venting

[Guest guest]

Thanks to everyone for your responses and support. Ian did go to sleep last night at about 10:30 but then woke up around 2 and tried to start arguing again. I remade his bed twice (he manages to tear it up tossing and turning). The third time I gave in and let him sleep with us (I had just finally fallen asleep at 3:30). Today he woke up arguing about being grounded for arguing. (I took away his scooter and friends for 1 day). I stood firm but it was a long afternoon of whining, arguing, and begging. Why is it that the parents always get punished along with the kids? LOL

Tonight we made sure he had a snack before bedtime and he went to bed relatively easy. Of course, I've caught him reading 3 times since then, but at least he's not arguing. He pulled out all the guilt stops this afternoon about being punished for OCD. I had asked him if he thought the snack issue was OCD pushing him around. He denied it at first, then tried to turn it to his advantage. I explained that if it was the OCD, then he needed to learn to boss it back and that I was not punishing him, I was punishing the OCD. I also told him he was going to have to learn to live with his OCD kuz not everyone was as understanding and lenient as his dear mother.

ph, bedtimes have always been wars in this family. Ian's first rituals that we recognized involved very rigid rules about the order we would tuck him in, turn on his lamp, turn on a story tape, turn off his overhead light, and say "Goodnight, I'll see you in the morning." If we messed this up, he would rage for hours. Avery went through years of having to be sung to to fall asleep. I still have to "rock-a-bye" Gracie at age 4 (actually just holding her) most nights to get her to sleep. We're actively working on eliminating that now. I have always marveled at people who could just tell their kids to go to bed and the kids would do it. God knows, I tried that with each child, but it never worked! We even tried reversing their doorknobs so we could lock them from the outside but they would just scream at their doors for hours instead of going to bed. Time outs always worked the same way. The only way I ever got Ian to stay in time-out was to physically restrain him (that was when he was at his worst beating up his little sister and me). Even then, it would only end the physical attack, the arguing would go on.

Jule, I have always been wary of stimulants for my kids because of the girl's trichotillomania history and Ian's recent TS diagnosis. Oddly enough, the Adderall seems to have reduced Ian's tics and his teachers did see a benefit in his attention levels. I will definitely ask about Risperdal (sp?) if this doesn't work out. The p-doc also gave us a script for Tenex if the sleeping problems don't improve. I believe it's supposed to help the ADD and the TS as well as making him sleep. The pharmacist said it's a blood pressure med that is also prescribed for bed wetting so maybe we'll get that benefit also if we use it. I don't think it's a stimulant but I haven't really researched it yet.

, I wish I could have enjoyed my time in the garage, but unfortunately, I was cold, wet, and slimy after wrestling with a too big sleeping bag in my too small washer. The darn thing had already caused the washer to overflow twice. It was Ian's sleeping bag to add insult to injury. Luckily, the garage is attached to the house and was home. I always used to keep my keys in my pocket when I went into the garage kuz he's pulled this stunt before. I let my guard down on that one. It won't happen again.

Without getting too mushy, let me say one more time how much I appreciate this list! Once again, my sanity is saved.

in Texas