Grrrrr!!! They're still awake at 11:30!
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| Sun, 07-16-2006 - 2:51am |
Well, after my big post about David's weird bedtime/waking stuff...things have taken a turn for the worst.
It's 11:30 pm, and both boys are still awake, giggling loudly. I've told them that if I hear any more voices and loud thumps, then they won't have computer games tomorrow. I know that's kind of a dumb threat, because there's no connection, and when they can't sleep, it's too hard for them to just lie there and be quiet. But man, 11:30? Believe me, if we could have afforded a 3 bedroom house we would have bought it, but DH is only an educated, highly experienced engineer in the computer industry in Silicon Valley, so we have to make due with 2 bedrooms. So, if one of them gets giggly or talkative, it quickly degrades into total chaos.
About an hour ago, Nathan was generally "wakey", and David was doing his obnoxious shouting stuff. When one of them can't sleep, I put that one in my room with a book so the other can fall asleep undisturbed. This time I had to separated them and let them both look at books. (They can't just look at books in their shared room, because they get too silly.) DH is wearing thin from lack of sleep, because he has to get up at 6 to go to work. The boys have been sleeping in until almost 8, but I can't bring myself to get up and wake them earlier than that.
We have a neighbor with an almost 5 year old and a 1.5 year old, and both her kids are asleep at 7:30. And here I am at almost midnight, and it's just gone quiet.
BTW, does anyone know how much melatonin is appropriate for a 45 pound 8 year old? I give him 250 mcg before toothbrushing time, and it was working so well.
Evelyn

Hi Evelyn,
Is it every night or just last night? What wired them up? Is this because it's summer and schedule is looser? Are they participating in structured activity such as school or camp this summer, or just hanging out? They may not be getting enough deep muscle activity. Take them swimming all day, push large loads of bricks up and down hills?
The 2 bedroom thing -- any way you can use tall bookshelves to build them cubbies or a dividing wall? Curtains? I would maybe try to find a way to more physically divide the sleeping space so they have to go into separate areas to sleep and can't see each other. Maybe get white noise machine so sound is dulled, too. Do you use blackout blinds on the windows? Really making the sleeping space dark and cozy and quiet sure does help our ds sleep. 'Course, Malcolm HAS no disruptive younger borther to help keep him wired up and awake, a fact he uses often to prove to me that I have RUINED his life...
Malcolm has a loft bed, cozy cuddle animals, a heavy cotton quilt, blackout blinds, a fan which both provides the white noise and moves air up there. There is a little night light, but it gets dark in there at bedtime. We did build his room out of an open space with tall bookcases from IKEA, which are full of his toys and books, that's why I think of it. Eventually we need to actually put a door on it, at the moment he just has a draw curtain...
My guess is they need to get alot more tired from what is going on all day, if I remember correctly, these boys are hard to get to do physical things, right? At this point, I'd be taking ds to beach early in AM and staying all day. He'd sleep...
Good luck.
Sara
ilovemalcolm
Evelyn,
Bedtime can be rough!
We live in a cape with 2 bedrooms up and 2 down. However, we do not want to be on a separate floor from the kids, so Michael and Sean share a bedroom. We use this to our advantage - since it is easier to read to the boys together. My DH reads Harry Potter to the boys every night with the flashlight. It's perfect because they ar not sitting up every minute to see pictures. And we are BIG Harry Potter fans. Sean is the one who really fights going to sleep - but I think that pretty normal for 3. Michael sometimes rolls around a lot. DH reads to them until they go asleep - or at least until Michael is - because, amazingly, Sean does not get out of his bed once he is in it. If they are uncooperative, DH threatens not to read and it usually works.
I have friends that say you should be able to leave the room while they are still awake. We do what works for us. It works most nights, but we have all been through the long wired nights. Paul has also read The Princess Bride or any other novels without pictures, however, Harry works best and DH loves Harry. He must have read the whole seriew twice since the last book. The best part of our ritual is that the kids are going to always remember how cool Daddy was reading to them with the flashlight.
One disadvantage - I often find Paul laying across the boys beds snoring. It relaxes him too!!! LOL.
Kate McC
Michael (5)
Sean (3)
My understanding is you can go up to the full 3mg. You may want to at least double it to 500mcg and see if that helps and go up from there.
Another thing that helps is 5HTP with sleep. It was recomended for my friend to give it to her son when melatonin didn't work for him and it helps him sleep wonderfully. 5HTP doesn't really make Mike sleepy but it does help him settle enough to go to sleep naturally.
Renee