My dd turned two last month, and she's never slept more than two hours at a time. Ever. We've gone back and forth from co-sleeping, just having her in my room, sleeping with her older sister, sleeping alone. Nothing changes.
Our paediatrician thinks she has some sort of sensory processing disorder. She's also diagnosed as having a seizure disorder, although she does not take any medication for this, and has not seized in over a year.
She had GERD as an infant, and was on various medications up until the age of twelve months. She was failure to thrive initially, but caught up quickly.
To the point: her lack of sleep at night has taken an enormous toll on my ability to parent. I have limited to no supports in place, I'm a single mother working as a trauma/emerg nurse. The necessity of me getting a decent nights sleep can not be stressed enough.
I have tried everything - cutting out naps, limiting naps, letting her sleep whenever for however long, taking her out to play two or three times a day to 'wear her out', keeping her up late at night, putting her to bed early - and everything in between.
The problem is not that I mind getting up early (I don't - dd is up by 4:30 most mornings) or getting up at night (she is up three to four times, often staying up for a total of two hours) - it is the combination of the two.
Being up every 1.5 - 2 hours, her staying up (usually playing and laughing, occasionally whining and screaming - she is not hungry, thirsty, wet or in distress; she is just awake) and then the necessity of being awake at 4 or 4:30 has finally caught up with me.
I honestly, truly think I'm on the verge of a total breakdown here. Last night I was in hysterical tears in the bathroom because I was honestly afraid I was going to spank her, in an effort to just.get.her.to.stop.
I need to sleep. My older dd (who is seven) is suffering as well. She hears all of this at night, even though there is a noise machine in her room, and it is upsetting and draining to listen to all this carry on at night. Plus I'm no where near my usual performance as a parent.
The house is falling apart, my job performance is suffering, I'm yelling and short tempered with the kids during the day.
I need help.
I'm posting here in hopes that someone has an 'aha!' type suggestion. In no way am I adverse to medicating her at this point. She has to sleep, she is tired during the day, and is in general an extremely destructive, active, very rough child.
She hits and bites and pinches. She does not play independently, and her attention span for playing with others (such as myself) is very limited. She will occasionally sit and look at books, but this is infrequent. She is rough to animals and her sister, and when she's awake, all my time is spent re-directing her and attempting to stop her from 'seek and destroy'.
She is limited verbally, which leads to lots of screaming. She has about 15 words, babbles a lot and has excellent cognition. Just poor expressive abilities.
I love her very much, but she is truly draining the very last resources I have to parent her peacefully.
*UPDATE*
I never, ever, never, ever would have believed it.
Now, I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, but just with the addition of the fish oil, cutting the melatonin in half, and giving her a weighted blanket - we're seeing night waking (already - less than a week with all three) literally cut in half. She slept till 6 AM this morning (has NEVER happened before) and actually woke up smiling, as opposed to screaming.
As a side note - we saw the biggest difference after adding a large daily dose of fish oil (Nutra Sea is what I have)... anyone know the mechanism of action here? I don't understand why this would make a difference
We're in the middle of cutting out dairy and identifying other potential intolerances or allergies. I'm hoping to see an even bigger leap at that point.
Thank you immeasurably. I really can't express how much of a difference this has made to our quality of life. Just feeling like we have some tools to use, information to work with... it's incredible. My appreciation goes beyond words.
Our paediatrician thinks she has some sort of sensory processing disorder. She's also diagnosed as having a seizure disorder, although she does not take any medication for this, and has not seized in over a year.
She had GERD as an infant, and was on various medications up until the age of twelve months. She was failure to thrive initially, but caught up quickly.
To the point: her lack of sleep at night has taken an enormous toll on my ability to parent. I have limited to no supports in place, I'm a single mother working as a trauma/emerg nurse. The necessity of me getting a decent nights sleep can not be stressed enough.
I have tried everything - cutting out naps, limiting naps, letting her sleep whenever for however long, taking her out to play two or three times a day to 'wear her out', keeping her up late at night, putting her to bed early - and everything in between.
The problem is not that I mind getting up early (I don't - dd is up by 4:30 most mornings) or getting up at night (she is up three to four times, often staying up for a total of two hours) - it is the combination of the two.
Being up every 1.5 - 2 hours, her staying up (usually playing and laughing, occasionally whining and screaming - she is not hungry, thirsty, wet or in distress; she is just awake) and then the necessity of being awake at 4 or 4:30 has finally caught up with me.
I honestly, truly think I'm on the verge of a total breakdown here. Last night I was in hysterical tears in the bathroom because I was honestly afraid I was going to spank her, in an effort to just.get.her.to.stop.
I need to sleep. My older dd (who is seven) is suffering as well. She hears all of this at night, even though there is a noise machine in her room, and it is upsetting and draining to listen to all this carry on at night. Plus I'm no where near my usual performance as a parent.
The house is falling apart, my job performance is suffering, I'm yelling and short tempered with the kids during the day.
I need help.
I'm posting here in hopes that someone has an 'aha!' type suggestion. In no way am I adverse to medicating her at this point. She has to sleep, she is tired during the day, and is in general an extremely destructive, active, very rough child.
She hits and bites and pinches. She does not play independently, and her attention span for playing with others (such as myself) is very limited. She will occasionally sit and look at books, but this is infrequent. She is rough to animals and her sister, and when she's awake, all my time is spent re-directing her and attempting to stop her from 'seek and destroy'.
She is limited verbally, which leads to lots of screaming. She has about 15 words, babbles a lot and has excellent cognition. Just poor expressive abilities.
I love her very much, but she is truly draining the very last resources I have to parent her peacefully.
*UPDATE*
I never, ever, never, ever would have believed it.
Now, I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch, but just with the addition of the fish oil, cutting the melatonin in half, and giving her a weighted blanket - we're seeing night waking (already - less than a week with all three) literally cut in half. She slept till 6 AM this morning (has NEVER happened before) and actually woke up smiling, as opposed to screaming.
As a side note - we saw the biggest difference after adding a large daily dose of fish oil (Nutra Sea is what I have)... anyone know the mechanism of action here? I don't understand why this would make a difference
We're in the middle of cutting out dairy and identifying other potential intolerances or allergies. I'm hoping to see an even bigger leap at that point.
Thank you immeasurably. I really can't express how much of a difference this has made to our quality of life. Just feeling like we have some tools to use, information to work with... it's incredible. My appreciation goes beyond words.
.
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