grace'smom Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 My daughter is pretty anxious, she's had sensory issues in the past but has improved enough to drop therapy. Plus we just can't afford it anymore. She's been waking up at about 3/4 am several times a week for the past few months with nightmares about witches, etc. No return to sleep. I'm a caffeinated nightmare mess of exhaustion and I'm actually starting to slur my speech in the evening from lack of sleep. We tried telling her if she got up she had to take a nap that day. At that point we thought it was an issue of her just waking up for fun. She stopped coming into my room after that for a few weeks. Then she told me she is still waking up with the nightmares but is afraid to come in my room because I'll be mad and make her take a nap. So I told her she could come and get me if she needed to... Now we are back to the same old thing. I cried this morning b/c I had to get up again and I don't know how much longer I can take it. She pretty much looks a wreck too. Big purple spots under her eyes. Anyone got any advice for us? I've thought of melatonin but I am not sure if it would help for that. Doesn't that help kids fall asleep but not so much with the "stay" asleep? The dreams are about witches, or someone trying to take her away from us, or someone trying to take us away from her. Some variation on that. I'm considering taking away TV because I am wondering if she is getting ideas from that... Even Max and Ruby can be scary sometimes in her mind. Even commercials can have "scary" music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asta Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 I'd take her in for a neuro consult. Until I got my seizure meds straight, I woke up at 3 am (almost on the dot) with paralyzing fear for years. I still remember having those "I'm being taken away" dreams from childhood. a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grace'smom Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 Was there any other sign of seizures? What should I be looking for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asta Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 The one really good thing about pediatric neurology is that it is all pretty established. Docs can run a couple of tests and pretty definitively say "yep, it's X, or nope, it's just the chocolate, LOL." Adult neurology is like a needle in the ocean... In kids, noticeable signs of seizures tend to be "spaciness" (it can be brief or prolonged), wetting (bed or not), significant clenching of teeth (people don't always bite their mouth in their sleep, sometimes they just clench to the point of breaking a tooth), "epigastric rising" (kind of like heartburn, but pukey), vomiting, migraine out of nowhere, going absolutely still, going jello-y, going stiff, looking shaky like they do in the movies (this is rarer than you think)... and then the ones no one ever thinks about: a hand twitching. A thumb twitching. A foot. You see? Most of it is so subtle, that if you're not just sitting and staring at your kid, you'll never see it. And so much of it can be attributed to other things that it is usually better to just notate anything that seems "off" for *your* kid (eg: a hyper kid suddenly just sits and starts picking lint off of their shirt). HTH a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grace'smom Posted December 20, 2009 Author Share Posted December 20, 2009 Thanks Asta, I'll start looking to see if I see any of those signs. Hopefully I will be alert enough to see them, LOL! I'm also going to try a tip from another friend- she said if it's just nightmares you can wake them up at 10 pm and interrupt the sleep cycle, then they won't have nightmares. Sounds odd, but I'd try just about anything right now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paz Posted December 20, 2009 Share Posted December 20, 2009 My dd sleeps much better when she takes magnesium at night. She takes a powdered one that she adds to water and drinks before bed. http://www.betterhealthinternational.com/productCategorydetails.asp?brandID=41&startIndex=1&endIndex=80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 You can get some time released Melatonin that might help her STAY asleep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grace'smom Posted December 21, 2009 Author Share Posted December 21, 2009 Someone told me to wake her up at 10 PM every night to break her sleep cycle. I tried that last night and she didn't wake up with nightmares. Also, there was the added bonus that she did not pee in her nighttime pants b/c I had her go to the potty. Of course, my body woke up in alarm at 5 am like I was wondering why she hadn't showed up in my room yet, LOL. Hopefully tonight we can repeat the process and both get some restful sleep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 My dd5 used to wake up with night terrors every night around 12 or 1. We figured out it was just because she needed to go to the bathroom. So like someone else suggested, I started getting her up and taking her to the bathroom before I went to bed, and the screaming wake-up sessions pretty much ended. Now she is better about waking fully when it is time to go to the bathroom and so she doesn't have this issue anymore. :grouphug: Hope you figure it out soon! It can be so frustrating for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jensway Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 My son had really bad night terrors when he was very young, usually between 12-1 am. So we started waking him up around 11pm taking him to bathroom maybe a quick drink of water and back to bed that this helped out tremendously with the night terrors. They either didn't happen or he was much easier to wake if it happened. Now my son takes 1.5 mg. of melatonin to help him get to sleep. He's usually not a mid sleep waker, only on occasion. Much harder for him to get to sleep. Here's hoping for a restful, peaceful nights sleep for the both of you! :001_smile: That coming from a past continually sleep deprived mom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kamelia23 Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 I thought maybe some of y’all might have some suggestions about this: Will is 4 ½ months old now. He started sleeping through the night (most nights) at about 8 weeks, although it may have only been to 4 or 5-something in the morning. The week after Thanksgiving he started waking up once in the middle of the night to nurse. I think it may have been a growth spurt or maybe because the holiday and traveling disrupted his normal routine. It only lasted about a week and he started sleeping all night again. The first week in January we moved Will from the cradle in our room to the crib in his room. The first 2 nights he slept fine, but ever since then he has been waking up at night again. For the past 3 weeks he has been waking up once a night- usually sometime between midnight and 3 AM to nurse. There were two days last week that he slept all night, so I thought he had gone back to normal. But now (for the last few days) he has started waking up twice every night to nurse. Does anyone have any ideas about what could be causing this or if there are any ways to help him sleep longer at night? I don’t like the idea of letting him “cry it out†or a lot of the other “sleep training†methods I’ve read about online. Also, several people mentioned that we should give him rice cereal in a bottle. We don’t want to try that. Everything I’ve read about doing that online and in books says this is a bad idea. I wonder if he has had too many changes all at once... I quit my job to stay home, we changed his sleeping arrangements and we had company at Christmas / New Years. Also, his diet has changed because while I was working I had to mix some formula in with his bottles during the day while I was away from him because I could not pump enough. Now, he nursed almost exclusively and almost never has a bottle. Also, another problem- I can’t get him to nap during the day. He will sometimes take a very short nap right after he has been fed. Usually the absolute most he will nap during a day is an hour total. There have been days where he hasn’t taken a nap at all. The handout from our pediatrician said that babies his age nap 4 to 6 hours a day. I’m worried he isn’t getting enough sleep and that this isn’t healthy. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get him to nap more? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asta Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Baby Sling. And move the cradle back. a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grace'smom Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 Is he cranky during the day, or does he seem OK and just not tired? I have heard that there are rare babies that do not need daytime naps. I've never seen one, but I have heard they exist;) Have you ever read "Good Night, Sleep Tight: Helping Your Baby Sleep Through the Night?" That's a good book if you are set on having the baby in his own room. It does not advocate a cry it out approach or get tough approach in any way, but it does help you figure out how to get the baby or child to sleep on their own. It's sort of a middle of the road approach to the whole bedtime arrangement thing. It was a lifesaver for me b/c I wanted to keep Grace in our room, sleeping well or not, but my husband was completely against it and his mind could not be changed. He's not like that normally, but this was a big deal for him. So we moved our daughter into a bedroom at that age, and she actually slept better in there than she did with me b/c she was not woken at every little toss and turn someone else had. However, she had sensory issues. Also, we used something called "The Miracle Blanket" that she could not sleep without. It's a swaddle thing. That being said, my daughter woke up to nurse in the middle of the night until she was one. And she was the same as your son. She started sleeping through the night about 8 weeks, and I thought I was lucky, then a couple months later that was all over and I learned what sleep deprivation means. The lactation consultant where I was going to a breastfeeding support group said some babies do that. You think you've got a good sleeper, then all the sudden you don't. It's pretty common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AussieClassic Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 I had success with my 4 yr old (night terrors) and 8 yr old (sleepwalking) using advice from Ferber's book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems. Incidentally, he also recommends waking them before you go to bed and taking them to the bathroom to solve the night terrors - worked for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oceandaughter Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 At that age, baby should be waking to nurse. I'd be worried about a4 month old who slept through the night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlgbug Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 my nephew is 3 and autistic. he was waking at 3-4 am every morning, my sister would just cry. he isnt verbal yet and couldnt tell her what was wrong. they went to a neuro and everything is fine...they tried melatonin but he falls asleep fine. my 2 wake ever 2-3 hours ALL NIGHT. hear on the sleep deprivation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.