Getting to the root

When is the last time I posted three days in a row? :) This week has been a doozy! My eyes are tired and red from waking up at 3:00 every morning doing the crying and worrying routine. Today was better. We decided to keep Elijah home from school today to give his teacher a break and to let him catch up on rest. When I explained this to him this morning, he said, "KETCHUP?! I am NOT. ketchup." Catch UP, honey, not ketchup.

We have done A LOT of chatting with Elijah's school caregivers this week. Principal, teachers, school social worker and special education case manager. They are all desperately trying to understand him and his actions, and we appreciate that. We have given them as much information as we can provide and we have shown them that we are IN this, and that we will do everything in our power to make his first grade year as fruitful as possible for everybody.

There are some major issues we need to work on. There are some behaviors that absolutely have to stop. Elijah cannot continue hitting teachers (upon inquiring, I learned that he was actually "swiping" them, which is something he does to Dan and me occasionally at home) and acting inappropriately.

On my way to work yesterday morning, I was doing more pondering and fretting and I had a moment of clarity. LISTEN TO YOUR GUT, I told myself. What have I been saying all along? It's all about sleep for him. If he were a rested boy, he would definitely not be doing these things. So I thought about the facts. He NEEDS to go to bed ridiculously early in order to be rested. He wakes up every morning ridiculously early, some mornings at 3:00 or 4:00. Once he is awake, there is absolutely no going back to sleep. He is exhausted. Not just exhausted, but chronically and deeply sleep-deprived.

Since that listen-to-my-gut moment, I have taken matters into my own mama hands. :) I found a renowned pediatric sleep clinic here in Minneapolis and scheduled an appointment...for December. The earliest available appointment. Just as I was about to hang up the phone, I desperately said, "WAIT. Is there any insight you can give me?" The nurse said, "Welllll, I'm not supposed to do this, but..." She told me it sounded like E has a sleep disorder called Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder. Then she said, "This is an extremely rare disorder." I began laughing like a lunatic! "Megan, are you alright?" "Aaaahhh, yes, I'm fine. Of course it's extremely rare. I'm sorry.."

If you read through the description, it describes Elijah's sleep TO A T. The nurse shared with me that we could start "light therapy" on him to see if it helps before the appointment. I'm doing research on that and will hopefully have a light in our home by next week. I VERY much appreciate her giving me the info. I truly believe this sleep issue is the root of the difficulties he is having.

Dan and I will be meeting with E's principal and teacher tomorrow morning to discuss some issues. We are PRAYING for a good meeting and a good school day for our boy.

Tomorrow is Elijah's Make-a-Wish reveal! We are so excited to share it with him! We decided to surprise him right off the school bus. I'll share details tomorrow. Please pray for a GOOD day, all around. Thank you for your prayers.

And yes, Sammy does still exist! And we love him dearly! Man, this boy is cute and sweet and creative and awesome and funny and smart. He amazes me every single day. I can just sit and watch him in his non-stop-talking-ness and wonder how anything so adorable could ever exist. Sammy will be involved in Elijah's wish reveal tomorrow, and I'm sure he'll be super excited about that.

More tomorrow!