diagnosis if she's not getting the sleep that it's obvious she needs.  She may be asleep by 6:30 most nights, but the fact that she starts zoning out or tantruming at 5:30 (usually mid-dinner) shows she really needs to be asleep sooner.  (And then there's typically the 2:45pm and 4pm crashes and the 9am and 10:30/11am ones on weekends. . . .  How do I keep forgetting those??)

I wish S and I were more assertive.  I mean, I can be assertive with people I know well, but with those I don't know well, I'm often more passive.  I think we'd be bringing her home more often were we so--and I certainly would have been bringing her home from the start!

A big blessing this past week is that H hasn't had a cold--S and I have mild ones, but gratefully H and Lil'S have been spared since theirs ended around Thanksgiving.  H had various colds all of Oct and nearly all of Nov, on top of school and eye treatments and sleep dep, so it's been a great relief for her to be better in at least that aspect.