Sleep

Sleeping in our house has been quite interesting for the last few months. We noticed over the summer while we had family spending the weekend at our house we had Henslee sleeping in our room. We woke up to her at 1:30 am hysterically laughing.  Then a few months later while camping we noticed she was not sleeping at all but bouncing in her pack n play. Both have gotten extremely worse in the last few months. On average Henslee sleeps from 7-11 pm and then is up bouncy and laughing until the next morning. She is losing at least 4-5 hrs a sleep per night due to bouncing.

 

 We have talked to all of her therapist about this and no one can seem to come up with anything to help. We tried Melatonin which is supposed to help with sleep. It will help Henslee go to sleep but will not keep her asleep. We all need our sleep. She is becoming very agitated/angry during the day and I can only imagine it is due to no sleep. We ended up taking the springs and base out of the bottom of her crib so she was unable to get the extra bounce from that. We also saw her pediatrician who prescribed her Trazadone, a medication to help with sleep. We gave it to her for the first time last night so hopefully we see a difference. She did wake up today pretty angry so I will keep my fingers crossed that it will eventually work.

Another thing we decided to do was put a gate in Henslee's crib. My hubby is a genius. It has been getting quite hard to get Henslee in and out of her crib. Our little Miss is at 41 lbs and while she is throwing her tantrums she might as well be 100 lbs. So Jesse installed a gate so she is able to get in and out of her bed on her own!! Yipee! My back is shouting HOORAY!!! We tried it with just an opening for 1 night but after we put her down we could hear her in her room destroying everything. So for her own safety we installed the gate. Which keeps her safe and sound in her bed!! She even knows how to get in and out. This little Miss is so smart!

After putting her in their for the first night and locking the gate it made me really sad. A gate with a lock on my daughters crib??? What the heck!!  But I have to realize we do things a bit different around our house. We do what we need to. We do what is best for Henslee. We do what is best for our family. So what if it's different? So what if it's not the norm. WE are definitely not the norm and to be honest I am glad we are not the norm.

Therapy

This morning Henslee had Therapy with Brian her Occupational Therapist. We have been testing out a Listening Program. Henslee will wear head phones and listen to different frequencies of music. The first time we tested it on her she shocked us by actually keeping the head phones on her head for 10 min!! Well today after having her listening session of 15 min and keeping the head phones on pretty much the entire time she was  new gal :) She sat on Brians lap for a good 30 minutes while they read books together. I have given up on having Henslee sit on my lap to read books. She hates it, she arches her back and yells. She just wants down. So I been reading to the kids while they are strapped in their highchairs and entertained by eating. So to have her sit and read books and really look at the pictures for 30 min was INCREDIBLE!!! I am so INCREDIBLY grateful for ALL of Henslee's therapist. They are all INCREDIBLE people and have helped me more than I could ever imagine. They love Henslee and I can see that by the way they treat her and love her while they come to our home to help us learn and better understand the needs of Henslee. Today was a great day! So Thankful for Brian to be in tune with Henslee and to see her needs.

Couch climber

That's right Folks we have a couch climbing little girl!! Who would've known  a Pez candy would be such a great motivator!!