Little Bug's quality of sleep has sucked more so than usual recently. The way I explain it to people is that, as far as sleeping through the night goes, we still have a baby- a very big and mobile baby, but a baby none the less. He wants to be cuddled and soothed and rocked. He wants to be close to you so he can twirl your hair. He wakes up crying. It is exhausting.
I wish there was something we could do. We are trying the weighted blanket, and while it helps him sleep deeper when he uses it, he often takes it off. It seems like he can only tolerate it for a couple hours at a time and then wants it off. He is still sleep talking and crawling. Not quite sure what to do about that- I guess, there really isn't a whole lot we can do.
We heard from his OT yesterday. She had faxed his treatment plan to our pediatrician's office twice, but didn't receive a response. When I called his office, we were told they didn't get anything and that he goes on vacation for two weeks as of Friday. So DN and Little Bug are going to to pick it up and take it to his office.
Hopefully, once we get that rolling, we can address his sleep issues. We are really reluctant to do any medicinal interventions, so we are hoping that we can help him in other ways. Till then, we will continue to be zombies- formerly known as his parents.
2 comments:
Blake - I've been polling about everybody I talk to lately about this because I'm really curious. Has anyone suggested giving him melatonin?
We don't use it, but we haven't had to either. We went through the literal waking nightmare of non-sleep for the first 16 months of his life but then it pretty much cured itself through some behavioral work and setting a consistent and rigid bedtime routine. Given the stories I hear about sleep issues, as awful as it was for us, I'm starting to feel lucky.
I know that a bunch of the parents I talk to use melatonin for sleep regulation in their autistic kids. Of all the medication-oriented treatments I hear people try - many of which unnerve me some - this seems like the lowest-risk, least-invasive thing to try.
Dunno. I'm reluctant to use meds unless absolutely necessary, but the complete exhaustion of the entire household could qualify for sure.
Thanks Tim for the suggestion. It has been rattling around in my sleep deprived brain and we are going to talk to the doctor about it, but like you, we are *really* reluctant to introduce supplements and meds
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