Everyday life

So I am posting this not looking for sympathy but kinda as a journal entry to remember so that when it's all over I can look how great life is instead of some of the yuck that we are going through now.

So as some may or may not know all 4 of my girls have been diagnosed ADHD thanks to genetics!  A couple just have that but a couple have a few other issues on top of the ADHD. 

We were SO lucky with Bailey, she was diagnosed and we tried some medication and wala things were fixed!  We just have to work with some of the effects that ADHD brings with it like disorganization, forgetfulness and sleep issues. 

Kodie has been the hardest of all the girls with all her issues.  We knew she was ADHD but then she had some pretty severe anxiety really showing in pre-school.  We have had such a wonderful experience with her at school and they have helped her in so many ways I can't even tell you!  She was also diagnosed with a learning impairment and most recently a mood disorder, unspecified.  She is our handful in more ways than one.  We have a no success in finding an ADHD med that works for her, she's been on meds for her anxiety which has gotten progressively better and was recently put on medication for the mood disorder which helped tremendously but after a couple weeks she started sleeping WAY too many hours in a day, like 16.  Now after putting up with the tantrums the quite the sleep brought was nice for a couple days but it kept going on and on.  If you've tried to go somewhere at say 7 it wasn't going to happen because Kodie would be asleep so it was starting to cramp our style but more importantly what kind of quality of life is sleeping all the time!  We've been tweaking her medication the last few weeks and its been hard. It has been a bit like a roller coaster.  We are just in the middle of it all and I hope that we can find the best option for her.  I get a little tired of being on this roller coaster but am glad that she is in our family and keeps us hopping!

Then there is Lacey.  This girl is hard because she is such a good kid but she was diagnosed ADD in 2nd grade.  She had a rough 2nd grade year, her teacher had a baby like a week before school started and so she had a sub the 1st 9 weeks of school and because the "real" teacher wasn't there for so long I don't think she because invested in the kids much.  So not only was she diagnosed ADD but she had a little anxiety to go with it and it wasn't too crazy until 2nd grade so we put her on medication for that too which has helped SO much!  We discovered that she had been experiencing stomach aches since 2nd grade and last year I let her miss WAY too much school because of it.  Well I wanted to come to the bottom of this problem and took her to the Dr.  Of course we were referred to a Pediatric Gastro Interologist to take a look at her.  I was beginning to thing she had a food allergy but we have finally discovered that it is related to her anxiety.  So we found a good medicine that helps her feel better but they really want her find some relaxation techniques either through counseling or exercise like yoga.  So we are now trying to find what will work for her. 

Maddie is just a peach but developing her sensitive girl side.  At this point all is pretty well with her.  She's been on some great medication and we haven't had any other problems. 

Some days I wonder how I deal with it all but I know that this was the plan for our family.  I know there are many people who have it WAY worse off than we do and even though some days I don't think I'm gonna make it another day sane, I do and I just keep pushing on! I'm thankful they are healthy full functioning children who just have a few hurdles to jump to achieve their goals.  They are beautiful, smart, spiritual little girls that I am SO happy to have in my life even on the hard days!