By two months of age Alyssa was sleeping through the night, and by three months of age Ryan had gotten himself into a pretty predictable sleep schedule. You know, I really, really miss those days… Now everything is all topsy-turvy, and I swear I’m ready to chloroform everyone in sight, myself included.
Ryan’s sleeping issues have been ongoing. They started in the fall of 2007, when some of the symptoms/issues related to his autism began to rear their ugly head. He rocks. A lot. He rocks to the point of bald spots (he has two) and callouses/fluid filled cysts on his spine (one large one, several small ones beneath it). He used to sit against the wall and rock that way, but after he damaged the wall and we got on him, he is now rocking against the side of his bed. This is almost worse, because while it’s not damaging the wall, the force of the bed hitting the wall is vibrating a good chunk of the house.
Anyway, over the past two months his sleeping has really gotten out of hand. Despite a normal routine and normal activities throughout the day, and us doing our best to keep things quiet later in the evening, before bedtime, he would just NOT go to bed. He would be so tired that he would fall asleep on the couch in the living room or against the side of his bed in his bedroom, but once he was put into bed he would pop back up again. It got so bad that he would be put to bed around 9pm, sometimes 9:30pm, but he would rock for hours. He literally would not fall asleep until at least 2am. And then he would be back up in the morning by 9:30am, cranky and whiny but too dumb to go back to sleep. And nap times were a similar horror.
At some point in February we started him on Melatonin. We would cut a pill into thirds and crush a third of it, and then mix it into applesauce and get Ryan to take it. It seemed to help, but not much. Meanwhile, we were going night after night of listening to and feeling him rock anywhere from two to five HOURS, and him still getting up early the next morning after only five to eight hours of sleep.
So I decided to try liquid Melatonin. From what I have read, it is often more “potent”, and it kicks in quicker. He has been on it now for a little over two weeks, and overall he seems to be doing well. For the first week he would be ready for bed no later than 9pm. Most evenings he would receive his dose by 8:15pm, start feeling sleepy around 8:30pm, and be asleep and IN bed, with absolutely no rocking, by 8:30pm – 8:45pm.
Now though, I don’t know what’s going on. The other night he was put to bed at 10 (an hour later because he napped later), but rocked until after 3am. Last night he was in bed at 8:45pm, but rocked until 11pm. He rocked some more off and on until about 2am, when I gave up and went to bed. And of course he was up this morning by 9:45am.
Alyssa is also having some sleep issues, though in her case I think it’s more about nightmares or night terrors. She insists of having a night light to go to sleep with, in fact we even switched out her night stand’s lamp bulb with a very dim and small 25 watt one. We leave the door open, and we make sure at least one cat and perhaps even the dog is in there with her. She will go to sleep… but then she pops up between 3am and 5am and crawls into bed with us. This has been a nightly issue now for over a week.
Is a good night’s sleep too much to ask? What the hell is wrong with these kids?! Seriously, my frustration level is so high right now. I would give anything to get away for a few days!
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My name is Jenn, and I'm 27 years old. I'm happily married to my best friend and soulmate, Daniel. Together we have a six year old daughter named 
Name: Alyssa
Name: Ryan
