Where Are You Sleep?

The parents in the Ds community are always wondering how to get their kids to sleep through the night - it’s a prevalent problem. It seems most at Hannah’s age are doing better. Hannah still tends to wake once a night; simply comes in our room to say “Hi” and have us pick her up and bring her back.

A lot of times it’s due to sleep apnea, or just our kids biological makeup - that extra chromosome can throw a wrench in anything! 

*I do understand it could just be behavioral and that Hannah just wants comfort. Tim and I continue to try and stay silent, not pick her up, sit on the floor, not lay down... However with every cold, sickness, and procedure, we end up back to holding her for her own comfort. Two steps forward, one step back.

I really hope her August 3rd sleep study comes back improved and that there aren’t structural airways issues - which some kids can have. I’d rather navigate the behavior than deal with a CPAP or surgical repair. 

So to aid her sleep thus far, we have: 

- blackout shades

- noise machine

- bedtime routine

- early bedtime 

- weighted blanket

- vetiver oil on her spine

- removed tonsils & adnenoids

Some parents have had success with Melatonin. I’ve purchased some but haven’t jumped on it yet. 

Some parents have success with Flonase before bed to open air passages (remember, low muscle tone). We did this before Hannah’s T&A and Tim remembers Hannah having successful full nights of sleep. 

I’ll probably tap into these and see where we go. More interesting is one parent cut dairy; except she did it along with Flonase so she’s not sure which actually did the trick for sleeping through the night. 

SO. Yesterday I didn’t send milk and our sitter didn’t give her extra. I typically send about a pint of milk every day (!). Along with our above list, Hannah slept through the night last night! It could be coincidental, but I’m going to experiment with the “no milk” and see where we go... 

*6/12/2018 update: Three days of no milk has not worked. Two nights of melatonin has not worked.