She finally crashed

[tammyjh]

After a little more than 3 weeks on the good part of her cycle, she crashed and crashed hard tonight. The last two days she's played a lot of game cube and little has been asked of her. We all relaxed for the most part Sun. and today(it was a snow day) and we do this every once in a while so it wasn't really anything out of the ordinary. The game cube is in my 6 yr olds room and difficult child didn't want to stop playing tonight when it was bedtime. I didn't see it as a big deal that she became a little moody...its normal for her. But, she didn't want to go to her room and threw a little tantrum when I told her it was a non negotiable, it was bedtime because its a school night. She tried telling me it was too cold in her room so I told her that I would supply her with extra blankets (for the record, she has a room in the attic that I fixed up for her this summer...its not cold up there...she just didn't want to go to bed). She then told me that she's upset and anxious about going to school tomorrow. She's been going half days and tomorrow she starts going a little longer. I said that its understandable that she would be anxious and that we all knew that and that the Special Education. teacher would be there to walk her through everything. Honestly, I know she's a bit anxious but it didn't seem to bother her in the least until I said it was time for bed. So, she went to her room and cried for a bit. I was sitting on the couch settling my 2 yr. old when difficult child came downstairs and stood by the couch for a minute and I thought she was going to apologize for her earlier behavior but instead, she started to hit me. It caught me totally off guard but I was able to catch her hand every time she took a swing. She's also not very coordinated and has only the use of her right hand so she's at a disadvantage. I had to slide out from under my 2 yr. old who was a bit scared and walk her back to the stairs and directed her up. She went but not without a lot of swearing and screaming. She came back down one more time and tried the same thing. Lots more screaming and swearing but not as aggressive. Told me that I don't care about her, she wants to die, is going to jump out the window, demanded I call crisis, She's going to run away, blah, blah, blah, I talked her into going back to her room where she continued to cry and scream. I brought the other two kids down with me until she calms down and goes to sleep. I'm bummed :frown:

You know, I'm hoping to keep this in perspective though because I really feel that she made some good progress over the last 3 weeks. Hopefully this part of the cycle passes quickly and she'll have another long good stretch. *sigh*
thanks for listening.

 

[tammyjh]

Just wanted to add that bedtime wasn't something that I surprised her with. I had told all the kid earlier that since it was a school night, betime was regular time..8pm. So, it wasn't that I just went in out of the blue and said "time for bed". I could understand her getting a little out of control if I hadn't given her the heads up...she has a hard time with transitions so I always try to at least give her a heads up so that she knows ahead of time and can switch gears.

 

[gcvmom]

Maybe the gamecube time was just too much of a good thing? I've noticed my kids get overstimulated if I let them play too long. And I get lip, too, sometimes, even if they're given advance warning about what's coming like bedtime, especially if they're tired AND overstimulated like that. I don't get physical violence, but they do backtalk, and they antagonize eachother and get physical with eachother. Maybe she'll feel better in the morning... hope you can get her off to school without too much drama.

 

[timer lady]

I'm sure by now you recognize the anxiety building in your difficult child. Doesn't matter the circumstance - you can see it, I'm sure.

With kt, I can see it in the morning when she wakes what kind of evening we're going to have. I warn school via email.

And saying that I have a ritual of sorts for that kind of day. Once she's home from school I have a cup of chamomile or ginger tea (hot chocolate on really cold days) waiting for her with a snack. She takes medications after school & I generally include a PRN medication with her medications (psychiatrist is encouraging us to use the PRN more liberally). I have our drawing pads out & we draw how our days went.

Sometimes kt will draw me cartoons & I will draw her pictures of Sammy our cat racing about the house. There are days kt refuses to draw & that's okay. I ask her to find another self calming skill so her day stays positive (even if it wasn't). She generally chooses to take a shower or asks me to wash her hair (she loves having her hair washed).

I'm always looking for sensory calming activities. Many times we play dolls; I'm not a big fan of dolls, but I like the feel of the many outfits that kt changes her dolls into. Sometimes, it's doing nails.

I know this takes a lot of time - in the long run, however it's less time invested than a meltdown. Plus the house is calmer & other things can be accomplished peacefully.

I hope things go smoothly tomorrow. Keeping fingers crossed for difficult child & you.

 

[tammyjh]

gcvmom,
husband mentioned the same thing about the game cube...too much time on it. We don't usually rent games so its not really played with all that much so its a good bet that she was on it way too long and overstimulated. We'll have to time the activity when we rent games on weekends.

Linda,
I like the idea about drawing about your day with kt. I wonder if Abby would like to do something similar or maybe writing something. She wants to be a writer but can never get past the first sentence.lol. Maybe if we wrote a sentence or two about our days, it would be a good transition back into home after school today.

This morning went ok. She did apologize for hitting but her mood was still slightly off and I attribute that to her being anxious about school this morning. She'll only be staying an extra hour and a half but she's super anxious about adding lunch into her school day. She's happy that she won't be starting right out in the cafeteria and will be in the spec. ed. room with the teacher and then make a slow transition to the cafeteria.

 

[gcvmom]

Hope today goes better and that when she gets home you can find some things to do that help her decompress :smile:

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Tammy,

I hope her day at school went ok today and that the rest of the day is "event free".

Sharon

 

[TerryJ2]

Just wanted to lend support.

 

[tammyjh]

Thanks for the replies and well wishes :smile:

She had a good day at school and as luck would have it, she didn't stay the extra time as they're having trouble getting the transportation nailed down. Tomorrow is an early release day so she won't have to worry about it until Thursday at the earliest so it gives us an extra couple of days for preparation.

She's been very time restricted today on any her game and it goes back to the video store tomorrow anyway so she has about a half hour with it after supper and then we probably won't be renting games for a while again.

She's been very pleasant and polite since arriving home and very hyper since the other kids arrived home from school. While hyper can be very annoying, I can maintain that a little easier than the mood :smile: