Behaviors

Megan developed several "bad" behaviors when her sleep deprivation started.  Though she is still not back to a regular sleep schedule, she has been getting more and more sleep.  With the additional sleep I have noticed that some of her behaviors have started disappearing, or at least becoming much less frequent.  Unfortunately some of them have morphed into habits that we are working to "unlearn".

Behavior Status:

• Pulling her hair out.  This one is one of the ones that has morphed into an unwelcome habit.  The behavior started in her bed when she wanted to sleep but couldn't.  The nights that this happens have decreased, but it still occurs when she is really upset.  The habit part of this is that anytime the status quo changes it is her go to coping technique.  If she is frustrated, upset, nervous or even extremely happy she will grab her hair right behind her ears and yank on it.  
• Biting others. During the height of her sleep deprivation Megan was biting everything and everyone for no apparent reason.  Obviously the reason was she was exhausted and frustrated that she can't sleep.  She would bite Sam just for the heck of it.  Thankfully the more sleep she gets the less we see this one.  Instead of her biting someone 10-15 times a morning she has gone 3 days without biting at all. 
• Biting herself. This one is generally done when she is frustrated about not getting her way, or not being able to do something she is trying to do. This is another one that has changed into a habit as well.  I have seen it a lot less the past week as she has gotten more sleep

Changes

Megan has been changing over the past few weeks, especially in the last 7-10 days.  Not only has she said a few words but she is trying to talk quite often.  She tries and tries to say words, she points at things and struggles to find the right sounds for them.  She will have me tell her what something is over and over again as she tries to imitate me.

She has always used our hands to do things or pointed at things and grunted for them but she is now walking over, asking for something, walking back to us, grabbing our hand and taking us to the item and talking to us about it some more.

Today when I was playing with the kids I asked Sam if he was my little buddy, mommy's little boy and he said "yes, yes, yes" and giggled.  A few minutes later I asked Megan if she was my little miss, mommy's little girl and she emphatically shook her head yes, clapped her hands and smiled a huge smile.

She will audibly tell Sam more when she wants him to do something again, like turn on a toy or play chase with her.

She is engaged, she is responsive and she is initiating conversations.  She is doing great at school.  She has started interacting/play with the other kids.  Her and another little girl in her class pretended legos were hats last week and were putting them on each other's heads and then giggling about it.

Talking, sleep and starting to run

A couple of weekends ago Uncle Mike was at the house and Megan tried very hard to say his name.  She said "m, m, m, mi, mi, mi" very excitedly.  It was a wonderful moment because she was trying to talk.  Well, since then she has really taken off.  She said "dada", "up", "on", "ip (ipad)" and "hat".  Every single one of those words were thrilling to hear, but hat was by far the best because she had never made an "h" sound before.

All of this talking started after she got 4 uninterrupted nights of sleep in a row, followed by every other night for a couple of days.  We have been doing everything we can to help her sleep and this just proves how very important it is for her development.  She has started on a new medication that will hopefully help her to sleep through the night so that her internal clock can reset.  It worked the first night, but did not work last night.

Megan got new orthotics last week.  These are actually the same ones she had previously, just bigger.  She is doing amazing with them. Her gait has narrowed and she is so much more stable.  She has started really moving and is almost at a run a lot of the time.