J Update

We're going on 3 weeks now of sleeping through the night in this house! I am pretty sure that's a world record around here. I was seriously beginning to question whether or not it would ever actually happen, but here we are! We had to put a bell on his door for the first couple weeks (week 1 was a nightmare) and he would get to put a sticker on his sticker chart if he slept through the night. After 5 nights he would get a 'sleep reward' that he wanted. Just something small, but enough to keep him motivated. After the first week we were able to take off the bell and just rely on the honor system and he's done great! Even when we were gone he earned his rewards and slept really good.

On the flip side, the doctor we've been seeing with him for the sleep issues did an evaluation on him last time we were in and then matched it up with the questions she had me answer about him and it seems he's got some serious issues we'll have to keep working on. The big problems that came up were aggression, hyperactivity, attention span and properly communicating without getting frustrated. She seems to think there's a very high probability that he has some ADHD symptoms and we need to work on some structured activities with him and keep a close eye on it. At this point she said we mostly need to help him work on skills that will help develop his ability to stop and evaluate things a little more. He also is getting evaluated for speech issues which we know he needs. It's mostly all just a lot of work for mom and dad but we're willing to do it!

I'm so happy we have the sleep issue under control now and can move on to helping him with some of these other issues. He's such a sweet boy and I've seen the improvements in a few other boys who have seen this doctor and I believe she knows what she's doing. Hopefully this coming school year he'll be more prepared and we'll have him on the right path.