Friday and Saturday night when I tried carrying him up to bed he woke up kicking and screaming and I couldn't put him in his room with his sister, because then she would wake up too. Friday night I tried putting him in bed with us (this was at 2:30 AM) he screamed and screamed until finally at 6:30 AM I took him back downstairs, turned on a movie for him, and he fell right to sleep. That's all he wanted I suppose, But I got next to nothing for sleep and thankfully my husband was able to roughly sleep through most of it, and got up with the kids in the morning.
Saturday, he woke up again as I was carrying him up the stairs, I tried putting him in his bed in his room this time and laying next to him in there until he calmed down, but he still screamed and then Analise started to cry. I took him out of the bedroom and thankfully, Ana went right back to sleep. I ended up letting him sleep with Steven and I AGAIN but this time, he DID sleep.
Sunday he stayed asleep while Steven carried him up the stairs and I guess he didn't even want to risk trying to put him in his own bed and having to go through another tantrum so he went straight into bed with us no questions asked and we went to bed.
Tonight, Matthew wouldn't even fall asleep on the couch. It's now 10:41 PM here, he's had his melatonin (which, by the way, I'm considering stopping all together - more on that later) and still, nothing other than a very tired, reluctant little boy. I carried him up the stairs to our bedroom thinking that he would be okay knowing he could sleep with us in our bed, but that was not the case. He did NOT want to go to bed, and he pulled on my hand to let me know that he wanted to go back down stairs.
Steven has to be at work very early in the morning so I wasn't going to just let him scream all night again. I walked with him downstairs and now he's laying on the couch, watching Shrek, and I'm sitting here, writing this blog entry.
In August we'll be having our 3rd child which will make this situation even more unacceptable. I wish I knew or understood why he didn't want to go to sleep. I know it's normal for kids his age to fight sleep and want to stay up but I can't even reason with him because he does not talk! I would try just putting him in his bedroom and waiting it out but that's clearly out of the question. Something has to happen and fast! I'm at my wits end and I need my sleep too! (and as mean as it may sound, I'm tired of sharing my bed with my 4 year old every single night!)
My husband came up with this idea to just get Matt a larger bed and put a TV in their bedroom and we can all just watch TV up there during our "wind down" time so that when Matthew falls asleep, he wont have to be moved, and Ana could just as easily be moved to her crib. We could then turn the TV off and head to our own bed. That sounds like a fantastic idea to me! I just really hope it works! we need something to work.
I know that I'm not the only parent who has A child with Autism who has had the problem with sleeping at night. This is why the Melatonin is so often suggested and used with our children, but I'm starting to wonder if this could lead to dependence? Matthew seems to have developed a tolerance to the Melatonin and I know that if I were to take him off of it, he would have significantly less of it in his system at night than he has been used to lately, which could possibly lead to more problems with his falling asleep. My question is, will the body start to rely solely on the Melatonin supplements for the production of the melatonin and stop creating it by itself all together? Will my son have to rely solely on melatonin supplements to fall asleep at night even after he's grown if we keep this up?
If there are any other parents out there who have a child with autism and has or is going through something similar to this please send me your advice!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is high functioning autism...it's no where near the same as those who aren't as functioning. I understand your trials, we had some very difficult times and still do, she's 12. But I want to be clear that parents of children who are high functioning have it easy.
Fortunately, we never had to give our child any medications, though nearly everyone who knew our daughter (dr's, teachers, church, etc) told us we should.
I'd recommend that you do as much research as you can online...I know you don't have time but do your best to study it. Whatever you decide, keep your son's needs above your own and you will make the right decision. Hang in there, thanks for blogging.