Hailey Update

Miss Hailey

Hailey has been pacifier free since the middle of April. She kept waking up in the middle of the night wanting me to find her pacifier and put it back in her mouth. Then she would fall right back to sleep. A thought came to me that I should get rid of the pacifier and maybe she would sleep better at night. Now Hailey was really attached to her pacifier and LOVED LOVED LOVED it. I took it away on a Thursday and that day and Friday were rough, but after that it was just fine. Did she sleep better at night?...somewhat. She still woke up every night but instead of 3-4 times, it was 1-2 times. I would go in her room and tell her that her pacifier was all gone and she would go back to sleep. Still trying to get her sleeping through the night!

Now, to make it more of a challenge...Hailey learned to climb out of her crib in May. I am really surprised it took her that long to figure it out. We have a toddler bed in her room as well and that was right up next to the crib. She was stepping on the bed (putting her feet between the bars) and climbing out. So I moved the toddler bed away, and she can still climb out of the crib it just takes her longer. But now that she figured that out, she was quite fast at getting out. So why put up the fight. We put her in her toddler bed and guess what...she hated it! She must first fall asleep on the couch in the living room and then we would move her to her bed. But she would wake up sometime during the night and either crawl in bed with us or I have a spot on my floor reserved for whatever kid needs to come into our room during the night. Well as of today, she falls asleep on the couch and we just put her on our floor. It was easier and she sleeps most of the nights all night long. But there are those occasions where she still wakes up wants to crawl in bed with us, but usually if I tell her that she either has to lay back on the floor or her bed...she chooses the floor and goes back to sleep!

Speech is going great for her. She still has Erica coming 2 times a month working about 45 minutes every time. We are nearing the end of the home visits...they only lasts until she is 3 years old. So we are transiting to the public school system seeing if she will qualify for preschool. Preschool will be twice a week for 2 hours and a speech therapist will help her every time. Hailey has 2 more tests she needs to do (a medical one and a preschool evaluation) to see if she indeed qualifies. Erica believes she will qualify. When they did her testing at 2 1/2 years, they put her at a 21 month level for expressive speech. So, Hailey is improving, slowly but it is coming. More and more people tell me they are understanding her better. I am so proud of her accomplishments and hard work, which she knows as playing when Erica comes! Hailey loves Erica and gets so excited when she comes over. Sometimes Hailey is done after 15 minutes, but we find ways to get her to participate a little longer.

Am I ready for her to go to preschool...a big fat NO!! She is too little for me to even think about preschool. Will it be good for her...YES!! Doesn't make it any easier on me. I don't like that my family is growing up...not one bit. I am nervous to send her, and am more or less sad/scared to have her go. It wouldn't be until the end of September, but still. Anyway, we will see if these next tests qualify her to go the school. Why is having your kids grow up so hard?!?