Strong Willed Rough Days

We have now been home over a week and for the first 6 days or so, things seemed to go pretty well.  We were making progress, however slight, with pincare and getting around, we transitioned to PT here at home, and we had friends bringing us meals every few days which took a lot of stress away.

Ryan's mom spent a week here and was a huge help since I needed to be at the studio for sessions and appointments nearly every week day this week.  Funny how things stack up when you take time completely off!

But the past 3 days have been just awful.  We are now in the battle of the wills.  I'm not sure what changed or how attitudes have shifted, but it seems like Ava has decided that she is just unhappy all the time and she's going to take it out on us.  She is currently refusing to take pretty much any medication on schedule - even just the Tylenol that has been keeping pain at bay.  What can you do when someone refuses to take meds?  We can't literally pour it down her throat!  It is absolutely infuriating and frustrating.  As her mother, I want to be kind and loving, but after 3 weeks of kind and loving and all I'm getting is whine, whine, cry, complain, and rude behavior toward everyone, it's really hard to want to be kind.  Yes, I know her world has been rocked but at some point, she's gonna have to 'suck it up' and deal.  This is our new normal.  I don't like it either.  But sitting around whining doesn't change anything.  And refusing to take the medicine that will help you feel better?  That's just cutting off your nose to spite your face, kid.

Sigh.

I'll do a more positive, picture post soon.  Just can't manage it at the moment.  I'm working on getting all my orders done (burning 9 flash drives today!) and editing the 8 sessions that are sitting in the queue now so that people don't start emailing me with "When are my photos going to be done?"  I want to say, "As soon as I have a full 5 minutes to focus on anything but whining!!"

This is kind of like having a newborn again - she can't do anything completely independently.  I have to help her every time she has to get up, reposition, go to the bathroom, get something to eat, get another craft/book/activity/game......it's a constant thing.  I get about 10 minutes (maybe!) of something accomplished and then I am interrupted to get something else for her or deal with whatever crisis has popped up.  Then, when she finally goes to sleep at night, I manage about an hour before I'm literally falling asleep sitting up on the couch with my laptop open.  :/   I think the stress is just catching up to me.  I'll get it together this week.....I know I will.  It's just me and the kids this week, so I'm going to get a schedule together and we are going to stick to it.  Hopefully that will help!