I frantically did some research on what else we could do... namely supplements. I don’t want to venture into melatonin because it messes with hormones. I found one or two other options, but no physician has dosage recommendations since supplements are’t recognized by traditional MDs. Fine. Some other suggestions were to get Hannah’s ferritin levels checked (iron) - her hemoglobin was in normal range at her last labwork, so that’s not it either.
Looks like it was time to buckle down again and do hard work: behavioral training.
I started about a week ago. When Hannah was close to falling asleep, I kissed her on the head and walked out. She freaked out, cried and opened the door. I said nothing and put her back in her bed, kissed her head and walked out silently. This repeated about four more times. It sucked, I felt bad, but I had to rip the bandage off.
Eventually she whimpered and wiggled herself to sleep. Tim did this the following night, with less door openings and crying.
It’s been one week. She may come in once around midnight, but we put her back in and she goes back to sleep and so do we. A handful of times she’ll wake in the 5am hour, but then goes back to sleep again.
Last night she slept from 7:30pm - 6:15am! That’s a long time for Hannah. Even if she gets up once, Tim and I aren’t spending any time in her room, and that’s a big win in and of itself.
Tim and I already feel so much better and Hannah must too!
We’re doing it!!
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| A rare moment - Hannah asleep ON me for nap time. |
A win for everyone! Congratulations and glad the behavioral training paid off so soon.
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