Patience is a Virtue

*
This week we saw the Social Worker, the Medical Doctor and the "Play Therapist".

The SW met with bio-mom and dad for the first time since visits stopped 3 months ago. They never once asked how their children were. It seems as though one of the lawyers is quite sick so the April TPR hearing date is now going to be in May. We should find out next week when that is. We explained that (S) was having night terrors and we needed to do something as we had not had more then five complete nights sleep in the last 7 months. She was the one who suggested we ask the Medical Doctor and also gave us the name of a play therapist to call.

We had to take (S) to the doctor anyway as her rash which was diagnosed previously as eczema was not getting any better. It turned out that it was a certain kind of eczema that was going to require different medication. He also said that the Melatonion we had been giving her to help her get to sleep could be exacerbating the problem. So, now we have to stop the one thing that gets us any sleep. He had nothing in particular to offer in regards to the sleep, but he knew we were going to see a therapist and he certainly thought that was a good idea.

We saw the Play therapist today. We are desperate for anything that will help for (S) and us to get a good night sleep. One interesting thing was that there were loads of toys in this woman's office and the first thing that (S) did was go to the dollhouse and put all the dolls into the beds. That's one of those things that make you go Hmmmmmm.

(S) stopped seeing her parents the beginning of January and a few weeks after is when things started to get real bad. She stopped trying to toilet train and she started talking "baby talk" whenever you discipline her. Her sleeping was still getting worse and there seemed to be no relief. Anyway, the therapist said that this is likely a thing called "regression in the service of the ego". I had never heard that term before, but after her explanation, it seemed to make sense. She said that when a child goes through something that is quite stressful and then the stress is relieved they will regress to some point either before the stress began or as far back as they can remember and then start moving forward again. She feels that when it became obvious that she was not seeing her parents anymore that relieved her of all the stress associated with the visits and fear of what might happen when she sees them. Since she was comfortable with us, this regression wnet back to where she was when she first took notice of what was happening in her household. I don't understand all the whys and wherefores, but what I do know is we are optimistivc that the therapist will be able to help. It won't be soon enough for us as we are desperate for sleep, but as I have always been told, "patience is a virtue"