My son slept through the night!!!

I can count on one hand the number of times my 6 year old ds has slept through the night since he was born.  We have tried everything and he still is up several times a night.  I know this is probably a fluke and won't happen again for some time.  But I went in his room around 8:30 last night and he was snoring. I turned off his lamp and his cd player.  I didn't hear from him until 7:00 a.m. this morning!!!  I am sooo excited, but again I'm not counting on this being a nightly thing but we have to celebrate our kids little achievements in life.

We do use the melatonin.  It has helped our nights tremendously.  He falls asleep much better...it is just staying asleep is his problem.  The GNC here makes a slow release melatonin that is supposed to help with the staying asleep.  Problem is the capusule is too big for my ds to swallow.  So now we use the white tablet that he can chew.

But last night he slept through the night again.  First on Monday,  not on Tuesday, but again on Wednedsday.  I'm hoping that this is a sign that his body is changing.  I sure could use the break after 6 years of getting up! 

We had a weighted blanket for him to use at night on a suggestion of our OT.  But after about a year he wanted nothing to do with it.  I reintroduced it about a week ago and now he is sleeping longer. 

We will keep up the melatonin and the weighted blanket and see if we continue to get good results!!! 

Wonderful! I am glad! I never heard about the weighted blanket. Did you make one or buy it some place? Is it just made out of a heavier material?

My son doesn't wake up many times during the night anymore. But from birth till last year (4 years) he was, at least 2 times a night.

Now he wakes up once every morning about 4:30am.  LOL

He prefers sleeping without a pillow or blanket (but he is not hot natured, per say). LOL But I may try this anyway. See if I can coax him into it.

I would say it's the light, when it becomes morning. But it's never light at 4:30 am! LOL

The slow release melatonin is just called melatonin but it is a 3 mg capusule.  The person at GNC told me that the first part disolves quickly to help you fall asleep.  The second part disolves more slowly to help you stay asleep.  I have also order melatonin online at healthfitlabs.com  I believe they also  have the slow release.

As for the weighted blanket.. my ds also has sensory intergration issues.  His OT suggested this for him a while back.  His blanket is 7 lbs.  You order them according to the persons weight.  Many sensory sites have these for sale.  I ordered mine off of ebay.  I got to custom pick the fabric.  As any of us know our children with speical needs can be very picky when it comes to what touches them.  The school let us borrow a weighted blanket for a few nights before we purchased them because they are not cheap.  Anything to do with special needs come with an added cost.  My ds picked out a fabric that we had used at home for a project.  It was blue with fire trucks and police cars.  The blanket is filled with a polymar beads.  They can be weighted with all different kinds of materials.  Some even use sand.  I wanted something I could wash.

Please let me know.  My dh snores on Godly loud.  So much that we sleep in seperate beds.  My ds is also a snorer, but much less and he is a tiny little boy.  I swear that my dh stops breathing and sometimes even wakes himself up he snores so loud.  I know that a cousin on my mom's side had a surgury recently to have something in her nose removed to help with snoring.

As for the sleeping through the night I knew it would be short lived!!!  He slept through on Monday and then again on Wednesday of that week and we haven't seen it again since.  I heard him calling "Mommy" as he was walking down the hall at about 1:30 a.m., then he was up again at 3:30 a.m. discussing with me  having a snack.

I hate to get jealous of people who tell me about their newborns...Oh so and so slept through the night at 5 months, etc.  I would like to tell them where to stick it sometimes as my 6 year old doesn't and hasn't constantly slept through the night.

Do you thingk Super Nanny could help with that?

Have you had your son evaluated in a sleep clinic for sleep apnea?  My 7 yr old son also has difficulty sleeping, snores, wakes during the night, wakes early in the morning.  There has recently been some research conducted on ADHD children and sleep apnea.  I don't have the article handy at the moment so can't guarantee that I have the facts correct, but they are finding that about 50% of children with ADHD and sleep apnea are somehow cured when they have their tonsils and adnoids removed and some never need ADHD medication again. 

I am currently researching this further and plan to ask my son's doctor tomorrow at our med check.  She has already mentioned seeing a pediatric sleep specialist, which I plan to do soon, to see if he has sleep apnea (it runs in my family).  If he does and simply having his tonsils removed works, I will be sure to let you know.