3/6/04: Friday was an off day for Katherine. Thursday she stayed up late (8:30) to work on homework and then was up before 6 to finish what she hadn't completed.
Mid-morning at art class she went to the bathroom and when she came out, saw another class headed her way. She thought class time was done and even though her art teacher called for her she went to the cafeteria for lunch, only her class wasn't there. She went to her homeroom, no one was there. She went to Ms. Clarice's class and stayed there for a while until her art teacher found her. Katherine was confused. When she saw the other kids she thought they were going to art, when they were actually going to P.E. next door.
She told me she was so tired, she couldn't think of what to do.
There's a lot going on with her right now and we're going to do our best to ease things. She's obviously not getting enough rest. Getting that into her is our biggest goal but it's not simply getting her to bed on time. She's 8 years old and in bed usually between 7:30 and 8. We're going to try hard to get that earlier but if we want to eat dinner as a family and still have a normal bedtime routine there simply isn't enough time. So there's the other end, wake-up. Currently we have the girls taking the bus to school, but that means getting up at 5:45 to make it for a 6:30 pick-up. If I drive them to school, they can sleep until 6:30. Wednesdays are our late start days and the girls get up at 6:30 then and it makes a world of difference in how our day goes. Let's see about doing it for a full week. Hopefully I'll have a positive update next weekend.
There's also her meds. She's almost done with her course of INH for her + TB test. We also tried a sample of Claritin to hopefully help her sleep better (she has dark circles under eyes, doesn't sleep well and snores, all symptoms of allergies), but some of the side effects of Claritin could have caused worse problems. While I don't think she had insomnia, she has had troubles breathing this past week with pain in her lungs, something she's never had before. Last weekend at the beach she had a terrible cramp, something that's perfectly normal to get after hard swimming, but I can only imagine that she was predisposed to it (and that it was worse than it should have been) because of the Claritin.
Katherine is also the sort to let worries eat at her. This coming Wednesday is her First Penance and I have not a single doubt that it is causing her a great amount of concern. Tomorrow we'll go over the process together and I'll try to ease her worries, but until it's done I think it's just going to bother her. She's always been like this, taking huge worries and carrying them on her shoulders. One month when she was due for regular blood draw I mistakenly told her ahead of time thinking I'd prepare her for it. She was pale, nervous and distracted all day in school, worrying about it. I haven't done that since. She gets so worked up.
Oh, back to the wandering the halls thing. I told her that next time (should there be one), the best thing to do when she's unsure of where to go is to ask the teacher of the class she was in. If she had poked her head into the art room she would have seen her classmates and all would have been well. If she'd stopped when her teacher had called her, all would have been well. If she'd gone directly to her instructor to ask, all would have been well.
But first, we have to get some rest and downtime into her.
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