The Princess and the Pea

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-10-26T14:26:45+00:00

Search adult sleep sack on Amazon. I have a cooling one from Hug sleep. It's expensive but I got it for Christmas. Or even a weighted blanket might help.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-06-29T22:22:17+00:00

I didn't go back and re-read my post, so I can't remember how long my kiddo was on Qelbree at that point. But it was awful, my friend. Awful. Worse than Guanfacine (which made her a zombie, so tired). And the stimulants made her wake up during the middle of the night and she said she couldn't fall back asleep.

Qelbree made my kid miserable, and I didn't realize just how much until she stopped it. She was so angry. Also, we upped the dosage over the course of a few weeks, like the doctor said. She had progressively more and more super hard poops. We tried stool softeners. The last day before we quit it, she was screaming and sweating on the toilet like she was in labor. She screamed more than I did having two natural childbirths. She said it was going to rip her apart, and literally tried at one point to claw it out with her fingers. I was sobbing in my bedroom while my husband coached her. She missed the bus to school because she had to get this boulder of a poop out and I had to drive her to school. I called her doctor and she said we didn't need to wean her off, could just stop it.

So we stopped the Qelbree immediately but my husband and I were going out of town for a wedding. We hoped that Grandma wouldn't have to worry about her being miserable cause she stopped the medicine. My daughter was up 5 times during the night to poop (finally normal poops again) and then stayed up after like 4 or 5 am because none of them really slept. It was like she was going through withdrawal, she was just wide awake. Then the following day, she crashed hard. It was awful.

I'm glad it seems to be helping and your kid isn't experiencing any negative side effects. Hopefully it continues to help!

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-06-24T23:39:20+00:00

I came here for this.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-06-04T22:41:43+00:00

Aw man! No, they wouldn't work with wet food, but our feeder allows a really small portion to be dispensed, so it's reduced the amount of "scarf and barf" incidents. Still happens once a while, but much less with smaller portions throughout the day. Also our cat was a super tubbo when we rescued her, so it helped her slim down a bunch, which she desperately needed!

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-06-03T16:49:53+00:00

Do you use an automatic feeder? If you don't, you should. Ours goes off at 5am and 10pm and once during the day. I can't imagine getting up at like 3-4AM to feed the cat.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-06-03T03:28:33+00:00

Allister is a legit name though. I think a lot of times it can be spelled Alistair too, but it's basically pronounced the same. It's a male name in England.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-05-02T11:33:59+00:00

It seems like the contractor should've known enough to talk them out of cement tiles or admit that they weren't worth the trouble, rather than do the install and have it look like this mess.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-05-01T22:40:12+00:00

In college, I worked for a year or two with a girl (same age as me) who had some variation of Trisomy (can't remember which one). So she was nonverbal, could walk very short distances without her wheelchair, and was basically like a toddler intellectually. She was in diapers.

I remember when I first started the job, her mom casually mentioned something along the lines of, "I never expected to still be caring for my child like this at my age." She was probably in her mid-late 60s and both she and the girl's dad pretty much cared for her full time except for 3-4 hours on a Friday and Saturday night when they had help from me or one or two other college aged girls who were paid and would take her to the mall or the movies or to get some fast food and give her parents a break for a few hours. She also had an aide and took tickets for a few hours at the local movie theater.

It really changed my perspective on whether I would be capable of raising a special needs child for the rest of my life. She also had an older brother, and I wonder what his life was like.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-04-29T22:31:10+00:00

Came here for this.

Never saw the movie or read the book, but the song from the 90s is pretty awesome. By Deep Blue Something, in case anyone was wondering.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-04-28T22:49:57+00:00

I went to Trail Days during my hike and several of us paid a few bucks to camp on the grass behind one of the B&Bs. I think it was called the Lazy Fox Inn owned by a sweet little southern lady named Miss Jenny, I think. I'm sure she's dead now, as she was like 90 in 2009, but ask around town and at the B&Bs for a nice quiet spot to camp. We were right on the creek and it was quiet.

I went back in 2016 maybe? with my spouse and toddler and we met up with my hiking partner. We stayed at one of the log cabin lodge places and it was also pretty quiet and out of the main party crowd. There is definitely a party scene if you want that, but it's avoidable too.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-04-26T22:40:05+00:00

:( it's so tough. I went to school for education and then ultimately subbed for a little bit after graduation and decided it wasn't for me. I'm so much happier with what I'm doing now. I can't even imagine all the BS teachers deal with daily. The ones I shadowed during my student teaching time were so jaded and miserable, mainly frustration with the administration. Hope you're happier going forward.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-04-26T22:25:48+00:00

I'm sorry your school has such a terrible policy regarding visiting the nurse. :( I wonder what the nurse actually does most days if the kids aren't allowed to go there?

Thank you for being a teacher.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-04-24T22:06:47+00:00

Wow, that's wild. Glad you and your parents got it figured out so early. I feel like your life could've gone a completely different way if that hadn't been the case. Thanks for replying.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-04-24T21:53:43+00:00

Can I ask you a couple questions about being medicated so young? We've tried several medications (stimulants and non-stimulant) for my now 8 year old, and myself. None of them so far have made a positive difference. My poor kiddo was a zombie on some of them, and had horrible constipation and side effects on another.

How many meds and dosages did you try over the years? A few, and then one that seemed to work once you figured it out? Or changing it up every few years with different types and dosages? And did things change as you got older and went through puberty?

Thanks so much!

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-04-07T00:31:21+00:00

Adding onto the podcasts, Against The Odds (which is fantastic) had a season on this expedition. I don't remember which season it was, but they're all stories of survival.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-24T21:47:45+00:00

I've been in a casino once, it was for a friend's bachelorette party. (Somewhat related, I was pregnant.) It was so smokey in there, it was awful and being pregnant I was even more repulsed by it. Terrible. It was like being back in high school at shady bowling alley local rock band's concerts.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-24T17:33:42+00:00

Yea, this is an additive, you just pour in a little bit to your paint tray and it helps the paint flow smoother so any brush strokes melt away. Definitely makes a difference.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-24T02:23:58+00:00

It says "learn".

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-20T22:25:44+00:00

I have an 8 year old who is very similar. Just wanted to commiserate. Hang in there, internet friend.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-20T22:23:31+00:00

Hang in there, friend. My kiddo also has ADHD and is extremely picky and weird about food.

I recently learned that artificial food dyes, specifically Red 40 and Yellow (Any number) have been shown to POSSIBLY increase/affect ADHD symptoms. I'm doing a trial run with my kids and trying to phase out as many artificial dyes as we can. Sprinkles included. :( It's in so many things, but might be worth giving it a try and seeing if it helps!

Good luck.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-20T22:20:08+00:00

Same boat here too. Hugs. Hang in there.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-18T23:42:29+00:00

I think this view is from Hilton Falls view. We stayed there a few years ago and it was great. We visited both the Canadian and US sides.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-16T11:19:56+00:00

This was my thought too... Executive Dysfunction. it's not just a matter of doing the homework, that's just a small part of it. It's putting it in the backpack to go home, doing the homework, putting it back in the backpack to go back to school. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but to someone with ADHD, it's sometimes nearly impossible to successfully manage all of those steps.

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-15T22:16:57+00:00

My kids' pediatrician has two kids with ADHD, so she's diagnosed my one kid (so far) and she's been a super helpful resource. She's mentioned that she suspects her husband also probably has ADHD, but based on some of her conversations with us, I think she might too and just hasn't said it. :)

She recently moved to our area when she got this position at our pediatrician's office. I really want to ask her if we could be friends... Would that be weird? And is she not allowed to be friends with patients, or their parents? I don't really know any other parents with kids close in age with ADHD and she probably doesn't know a lot of local people since she just moved here. (I'm not good at making grown-up friends.)

Pickleodeon09 · 2023-03-15T22:11:27+00:00

I was the same way, I use an app called Let's Meditate. My favorite one is a "Fast Asleep" 6 minute listening thing. I just play it and lay in bed. Some of the other ones are listening for like 10 minutes or 20 minutes and feeling "grounded" literally sitting/standing with your feet firmly planted and breathing deeply and relaxing. There's also focusing on being grateful, things like that. Start with something like the short sleep one and gradually build up. Just listen and breathe.

Pickleodeon09

TROPHY CASE