Just a quick entry, I hope, because again it's past 1a. :( Last night, Nikko had his mini-meltdown before bed, but slept until 6:30a. Ronin, on the other hand, woke up at 3a and was calling out for me. I tried to ignore his cries for a few minutes, and they were pretty loud, but then I heard him wail, "Mommy, where are you? Open the door, Mommy! Open the door!" And my heart just broke hearing that. I got up and walked in. He met me at the door and said, "I want to play." "No, it's 3am. Go back to bed." He jumped into bed and drifted off. I think I adjusted his blankets, turned and left. He didn't cry after me or follow, thank goodness. It totally broke my heart to hear his voice, can't explain it. How the heck am I supposed to ignore those cries??
Tonight, I put half a crushed tablet of melatonin in Nikko's juice and gave it to him at 8:11p. He finished it, and after I put Audrey down I was keeping an eye on Nikko to see if he'd get tired. I've heard one should give it 30 minutes before sleep time. But it was 9p, he was out of the bath and no signs of sleepiness. When it was tuck-in time, Nikko was drowsy but he also had an eye on me. When I got up to turn on his CD, he sat up in bed, alert. I sat with him until his eyes got heavy and he fell asleep, but I'm wondering if I should give him the melatonin earlier, like 8p instead.
We use melatonin sparingly in our house for Sean. We also give Sean seratonin (which is the natural form of 5 HTP)which helps the body to already produce melatonin on his own, so that's why we use the melatonin sparingly. Melatonin will help you fall asleep, but it does not make you *stay* asleep. Here's a link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/tc/melatonin-overview
Please let me know if you ever need help in regards to questions about the melatonin. I have talked with our holistic dr from the Autism Society of Illinois and they've pretty much given me lots of answers about the effects of melatonin.