Marching On

I'm so thankful that these last four weeks are coming to an end. We had at least three appointments for Sofie each week. Plus preschool, music class, ballet, a play date and a few appointments for other people. It was crazy and now that we are coming to the end, we are all fighting coughs or colds. It's the way it goes, I guess.

It's been a rough few nights here. Saturday night, Livi woke up with a 101 degree fever just before midnight. Once I got her temperature under control she woke Sofie up. Sofie was happy but proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs. It was impossible to sleep. She did this from 1am until just before 4am. I was losing my mind. Completely. Then she woke up at 7am!

The next night consisted of Sofie crying for 3 hours! We tried EVERYTHING to get her to relax and sleep. We redid her bedtime routine at least three times, we took her in to our room to calm down a few times, we sang, we rocked, we let her cry it out a bit, we gave her two separate doses of melatonin and finally Jon took her for a drive in the car. It worked! Only to have her wake up in the transfer! Argh! We figured since she'd been up and it was now 11pm, she was probably hungry again. We gave her a Pediasure and she was finally able to be calm enough to sleep. Now, she wasn't hungry at the beginning of this evening. She had had a big dinner! But Pediasure's are one of her favorite things in the world and I think she finds comfort in them. I was willing to give her whatever at that point and was thankful something finally worked!

She has still been off during the days and although she went to sleep well last night, she has been grumpier than normal during the day. Livi and I both have colds so maybe Sofie is fighting something too... although she doesn't seem sick at all and hasn't had a fever.

I wonder if this random difficult week has something to do with some kind of memory. Sometimes when people have endured a traumatic experience, they will sort of relive it each year around the same time of year. Sofie has been abused, in more ways than one. We will never know the full extent of her neglect and abuse. We can just hope to help her heal. It will be really interesting to see if this same behavior repeats itself next February.

Livi has been so empathetic and caring towards Sofie this week with all her outbursts. It's been really sweet to see. I've been a little more up front with Livi about Sofie's history. I think she is mature enough to handle some of it. We approached Sofie's small size as her being a baby, when we first brought her home but this week I explained to Livi that Sofie is actually 3 years old just like her, but because she didn't get enough food and love in Bulgaria she didn't grow. Then as Livi witnessed her sister awake screaming from a terrible nightmare at nap time, I explained to her that some bad things happened to Sofie in the orphanage before she came home to us so she has bad dreams about it sometimes. Livi tenderly put her hand on Sofie's forehead, she was laying on her bed recuperating, and turned to me to say "I think we shouldn't send her back to Bulgaria. She should stay home with us." Good idea Livi!

What else can I tell you?

1. I went to a tax seminar on Saturday morning to learn about different benefits and credits for people with special needs. I learned a lot and loved it! I'm such a geek.

2. We got our first delivery from the At Home program. They are now, for free, delivering Pediasure, diapers and wipes to our door for Sofie! Hooray! 

3. My lifestyle change went really well for the first 4 weeks. I lost and have kept 15 pounds off. Then I went to a party on a Saturday night, ate leftovers from the party on the Sunday and had Valentine's treats a few days later. I pulled a muscle while working out too so I decided to take a week off and start with the "reset" part again. I then got sick a few days before my restart day and haven't gotten back but planning too! With 15 pounds down in 4 weeks how can I not do it again?!

4. I bought Livi a Dora work kit which has her practicing numbers, letters, shapes, and colors. She is loving it and I love how proud she is when she completes a work page! The other day we were all sitting around the table doing our "work". I was filling out more of Sofie's forms, Livi was doing the number pages and Sofie was coloring on the magna-doodle! For over 30 min! Crazy! And I was amazed at how well Sofie was doing and showing interest in coloring. She is developing SO fast!

5. We had Sofie's second attempt at her hearing appointment today. She was too distracted to pay any attention to the sound prompts the first time. Sofie gave better readings today but still scored slightly below the normal hearing level. The audiologists were trying to tell me this second reading was conclusive. I'm not convinced. The good thing is whether or not she has real hearing loss or not, it is not enough to do anything about at this point :) We will monitor it and the next check up will be in 3 months.

6. Sofie is now caught up with all her immunizations! Just today. She did great and didn't cry even though she got 4 shots! The worst part for her is being restrained, not the needles.

I think that's it. I'll try to take more pictures for you. I've had a few comments about lack of pictures on my posts lately :) February/March always seem to be dry picture months. Once we get outside with nice weather again I'm sure I'll be more inspired!