A Success in Sleeping for Addison

Since the day he was born, and perhaps even before that, Addison did not like to sleep.
I know many parents say, "Oh, my child does not like sleep" or "It's so hard to get them to go to sleep"… and perhaps we share the same level of difficulty, but Addison, for us, was truly a special case.

Over time, we moved into and out of many phases of trying to find ways to get him comfortable with sleeping. Everything from car rides in the middle of the night, to even hiring a "Super Nanny" to help us learn the techniques that would "surely" get him to sleep in his room. (Guess what? It didn't work. He came out of his bedroom consistently from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., when the expert told us to put up a gate and let him scream; we gave up instead and put him in our bed.) We took him to doctors, worked through his phase of night terrors, we even went for a sleep study (those are fun for kids, yeah!) ….

In the end, we learned that the only way for Addison to sleep was for him to sleep on me (as an infant) or next to me (as a toddler.) To fall asleep, to stay asleep and to sleep well, he needed to be next to me.

Addison was always good for a nap in the car…problem was, when he slept - even just a few minutes - he would stay up as late as 10 p.m. that night. 

During one phase, when he was about 2 years old,  we put a single mattress on the floor of the nursery so either Fab or I could sleep while we held his hand. If, after Addison fell asleep, we would leave the room and he woke up to find us not there, chaos ensued. And he always woke up, because he was always worried that we would be gone.

Napping in our bed. 

Over time, Addison matured, but we were still having clear and very real problems with sleep, even as he turned 5 years old. At that point, he would fall asleep in his room, but only with us in our bedroom and his brother in the same bed, and only after he would fight his body's desire for sleep in any way he could. From walking the hall to playing with his toes to LITERALLY HOLDING HIS EYELIDS OPEN, he did everything he could. And while he struggled to stay awake, he was losing precious time his body needs to sleep, grow and recover from the day.

His favorite way to sleep ….

Now, Addison is about to turn 6. And we still struggle, nearly every night, to ensure he gets the amount of good sleep he needs. So, why do I share this now? Because, after almost 6 years of doing everything we could think of … after 6 years of watching a child not get the sleep he needs …  we tried something new and IT'S WORKING.

For the last week, Addison has stayed in bed - from the first time we put him in the room with Scarlet and Everett. He has fallen asleep in minutes, as opposed to hours. He has actually stayed in bed, rather than wake up and walk into our room in the middle of the night. He has gained, my best guess, between 1 and 2 hours of sleep each night.

So, what worked? Melatonin.

A little white supplement that he happily takes about 30 minutes before bed. Now, when we are at the end of our bedtime routine, he's rubbing his eyes and cozily snuggling into bed, rather than anxiously waiting for us to leave the room so he can follow. His brain is finally agreeing with his body - that he is tired, that it is night and it is time to sleep.

There's lots of studies on Melatonin and they are very mixed, everything from it does nothing to promote sleep to it providing a little value to it being a wonder for some people who struggled with sleep problems.

We're not the experts. I couldn't tell you why it works for one person and why it doesn't work for the next guy. But, here's what I can say:

For us, right now, it works perfectly. It works like nothing else has ever worked before. Addison has no side effects, is sleeping more every night, has no anxiety about going to sleep or worries about where we are in the house and we think … we think we are starting to see some positive changes in his daytime behavior.

It's been a week and we are hoping this will prove to be a long-lasting solution for Addison. So far, so good.