There are some things in life that are just so horrible at the time, that it takes weeks to fully recover and be able to blog about them again, with the appropriate sense of humor, of course. I recently experienced such an event and only now feel like enough time has passed to really find it funny.Here's what happened.......
Cole turned 4 at the end of August and that's when the trouble started. About a week after his birthday, he just stopped sleeping, really. He wouldn't refuse to go to bed, he just started getting up ALL NIGHT LONG. I mean, we are talking 9-11 times a night. Sometimes he would make up excuses and ask for silly things as an explanation of why he was up. Other times he would just stand at the bottom of the steps and whine. He never said he was scared or sick, he had simply turned into a little insomniac. This behavior was extremely puzzling to me because it came from out of nowhere. He has been sleeping in the same room, under the same circumstances for over 2 years and suddenly THIS!!! (Side Note: Of all my pet peeves, and I have 4, Regression, of any kind is my hardest to handle. It makes me absolutely insane if I know that someone is capable of something, but they stop doing it...grrr....)
This went on for 18 nights straight. Yes, I said 18! Even after the first few nights, I was crazy. And obviously if we aren't getting any sleep during the night, you can imagine how BOTH of our behavior was during the day. That's all I'll say about that......
Rob's answer was for me to ignore him and put in earplugs. Let me just say this about Rob, he is a Champion Sleeper. If sleeping was an Olympic Sport, he would medal in all three positions. Nothing can wake him, not even the sound of his own roaring, I mean snoring..... So, of course, it is easy for him to ignore. I, on the other hand, have the Mommy-Sense and so I hear EVERYTHING.
Rob's answer was for me to ignore him and put in earplugs. Let me just say this about Rob, he is a Champion Sleeper. If sleeping was an Olympic Sport, he would medal in all three positions. Nothing can wake him, not even the sound of his own roaring, I mean snoring..... So, of course, it is easy for him to ignore. I, on the other hand, have the Mommy-Sense and so I hear EVERYTHING.
I read several books on sleep behavior, talked to the pediatric nurse and tried several different techniques during this 18 night span, without much luck. Finally, we went in to the doctor with our sleep logs...that's right, I was keeping a log.....it was that bad. As expected, the doctor said that it was a phase (which we knew) and that Cole would just have to relearn to stay in his bed at night. Not that I wanted anything to be medically "wrong" with him, but if it was something (immediately) cureable, I would be open to a few choice syndromes.......We were about to leave, dejected and hopeless,when the doctor uttered the magic word....Melatonin, sweet, sweet Melatonin. A pill. A pill you say? You have a pill that might work for this? Give Me, Give Me, I Need, I Need!!
Here's the part where you can judge me and I won't care.....
It worked! We drugged that boy down and it worked! Yeah for Drugs! Natural or FDA approved. Give me a D-R-U-G-S, what does that spell? "RELIEF"!
We used the melatonin for a few weeks and it was very helpful. It seemed to get him back into a normal sleeping pattern. Cole still gets up once or twice a night to use the bathroom, but he doesn't cry, whine or hang around the bottom of the stairs. And that is good enough for me!
On a serious note (well, I'll try). Thank you to all of the friends and family that were extremely supportive during this incident. There were several motivational calls, suggestions and offers to keep kids and it really meant a lot.
