But tonight in my exhaustion I will talk because right now I am not sure which of the three is causing the trouble or are they all feeding each other. He is 2 1/2 which means life is a challenge for him and I. He is growing right now, I feel like I can almost see him getting taller everyday :)
For 10 months we have worked with an OT and DT to help handle the SPD and have made such progress. Then this last week and a half it seems to have all unraveled. I know that is not true, just a moment of fatigue and emotions. But for the last several nights it has taken almost 2 hours to get him to sleep. That is after bedtime routine.
Little man sleeps with a weighted blanket, we have a rocking chair and we have done all that. Sleep finally comes him swaddled in a 12 lb weighted blanket (on his 25 lb body) , me holding him against my body; pressure coming from me and the blanket, music or me talking, him listening to my heartbeat and frantically sucking on a binky. (I tried to take the binky away at 2 and again in June, but the sucking calms the anxiety caused by his body feeling out of control.) The other night he dissolved into tears complaining "momma I tired make the legs stop" and I feel helpless. Last night he put on shoes to sleep. more pressure on his feet. He is a sensory seeker.
So tonight I laid him on me, blanket on top of both of us, tv on (which is normally not ever a way he gets to fall asleep) and tried to calm my breathing, tried to not think of all that needed to get done and just be in the moment with my son. He was exhausted, so wound today he didn't nap at the babysitters, and he fell asleep close to his normal time. Snuggled under the weight of the blanket and pressure of my arms. Tonight it worked well and I didn't feel so helpless.
Tomorrow is a new morning and maybe with enough sleep tonight things will start to even out for him. In the meantime I try and remember that no matter how tired I am it is worse for him, the out of control feeling has got to be worse.
1 comment:
Sending you love and a boatload of empathy, Jenn. One thing that was helpful for me to learn while reading Raising the Spirited Child was that kids tend to have a period of disorganization at the half-birthday and birthday mark. She explains it in depth but, basically, things fall apart for about 4-6 weeks during these two times as they adjust to the growth they've just experienced in the six months prior and then they get themselves back together and past where they were before. We REALLY saw the disorganization at the 2.5 year mark. Just wanted to share that tidbit with you. You know him well and are great with your tools. Here's to new mornings indeed.
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