NOTE: Andrew had a very stressful start. I don't want to go over all that again, but if you want to know the details of our journey with adopting him you can read about it by clicking on these links:
SAM HAS SOMETHING TO TELL YOU
AND THE PROCESS BEGINS AGAIN
PAPERWORK
GETTING CLOSER
WAITING ON BABY
OUR HEATS ARE BROKEN
AND WE GO UP AGAIN
OUR SONS
THE FINAL ADOPTION IS FINAL
Back to our SLEEPING problem. I say OUR because, it is affecting ALL of us.
Richard and I are taking turns sleeping in Andrew's room so right now we are ships passing in the night. Sam is jealous that Andrew has a sleeping buddy, so on the weekends we let him sleep in the big bed with the parent that is not with Andrew. The cats keep looking for us and MEOW very loudly ALL NIGHT and the dog has decided he needs to go to the bathroom at 2:00 a.m.
With everyone moving around so much, this book definitely reflects our life right now.
Sam really spoiled us. At 4 months he was sleeping (12 hours) through the night and he would take 2 (2 hour) naps during the day. He continued to take an afternoon nap until he was 5 years old.
Then Andrew came along and although we knew we would be tired, we thought after a few months we'll be back to sleeping through the night again.
WRONG!!
The longer we had to hold him to get him to go to sleep and the more laps we did around our coffee table and and the more cups of coffee we drank and the more months that went by and the more night terrors we lived through.....we realized this was something else.
We have tried EVERYTHING to get Andrew to sleep: therapy (OT, PT, SPEECH), CIO, walking, nap, no nap, bottle, no bottle, rocking, night time diapers, essential oils, singing, lavender, sound machine, no sound machine, melatonin, warmer clothes, lighter clothes, light and no light.
So, of all this stuff, we give him a short nap (1 1/2 hours) around 11:00 a.m., melatonin, keep the room cool, put him in a night time diaper, have a plug-in with lavender, have the sound machine set with white noise and don't have any light on.
Andrew has been receiving services (because he was exposed to heroine) for OT, PT and SPEECH since he was three months old. He has met all the developmental levels except for being a little speech delayed (which is now coming a long a lot quicker) and NOT SLEEPING.
We have recently signed up (3 month wait) to have him evaluated for AUTISM, bought LULLY (a little machine that vibrates), a WEIGHTED BLANKET and consulting with doctors at the SLEEP CLINIC,
No one we have consulted with seems to feel Andrew has any level of AUTISM, but I want to rule it out. We are not sure if the LULLY is having any affect, but it doesn't seem to be hurting things either. The weighted blanket seems to help (sometimes) calm him quicker and even fends off fears climbing to a fever pitch. The screaming NIGHT TERRORS seem to have lessened some too.
The DR at the sleep center has had us go back to NO LIGHT on in the room and no communicating or touching when he is having a NIGHT TERROR. She said that language development happens in the first hours of sleep and if that is not good sleep, it could contribute to his speech delay.
The DR also had us get Andrew's blood tested for an IRON deficiency. Anything below a ferritin level of 50 is considered low. Andrew was a 9! The DR said this could be contributing to all the unsettledness and leg movements he experiences at night. It could be what wakes him too. We are now giving him an iron supplement (and watching for constipation...yah...), but this could take a few months to change his levels.
The next thing is the SLEEP STUDY on February 1st. Richard will be sleeping over at the clinic with Andrew, while they hook him up and watch his brain waves. That should be fun.
The good news....it doesn't seem to be affecting his happy demeanor during the day at all. He understands everything you are telling him and he loves to be silly and make us laugh.
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