Making Some Progress

This past week has been better in some ways and worse in others. First the good news... Mary has been really good about dealing with the whole "ghost" issue. After we got the baby monitor (best $16 I ever spent), she has slept in her own room without one of us in there every night. The first few nights she still needed me to stay in there with her until she fell asleep, but that was okay. Then yesterday after school she told me that she was going to go spend some time in her room with her birds, but if she saw anything she was going to scream and run out. She went in and spent about half an hour in there without any problems. Last night she went in there by herself willingly to find a Christmas movie on tv for us to watch while she fell asleep and then after I had come in and spent about 15 minutes in there she told me I could leave. WOW! What a difference from this time last week when she would shake with terror even thinking about going into her room by herself.

On the flip side, she is still soooo irritable!!!! The tdoc described her as agitated from within. She had even noticed that Mary is stuttering trying to get words out because of the agitation. She gets half way through a sentence and then the words she is looking for just seem to disappear. She can't pull the right one up from her "files". That only makes her more frustrated and agitated. She is still pretty restless when she sleeps, even though she says she is sleeping fine. The brush goes flying across the bathroom because she can't get her hair to do what she wants it to do, the homework gets crumpled because she is can't concentrate trying to work on it, the chairs get punched because she is frustrated with her brother, etc., etc., etc... I did finally call the pdoc yesterday. I wanted to let her know about the irritability factor and I still have some questions about school. I hope that we hear back from her soon so that we can move forward.

We are still doing research and trying to determine what the best placement is for Mary for the rest of this school year. I am cautiously optimistic about some things, but can't share any of the details yet. We are trying to be extremely careful not to convey any of this to Mary, so our hours of doing research are limited to the few hours she is in school and after she is in bed at night. She is continuing to do okay during school and seems to be enjoying the 2 classes she is in right now. I do not think she can tolerate any additional time added onto that in her current irritable state of mind though. I am continuously so touched by the care and concern that the staff and teachers shower on her. We are blessed that the school has been willing to work with us every step of the way and that the staff and teachers that she encounters every day do their best to make her feel comfortable. Even though she is not handling things well emotionally this year, it isn't any reflection on the school. I feel like they really are on our side most of the time and are willing to advocate for our daughter. I definitely don't want to burn any bridges if we do decide that for Mary's emotional stability we need to change schools.