Tuesday, August 28, 2012

I'm in love. LOVE. And I want you to be, too.

For several months now, Brandon has decided that his bedtime needs to be around 9:30 p.m. Which does not work for me since by about 8 p.m., as a mom, I'm DONE. I'm off the clock. Over it. Had enough.

It was a MIRACLE if I got him to bed at 9. A JOKE if I put him to bed any earlier. He would hang out in his crib, make a ton of noise, climb out of it, cry. I tried everything. Well, almost everything. I adjusted his nap schedule, woke him up early, rocked him, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Nothing worked.

It was annoying. Frustrating. Maddening. It was getting to the point where I kinda wanted to choke him out - just to make him pass out, not to kill him - each night to get him to sleep earlier. While it's obvious that I wouldn't really do that, it speaks to my frustration level.

And then, after spending four nights in a row being woken up by one or the other younger two boys, my sleep-deprived self decided to finally listen to what my friends, family, and peeps on the Facebook page for this blog have been telling me for a while now.

I got some melatonin.

Melatonin is made naturally in the body and regulates sleep cycles. It's what makes you sleepy. So I got a 3mg bottle, and halved one of the pills and then halved it again, and gave each quarter (so .75 mgs - and I'm thinking of halving the quarter if I need to give it to them again) to Connor, age 4, and Brandon, age 2. Connor because he has trouble staying asleep and wakes up in the middle of the night and comes into our bed and proceeds to sweat and snore and flop around like a dead fish. While it's fun and super cozy to have that next to me, it disrupts my sleep just a tad. And I gave Brandon his dose at 7:30.

At 8:15, a FULL HOUR OR MORE before his normal bedtime, BRANDON HAPPILY WENT TO BED AND PASSED THE HELL OUT.

Did you catch that? At 8:15, a FULL HOUR OR MORE before his normal bedtime, BRANDON HAPPILY WENT TO BED AND PASSED THE HELL OUT.

Frankly, I was shocked. I honestly did not think it was going to work, especially that well. And they both slept all night and woke up at their regular time in the morning. And Brandon has gone to bed at around 8:15 every night since, with a little help from my new best friend melatonin.

So melatonin, I love you. Like, really, really love you. Let's do a little dance... Make a little love... Get down tonight! Get down tonight!

I might even love you more than cake. That's saying a lot.

There's also a melatonin spray, from what I understand.

Keep in mind that melatonin is a hormone and is not necessarily recommended for long-term use. Read more about it here

So, my friends, if you have a sleeping/bedtime problem with your kids, I suggest looking into getting some melatonin. And of course, be sure to talk to your child's doctor before giving them anything, especially on the advice of me, a stranger to most of you. No, I totally didn't talk to my kids' doctor. I just went for it. But I feel like if I'm going to be telling people to give stuff to their kids to make them pass out, I need to be responsible and put that disclaimer in there. 

AND this disclaimer: Please don't constantly dose up your kid with the melatonin to keep him/her out of your hair. It's tempting, I know, but probably not okay, on so many levels.




Aren't the moon and stars sooo comforting to see? 


Nighty-night, kiddos. Sleep well.

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28 comments:

  1. Why couldn't someone have offered me that tidbit of advice back in '97 when I was ready to run screaming out of the house when I was done and my little angel wasn't even CLOSE to being done???

    Happy for you that you've found love!!!

    Teri
    Snarkfest

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    1. I wish you knew about this back then! Man, oh man, I wish you knew! I wish I knew about it when my firstborn didn't sleep well for the first year of his life. I thought I was going to die.

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  2. I love your stories so much! I find myself laughing out loud and so thankful that I am not the only one who feels this way. :) keep the stories coming. :)

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    1. Thank you, Amanda! I sure will keep them coming, keep reading! Give M a kiss from me.

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  3. We <3 melatonin at our house, too.

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  4. I am so buying some of that! My kids are HORRIBLE sleepers..one wakes up nearly every hour and the other one spends most of his time in our bed...

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  5. ooooo...I've used melatonin for myself, and it's great, but it hadn't occurred to me that it could be used for kids who are refusing to sleep. We don't have issues yet, but I'm just assuming the day will come.

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  6. Lol, awesome! Glad you found something that works! Thankfully my one kid sleeps through the night and I've been told the next one(coming to a crib near you inFeb) will not be so easy.......

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    1. Well, you never know... I hope you're lucky enough to have two great sleepers! (And congratulations on the one on the way!!)

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  7. Josephine comes in every night around 1 AM and is driving me crazy. Alll she does a sweat on me and slap me in the face. So fun!

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    1. So I'll be sure to do that you know when, so you won't get too home sick!

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  8. Well in order for it to be effective we will need a stranger for the other side to hot box me in. I am the sweaty...er...creamy filling every night.

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    1. Oh yeah, me too. Well I'm sure we can find some bum to fill the 3rd spot. Really add to the experience!

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  9. Chiming in as a PhD in Neuroendocrinology (and who has a whole hour long lecture on this topic):

    Bad idea. I get it that you are exhausted. However, there are some serious issues with giving melatonin to kids:
    1. It's a hormone. We don't know what the long-term effects are of giving kids gigantic doses of fake hormones.

    2. We do know that it can turn off their body's melatonin production. For good.

    3. Melatonin manufacturers are not regulated by any federal agency. That means that manufacturing issues happen all the time, but nobody tests for them. There have been numerous incidents where something happened in production and people got sick from the pills. In a couple of cases, thousands of people got permanent, Parkinsons-like diseases.

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    Replies
    1. Silke,
      From our Facebook conversation, why don't you reply and link the article/articles you feel are the most informative?
      Thanks again!

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  10. Hi! You probably don't remember me, but I remember having lunch with you in middle school. You always had a full size Snickers bar, and you had a rad hair-band plastered binder. So jealous of both! Does anyone still call you by your nickname?

    Anywho, I take melatonin and I haven't really felt like it helped me, so I didn't think of giving it to my girls, 11 & 8. Since school has been out, their sleep schedules have been RIDONK. Holy crap, I gave them some, and they passed out like little old ladies. It was amazing. So, they'll be on it until school sports start back up and wipe them out naturally.

    Glad I found you!
    Melissa (Cooper) Cinnamon

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    1. Of course I remember you! I saw that you had liked the FB page (thank you!) and was wondering if you realized who was actually behind it! I do not still go by my nickname but when I go home, it's all I am addressed by so in some roundabout way, I guess I still (involuntarily) go by it! Or at least, respond to it. ;-)
      I'm glad it worked for the girls! I'm also glad you found me, too! So I assume you married Chad? Congratulations on married life and the girls!

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    2. Thank you! Yep, I married Chad- been together since '96. Nuts! I never knew him in school though, which was probably a good thing ;)
      Dude, we're old. You have a beautiful family, and a talent for writing. Fb me!

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  11. So I had been on a crazy train of exhaustion since the birth of my LO. First cuz he was a newborn then cuz I had to pump in between night feedings to have the 19-24 oz he would devour while I was at work. Then out of nowhere he started walking up every 1-3hrs. sometimes 3x in 1hr. We were beyond exhaustion and living in a constant zombie state.

    anyway I found a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. the hubby and I followed its suggestions and my 10mo old is sleeping 11+ hrs sometimes straight. Sometimes I still get up once. but once compared to 5, and up at 5:30 (now he waffles up at 6:30-7). It's a whole new beautiful world!

    I didn't finish reading I stopped after chapter on 5mo-12mo. but it goes through childhood. and tells you how to solve specific problem at specific age. reviews are amazing, that's what convinced me. It's going to be what I got for baby showers from now on.

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    1. Waking not walking
      wakes not waffles
      get not got

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    2. I had that book! It was given to me after Ethan (the first) was born because he was a terrible, TERRIBLE sleeper. I followed the advice of that book and several others and this kid would NOT sleep longer than 2 hours for the first YEAR of his life. Yep, even as a 9-month-old, he was waking up like a newborn. Finally, 2 days before his first birthday, when I started experiencing dangerous mood swings because of the year of lack of sleep, I told my husband, fuck it, he's being left to cry. Two nights later, he was sleeping through the night. So yes, I was driven into to being one of THOSE...!
      But I'm glad it has worked for you! I've since gotten rid of my copy but maybe I'll go scan the library's copy and see what they say for the next two's issues.
      And you just crack me up with the corrections! I understand!

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  12. we've also had a few CIO nights. I would have never been able to do it, if I hadn't seen such amazing progress.

    this week he hasn't woken up once. and I've logged 17miles this week! I had given up and decided I was just gonna be a fat zombie mom.

    the best fat zombie mom ever! but still a fat zombie.

    Now I have hope :) Good Luck!

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