Category: sleep

autism, college, organizing, sleep, surveys, writing

Something’s missing, don’t know what. Some cool surveys, though.

criscollrj

I just want to do something different but don’t know what. I’m happy, but… oh, I don’t know. I love my kids, my husband. I love being a stay at home mom. But my dreams of school seem to be on hold again. It’s so hard. I know my kids come first. Here’s some postings from my moms group which just say more about all that

User: dori

Comments: I’m going to try and STOP talking about my decision stuff SO much after this because I think you’re all getting sick of it. But I need to just reply a bit more to stuff from the past few days. THEN I’LL STOP so you don’t kill me :P. So I’ll try and keep it short and first will just update you on the present.

Continue reading “Something’s missing, don’t know what. Some cool surveys, though.” →

autism, college, deafness, medications, organizing, Pans/Pandas, relocation, relocation North Carolina, residency, sleep, weight, work

a little update finally —

criscollrj

speak and spell
You’re a Speak & Spell!! You nerd, you. Just
because you were disguised as a toy doesn’t
mean you weren’t educational, you sneaky
bastard.

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

it is a lazy Sunday and I have SO much cleaning to do.

Last I wrote Chris was having a VERY VERY VERY bad time. We had an awful 4 months – February – sinus infections, ear infections with ear injury from hitting; March, 2 ear surgeries, missed most of the whole month off of school, plus drug reaction to Seroquel/Risperdol and withdrawal; April, entire month, I believe, from school, just about (he may have gone a week or so), had 1-2 more sinus infections; May, Tonsillectomy/Adenoidectomy, and finally had to start more meds as he was still being aggressive, self-injurious, and very very upset and not sleeping at all hardly (like 3-4 hours every few days is all); and June started horribly as well but FINALLY last 3-4 days his new meds (Tenex) is kicking in and he’s sleeping a little more and is seeming happier. FINALLY.

(2020 pans/pandas)

Continue reading “a little update finally —” →

sleep, surveys

surveys again….

criscollrj

long time no see! tired… up with chris who I HOPE is just about asleep, so some surveys for now….

1. What is/are your middle name(s)? Ann

2. If you had been born the other sex, did your parents tell you what your name would have been? Michael David or David Michael!

3. Do you have children and if so, what are their names? 13 year old Christopher Owen, 9 year old Colleen Renee, 2 year old Ryan Joseph

4. If you were to ever have a child or more children, what would you name them? I’m done, but we also liked Craig, Danielle, Shannon, Rhiannon (yep if Ryan would have been twins Ryan and Rhiannon would have been interesting!)

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health, medications, Pans/Pandas, sleep, Uncategorized

update

criscollrj

cut & paste (boy on lap)

for right now a copied note of how things are going….

Colleen was sick the other day but doing better and went to school yesterday. Colleen was complaining about her ears last night. If she has further problems today I’ll take her to the dr. tomorrow (today if absolutely necessary but Chris is home today and has to go to the neuro where we’re there for like 3 hours….).  Rog is staying home to help watch Ryan and get Colleen after school.

Ryan has a cold right now.

Yesterday actually seemed very hectic…. it just goes on and on. But Chris did okay – we did end up picking him up at school – we took him to the pediatrician who could not find anything physically wrong with him.  (Teachers and nurse etc. were saying they were concerned he was so upset and acting strange that he might be having med reactions). He said the very bad danger signs to look for in med emergencies like the Seroquel he’s on, are him bending his neck back and not being able to return it to the upright position, and him sticking his tongue out and not being able to return to his mouth (aren’t those so strange???!!!). Neither of these appeared so he said just give him some Benedryl in addition to the Seroquel, and that is supposed to counteract any side effects that may occur,  just until we see the neuro today.

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autism, health, organizing, Pans/Pandas, sleep

another quick update

criscollrj

hope to soon have time to ramble, but here’s just a cut and paste….. simply a copied email I just sent out. Prayers appreciated…….

I wanted to send one final update on Chris and then hopefully things will be calm and stable for a while!

(A summary in case I had missed any of you in rushing to get the prayer requests out – Chris had surgery on his ear 3/10 after he’d caused hematoma on it from hitting it so much. He then destroyed the surgery as we could not keep him from hitting it/picking on it and he had another surgery at the hospital on 3/19. He got out of the hospital on 3/26 after being anesthetized again on 3/26 for the pediatric surgeons to make sure ear was healed (this time under 24-hour supervision). It was, so he was sent home.)

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Pans/Pandas, sleep, weight

Up all night…

criscollrj

Seems like it. Actually Chris has quieted down so I hope to go to sleep SOON. I was up late last night with him and then overslept this morning and he missed his bus. Ended up taking him to the dr. – another sinus infection. It goes together – the sleeplessness and the sinus infections. We are so weary – we hope this new thing works – giving him antibiotics for 4 weeks instead of 2.

For some reason at night I’ve been reading about anorexia. I think I stumbled across something surfing Live Journal sites (think that’s where it was?) and then just started reading about it. It’s amazing what the mind can do in a person. I never had anorexia or bulimia but did get to the bingeing state. I always would binge before I started diets, ever since I was like 10 years old. I would pick a date to start dieting and right before it I’d eat huge quantities to “get it out of my system.” I have done this to this day.

In ’99 I joined a diet system called “Weigh Down” and I followed through my pregnancy and nursing as well. It really changed my outlook a lot. It is based on just eating when hungry and stopping before full. However, after that I kind of drifted away from it (as the program developed some spiritual inconsistencies and a lot of churches dropped the plan, and I got disappointed in the whole thing and just didn’t do it anymore). I really got slowly but steadily back into the diet and then binge thing. So Jan. 20 I started following the basic hunger/fullness principles again and am down 4 pounds. It is so liberating – I can eat what I want, as long as I’m hungry, and I stop when I feel satisfied (not full!) and wait for hunger to eat again. And it’s funny, after reading these anorexia/bulimia sites, I can see where a plan like this would be a help to those people too after they have maybe talked to someone about their low self esteem issues.

I think I’m actually going to attempt to go to bed… hopefully!

dori

Edit, Feb. 2020.  As I am rereading this blog and have my Pans/Pandas suspicions for Ryan, I note this about Chris having this sinus infection, and possibly having Pans (he had a psychiatric breakdown shortly after this).  The clues you see years later….

 

sleep, travel

Gotta try and stay awake…

criscollrj

My oldest is still awake – yeah, it’s only 10 but he seems REALLY REALLY awake like the nights he stays up all night… sigh.

DH is in bed – he has to get up at 4 to go to work tomorrow. I have been getting some REALLY nice sleep lately so it is my turn to stay up with Chris. Chris has been sleeping well lately, but last week he did not. He use to stay up ALL the time all night. We were counting our blessings. Not sure why he’s staying up again ?!

I saw this map on a friend’s journal and made one myself! Fun!

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health, sleep, work

Work decisions

criscollrj

owen is having a bit of a tough time again after doing very well for a week or so. He went to day care with his sister first time last week on Thurs and Fri. This is the first EVER he’s been in day care. he did well! This week he goes back to school (tomorrow) but last night he started staying up late again — 4:30 a.m. this morning (dh stayed up with him – I actually got to sleep 9 hours last night PRAISE God! it is 12:00 now and he’s still up. dh has to get up at 4:30 a.m. and I will be up at 6:30 with my little baby, I’m sure.

I had been thinking all weekend trying to make a decision about my work. I work 22 hours a week now but have the opportunity to work up to 30 if I wish. That would mean having the older kids go to the day care every day after school. After thinking about it all weekend we decided to wait until summer and see how they do, and maybe work a little later then if they seem to be able to handle it.

We just have been so broke for so long that it feels good to be able to pay the bills and having more sounds so good. We also need a new house — 3 kids in this tiny house is tough.

dori, in the close family

children, health, sleep

Just been reading

criscollrj

for too long!! I have so much cleaning to do.

THANK GOODNESS my children are feeling better. It is such a relief — I have been sleeping and so has the family! 8 hours a few days in a row — yippee!

Easter eggs are starting to boil in the kitchen, and I’ve grocery shopped today too. The whole family went, and met my mom too, and she helped watch the kids while me and hubby shopped with 1-2 kids at a time 🙂 it was pretty fun!

My living room looks like an obstacle course that is also designed to trip you and break your leg…. that is my next project.

Ahh 3 kids. So much work, so much joy, so much exhaustion!

I wish I had time to write and write and write. But thankfully I type really fast and will try and write more often….

“Owen” is slamming himself in the head with his hand — why??? JUST when I said he was feeling MUCH better!

Been searching around for different additional friends’ diaries to read — it’s fun to see many different people and their interests.

Hi COLLEEN – think you’re the only reader I have right now — hope you are feeling good today — note from 2006 – this is a different Colleen than my daughter.

Love, dori

autism, children, health, sleep

I do exist still —

criscollrj

I think. We are so tired — all of us — our oldest has been ill and we are not sure what is wrong. He has autism as I mentioned before and he has been crying most of the time the last week. Drs. don’t know what to do. It’s sad and difficult. We love him so much but don’t know what to do. We are loving on Vanilla Coca Cola (me) and coffee (hubby) and just trying to get through it — it happens like this every few months and then it gets better.

Owen also is going to be evaluated to see if he has bi-polar disorder. We visited a psychologist today and she believes he may have that from our initial descriptions of him to her. So perhaps another piece of the puzzle of our beautiful but very mysterious son…

In my absence our baby son “RJ” also had ear tubes put in. He had 5 bad ear infections in 5 months. He is doing very well now!

Sometime soon I will finish the history I had started before, about meeting my wonderful hubby, etc.!

dori

edit – reading this over again for a 2nd time – read the entire blog during COVID in Dec. 2020 and now am starting to read again, July of 2024.  RJ now known as Ryan is back to having ear infections again and we are going to try and get him to an ENT to find out why.  2003 to 2024, 21 years later, crazy.