Thursday, October 28, 2010

Melatonin...

Note: I am not a doctor I only play one in my own home- nothing I suggest should be taken as literal or even factual for that matter.

What Melatonin has done for our family...
  • I can parent my kid at night
  • I can sooth my child at night
  • I can rock my child at night
  • I can hold my child without regret
  • I can talk to my child without fear of it adding 30 minutes till sleep
  • I can sing to my child again
  • We can revisit the days activities with smiles and laughter 
  • We can talk about what tomorrow brings and it ends with a kiss, a snuggle, and laying still until sleep visits and is welcomed in.


I can not begin to say all the ways Melatonin has helped us. ... take the edge off. I admit, to giving him this before bed. Although it was suggested by our therapist and agreed to by ped. It has taken a long time to get the right stuff and the right amount for him. At first too much and he was in REM for almost 12 hours straight, eyes almost wide open, thrashing, moaning, laughing, kicking, having apparently many very active dreams involving boxing or kickball?- while mommy spent the nights avoiding elbows, knees and kicking feet. I even had a fat lip once.

I've lowered the dose substantially. To the point, one would wonder if it really is having any effect at all. It is. Trust me.

A slightly higher dose would get him to sleep faster, but in the morning, he'd hit the ground pushing limits. As if, he felt so out of control, he had to "take it back" in the morning.

My co sleeper, was an active "fight the sleep" guy. Doing painful, ridiculous and hard to watch stuff just to NOT go to sleep. Some of these things were so so so so so hard to watch or be subjected to- that I admit- many of our sleep failures (ok- all of them) were directly related to my inability to PARENT him pre sleep.

Many- ok- MOST of all my MOMMY FAIL moments are related to this time around sleep. And going through what we are now, I realize, had stunted his ability to let the security in- because- in all honesty- there were many times I was Unpredictable (i.e. not consistent) and and Ugly (i.e. not nurturing) watching this very frustrating and painful thing happen to my son and NOT KNOW HOW TO HELP!

I hope we are soon in a place where he feels secure enough that we can go without using this, but for now.... call me a bad mother if you want to.... but the truth is, I can now parent him properly and he can let me.

6 comments:

Gretchen said...

I have heard many families use this once they adopt a foster child. I think its great. A natural way to relax a child. Good job Mommy!!!

Melissa said...

I love melatonin!!! LOVE it. before we started using it, it would take g an hour and half to fall asleep, now it takes him 10-15 minutes. its wonderful!

Faith said...

love it
use it

Bridget said...

I find absolutely NOTHING wrong with this. At all.
*I* have sleep issues (lots of people do, right?) and unless we SLEEP we can't really heal the sleeplessness which leads to all kinds of other problems. For awhile I had to take something every night, now it's only now and again when I need to re-boot. I'm not trying to liken my adult sleep issues to your sons, obviously they are not one in the same. I guess all I'm trying to say is medication (in whatever gentle/natural or not so gentle ways) is sometimes a very amazing thing. It's just gotten a bad rap along the way...

Chrissy said...

i use(d) as well when we first got home- to "take the edge off" and it worked great!

I haven't had to use it since August/maybe september but yes it worked great!

scooping it up said...

i have never heard of melatonin. so now you have to add that to the post for those of those who don't know what it is!

but glad it's working!

and thanks for your sweet comments on my blog.

somehow just blogging about it made it feel better, ya know?