Trick or Treat!

Speech and sleep

I met with Keeghan's speech therapist to chat about the stuttering thing.  She gave me some strategies...a lot of them things I was already doing.  The stuttering is happening at school more too so that's the focus of her speech sessions.  We are getting "homework" to do, working on smooth speech, trying to let Keeghan know that everyone will get their turn to speak so there is no need to rush, and also trying not to make a big deal of the whole thing.  Keeghan doesn't seem to notice she is stuttering so we don't want it to become a focus and have it worsen.  If Keeghan is having a particularly hard time getting out what she wants to say I will tell her to take a deep breath, talk quietly, and slowly and that seems to help.  We are also making an effort to be sure when it's "her turn" to talk that we are paying attention and responding. Sitting here thinking about things now, I think maybe it's a bit better.  Keeghan LOVES to talk (though plenty of people who have met her would tell you she's really quiet) especially to me.  She asks questions constantly and will sometimes rephrase a question 2 or 3 times to make sure she is understanding.  She also knows when you are not listening or understanding her and that is NOT ok. This kid knows how to get your attention and keep it (pretty sure that's a behaviour she developed in the orphanage...and heck it serves her well as she's one of 4 kids) and will talk my ear off sometimes. 

Unfortunately, some of those times are in the middle of the night.  After moving Keeghan to her big girl bed we had some trouble with her getting out of bed in the middle of the night (we've found her playing video games at 1 or 2am more than once).  We used positive reinforcement (stickers) for staying in bed all night and staying there until "there's a 6 on the clock" (yes, K's an early morning kid and will sometimes get out of bed at 5am).  BUT, being a smart kid, Keeghan figured out staying in bed means just that and as long as she stays in bed she can yell to me at 3am.  So, plenty of nights I am beckoned "ma ma....ma ma....ma ma" to fix blankets or because she doesn't want to sleep or whatever.  We've been home almost 3 years.  I'm over the not sleeping thing.  I am perfectly happy to help if she's not feeling well or has a nightmare or needs me, but getting up at 1 or 2 or 3am to "fix my blankets" is getting to be a problem.  I'm not sure that Keeghan understands the difference between an "emergency" that is ok to wake me up for and just waking me up to wake me up.  So, we spend lots of time together in the middle of the night and then I can't go back to sleep and then I'm overtired and cranky...and you get the idea.  So, sleep is still a challenge.

And to add to that we had a crazy snowstorm last week that knocked out power for 6 days.  No heat, no hot water, no lights, no stove, nothing.  We are very lucky to have some awesome friends who let us all but move into their house (they have a generator) for the week.  BUT that meant Keeghan was all out of sorts.  School was close 4 days.  We were not home except to sleep and then there wasn't the regular nightlight or sound machine and there were layers of pj's and blankets to keep warm.  It was a tough week and it's showing a bit for Keeghan.  Sleep was very much a challenge and her behaviour has been a bit off since.  Overall, though, I think Keeghan handled it well and seems to be getting back to normal...but tonight we change the clocks so I'm sure that will throw a curve ball into everything!

My strong little girl pulled that wagon full of pumpkins

It's National Adoption Month

I think you all know I think adoption is pretty cool.  Biology is cool too fyi...but almost everyone tries that out.  People think growing your family means getting pregnant...not always the case.  Plenty of people pick the adoption route.  I think, though, that unless you know someone who's gone through this and is will to share their story, adoption is a scary idea.  It makes sense.  That's one of the reasons I decided to blog about our journey of growing our family and I talk about adoption as much as I do.  There are on the idea of 150million orphans in this world and everyone of those kids deserves a family.  I Everyone who wants to add to their family should think about adoption.  I'm not saying it's for everyone to try...heck there are plenty of people in this world should not parent never mind adopt.  But, if you're thinking about parenting, think about adoption and if you have questions or want more info...ask.  I'm happy to share many parts of our story and happy to talk about the challenges we've faced as well.  Just don't go asking how much my child cost or tell me how lucky she is cause then I might go off on you. 

A trip to the pumpkin patch

First day of school!

So frustrated...

Keeghan has been really frustrating me lately.  I'm not a patient person, I'll freely admit that.  Never have been, never will be.  Parenting a toddler/pre-schooler at 40 is very different than parenting three of them at 30.  I am much more patient with Keeghan.  Lately, however, I find myself snapping more and more and I couldn't figure it out at first, but now I've keyed into it.  The lack of sleep is most certainly an issue.  It's frustrating but we have been doing that to some degree since coming home.  It's Keeghan's speech.  We had her evaluated for early intervention services a couple months after coming home and she qualified.  She still had a delay once she hit 3 and therefore has qualified for services through our local elementary school.  Awesome.  The beginning of this year, however, Keeghan started stuttering.  At first I thought maybe it was just a phase.  A burst in development that was making her stutter.  I left it alone and figured it would pass.  Come April I started to get worried and mentioned it to her pre-school teacher and the speech pathologist.  They said they weren't really seeing it at school, but that Keeghan also wasn't talking much at school so that might have been it.  Come the end of the school year, the stutter was still there and we talked about it at Keeghan's IEP meeting.  We wrote it into her IEP for this fall and I was told not to worry and just to ignore it.  All great advice.

BUT the stuttering seems to be getting worse.  Keeghan can't seem to get through a sentence in one try.  It's not always the first word or a specific sound.  I have to stop whatever I am doing to listen to her and understand what she is saying because it's difficult to follow what she says with the stutter.  I can't cook lunch and hear a request for some juice...I have to stop whatever I'm doing to listen and understand.  It's...in a word...frustrating.  I wonder if the lack of sleep or stress of me wanting sleep is making it all worse.  We just started week 2 of school so I'll give it another week and then try and meet with the speech pathologist and teacher to get some suggestions because I'm gonna need some!