Sleep

B's new "job" is definitely disturbing his sleep (and mine). He has been a bit of an erratic sleeper for a while. His usual pattern involved going to bed at 8 and loudly entertaining himself until close to 10 but then sleeping until 7:30 or 8. His naps were all over the board. He seemed to still need one (demonstrated by the fact that he'd crash sitting up in the late afternoons or anytime we were in the car longer than about 3 minutes). But, it was hard to get him to take it. I could usually rock him to sleep if I timed it just right and he'd sleep anywhere from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. A shorter nap seemed best.

In an effort to get as many therapy hours as we could, we didn't reserve time for a nap every day. He seemed to fall asleep fast and sleep better without one. He has really been all over the place these last couple of weeks though. He crashed for THREE hours last friday after a full week of his job. He has also fallen asleep late in the day (3:00, 5:00) and some other weird patterns. The worst part is that he has been waking up in the night again. He used to do this on a regular basis - practically every night. He doesn't cry but babbles, laughs, jumps and just generally makes a lot of noise for like TWO full hours. I am always afraid to turn off the monitor in case he does cry or say gets out of the crib (which he has never done). Ear tubes seemed to solve this. He pretty much stopped doing it after the surgery so we thought we had least had some evidence that he truly needed that procedure.

Apparently, sleep disturbances like these are really common in autism and some parents have it MUCH worse. There are kids who literally barely sleep at  night and keep the rest of the family up. The biomedical nurse that I saw suggested melatonin. Our pediatrician had also suggested that at one point when big bro. was having trouble adjusting to traveling. We have tried it 3 times. The first time was the day of the marathon nap and he was asleep in about 30 minutes - no way that would've happened otherwise. I thought we had found our miracle cure. But alas, he was awake in the night and up early. Same effect the second time. We tried it once more and it didn't seem to do anything at all. I'm not sure this is our answer. Maybe it needs to be used regularly or at a higher dose. Or maybe he just needs some time to get used to the new routine.

Add in a preschooler with a cold who (very pitifully) was up 3 times before midnight and you have one tired mama. I think I may have gotten about 4 hours of interrupted sleep last night. Before kids, I used to consider sleep my super power. I fell asleep quickly, could sleep 10/11 hours and STILL take a long nap. That all changed the day my first baby was born. I went for 2 days without being able to sleep until the nurse at the hospital insisted I take a sleeping pill (which still didn't work). All through infancy, I was never good at sleeping when the baby slept with either of my kids. I had a hard time falling asleep when I didn't know how long it was going to be before I had to get up again. I was never one to doze off while feeding the baby or to do it all in a dream-like state. I was up for a long while after most feedings. As they've gotten older, I have that same problem with falling back asleep if I hear them on the monitor. I lie awake the full 2 hours listening to B and turning on the video when it's quiet to see if he's asleep. And sometimes, my mind gets turning and I'm awake much longer than he is. I never knew sleep deprivation could last this long. I know I'm not alone though - I simply joined the ranks of sleepless parents everywhere. I'll sleep when they're grown... maybe.