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Saturday, April 14, 2012

What IS your problem, anyway?

If I knew why G gets up out of bed multiple times a night, I would do something about it.  He doesn't have to use the potty.  He isn't crying in fear.  He doesn't even talk to me.  For all I know, he could be sleep-walking.  I am in such a fog of sleep-deprivation I really don't pay much attention to him as I walk him back to his room and cover him up.

I do all the stuff a parent is "supposed" to do to get a child to stay in his/her room.  We have a consistent bedtime routine, his room is inviting, I don't let him in my bed or lay in his bed, I walk him back to his room over and over and over again.

I have observed how he sleeps when he hasn't had a nap versus when he has had a nap---it makes no difference.  He actually seems to get up more during the night when he hasn't napped.  Since he is up for the day at 6:00 am, he simply can't make it until 8 or 8:30 without some kind of mid-day rest, especially since the nice weather is keeping us outside and active much of the time.

But I am about ready to resort to a frying pan upside the head to induce grogginess or duct taping his ass to his mattress.  My mood is very much tied to my sleep, so suffice it to say my antidepressant is having to work overtime all the time to keep my irritability in check.

I suggested to him last night that we do a Reward Chart whereby he gets a star if he stays in bed all night and a small toy after M-F of staying in bed.  Last night I think he got me up 3 times, so I'm not sure external motivators are his thing.  Lord knows, I hate charts but I am so desperate for uninterrupted sleep.

In my fog of grouchiness before my coffee kicked in, I searched and found some books that I have already reserved in an attempt to help me deal with G:  Sleepless in America and How To Raise Your Spirited Child, both by Mary Kurcinka.  


God, do I ever wish kids came with instructions tied to their toes when they popped out of the uterus.  

1 comment:

Keri said...

Have you tried making his bedtime earlier -- even to the point where it seems ridiculous? That's one trick I learned and used to much success (and have passed on to others who have had success with it as well) from my tried-and-true sleep book, the name of which escapes me at the moment. Wait a minute...no, it's still not coming. Anyway, it could be that he's overtired by the time you put him to bed and his body can't settle into deep sleep. If I remember correctly from the un-named book, the key is to put them to bed while they still seem alert and happy, which is quite counterintuitive, since that's the time when you want to enjoy them. Might be worth a shot to start moving bedtime back 15 minutes at a time, to see if that helps.