Back in our bed

[Guest guest]

The Fascinating Saga of Sara's Sleepless Nights...

Our ped convinced me that we needed to try sleeping Mikey in his own bed.

He needed to fall asleep in the bed and be taken back to his bed each time

he got out of it. We did this for a week.

Every night, it took him longer to go to sleep, even with increased

medication. (We got up to 2tsp, the maximum dose for his weight; his

initial dose was 1/2tsp.) Each night he slept progressively fewer total

hours. Naptimes were awful; he was exhausted & NEEDED a nap but fought it

with everything he had, until it was too late for a nap & when he finally

fell asleep I had to wake him up after 15 minutes, knowing that if I let him

sleep then, it would be hours and hours before he would go to bed. Finally,

last Thursday night, he only slept 3 hours, and the medication had no

apparent effect on him.

We scrapped the idea & brought him back into our bed. I think he was back

in our room Friday night.

Starting Saturday night, every night he has TAKEN ME TO THE BEDROOM, laid

himself down, squirmed around for 15 minutes or so, and gone to sleep. This

is the first time since he was about 5 months old that he is falling asleep

IN BED. I don't have to do anything but I do have to be there. The first

night he got quite upset when I went to get Gabe, but when I came back we

all went to sleep in the bed together. Supplements, diapers, pj's, feed the

critters, and Mikey's leading me back to the bedroom. I have learned to

snag Gabe on the way back. 10-20 minutes later, they are both asleep. (We

need to work brushing teeth in there...)

The first night back in our bed he slept 11 hours. The night before last he

was up at 4; I discovered later that day his penis was hurting him, and with

Motrin last night he slept fine - 10p to 7:30am, when Gabe WOKE HIM UP

crying. What's that, almost 10 hours? And NO MEDS!

I think the thing that is driving me most nuts is -- I have NO IDEA WHY. He

wasn't sleeping in our bed before; he would NEVER have fallen asleep IN THE

BED before...and now, magically, he is falling asleep in bed and sleeping 10

hours a night.

There are two things I can think of that we changed. One is switching from

time-release melatonin to non-time-release; that in the last week. The

other is we started him on DHA about a month ago. I have seen definite

improvements with that, and I can tell if I forget it for a day or two. I

know it is supposed to improve sleep.

Oh there is one other thing -- we got the trampoline. And the weighted

blanket, which he has not wanted to use in our bed. I should unfold it - I

have it folded in half - maybe it's too much.

Hmmmmmm...

I am feeling much more sane (saner?) and the house is looking quite a bit

better...We are still not doing much besides watching videos all day, but as

I catch up with the house, that should improve too...

Thanks for listening.

-Sara.

wife to Matt

SAHM to nurslings

Mikey, 9/14/99, Autism, and

Gabe, born at home 5/17/01, GERD

http://home.earthlink.net/~thebyks