Getting Amy to bed

[pne]

Getting Amy to bed has been a pretty exhausting and time-consuming process recently; for example, today it took us about 45 minutes to get her to sleep.

What's especially frustrating about it for whoever tries to put her to sleep is that she'll often be on the brink of nodding off, but then resist—by wriggling, sitting up in her bed, or doing something else. Seeing her close her eyes and start to relax, only to jerk up again so you can start over again for another 8 minutes or so, is rather frustrating.

Leaving her alone in her bed is not a particularly good solution, either; she'll either come out several times complaining she "can't fall-a asleep", start playing in her room, or get up to mischief that she can do in her bed, such as ripping wallpaper off her wall. And in any event, she doesn't fall asleep in time for her to get the sleep she needs, leaving her cranky the next day.

*sigh* I wish children came with an on/off switch sometimes.

Comments

[arthur-sc-king.livejournal.com]

I can totally relate. We actually use melatonin (3 mg) to help our autistic 13-y-o daughter to get to sleep; otherwise, she'd literally stay awake until she collapsed. It helps the 15-y-o and the 11-y-o, too. I used to use it, but for the last few years I've been on a second anti-depressant chosen for its soporific qualities, trazodone.

Amy's too young to be experimenting with melatonin, but if she's still doing this at age 7 or more, it might be worth a shot.

I know when I was a kid, I didn't want to go to sleep 'cause it was boring. I'd much rather have been reading or watching TV (especially late-night news), even at age 3, than entering into a voluntary period of unconsciousness.

Remember, too, that time is relative. For me, at age 45, 8 hours of sleep is only 0.002% of my life. For a 2-year-old, it's 0.05% of her life; a much larger fraction, and therefore far more significant.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Stella's been saying that Amy might find it rewarding to learn to read, since then she could occupy herself by reading books in bed... she's not showing any particular inclination to yet, though.