Saturday, June 19, 2010
OK, so I know I've talked to you all before about Lucas's lack of sleep but it has really gotten bad over the last few weeks. He's been waking up at 7:00 a.m., taking a 5-15 minute nap throughout the day, and absolutely refusing to go to sleep until 2:30 in the morning. It used to only happen when he was sick, going through growth spurts, teething, or something else that he couldn't deal with but now its everyday!
Over the last three days, I've gotten 9 hours of sleep! I am utterly, feeling like I'm gonna die, EXHAUSTED!
Yesterday we trotted off to the pediatricians office again. As a result of the lack of sleep Lucas gets sick very often! He's had pneumonia three times since December. I noticed the running nose, coughing and malaise so I took him over to make sure that there was no wheezing going on that I couldn't hear. The doctor didn't notice any fluid but saw that one of the tubes in his ears came out, (UGGG, another procedure!), and agreed that this poor boy needs to rest! He's scheduled a sleep study at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and until then told me to try Melatonin. Anyhow, I told him I am game for anything that this little man needs to take to sleep. We tried it last night but there wasn't any major differences with him. He started him on 1mg. I'll try it for a few days and see if it helps him. I would love to hear from other Mom's that tried this to see if it worked for you or for that matter didn't.
I'm off to take a 5 minute, close my eyes so they don't burn out of my skull, nap.
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OMG! I don't want to jinx myself but shhhhhhh it's 10:30 p.m. and Lucas is sound asleep! I can't believe it. He has never gone to bed this early. I'll keep you posted on whether or not he stays asleep through the night.
The melatonin worked wonders in our house after months and months of no sleep for my little guy. He's 4 yrs old and we're up to 2mg/night. Now he sleeps more often than not, and when he does wake up he's easier to get back to sleep than before. We also did a sleep study when he was 2yrs old at Children's Hospital in Boston - they found abnormal brain blips while sleeping, but said it did not cause his night wakings (I still think that's baloney). This was before his ASD/SPD diagnosis, and then told me to just let him scream and cry and throw up and he'll learn. Luckily we didn't listen.
Good luck with the melatonin and the sleep study!
Alysia
www.trydefyinggravity.com
Sleep is a NEVER ending battle in our home. Miss Em is 2 and has NEVER slept normal...I don't remember the last time I got 8 consecutive hours of sleep, 6 would be a dream!
We have had a sleep study done which showed severe restlest leg so she is on a medication for that. They tried Trazadone against my better judgement and it had the reverse effet. They put Em on Meletonin about 8 months ago. We are up to 3mg. This has helped her fall asleep (unless she is having a particularly hard spd day) but has made little difference in her staying asleep. She is still waking several times a night.
THe sleep study I think is the best option, just to make sure there is nothing else going on! There is also some wiggle room with the dosage of meletonin.
Hope that helps!
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one going through this. Thank you both for responding.
We may need to up the dosage. He was up at 1:30 until 5:30. I just hate that our whole world revolves around this kids sleep schedule! I'm going to give him 1.5 mg tonight and see if that works any better.