I have to say that I really admire people wh have dc's who don'r do sleep

[2shoes]

after dd playing up last night. I am lucky it was just one night. but I know some people have it every night.
how the hell do you cope?

[gess]

you get used to it. The problem is when they start sleeoing then suddenly stop again - killing. Mind you the 3hours a night between Jan and March did almost kill me! (cannot get melatonin into ds1 )

[tobysmumkent]

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[gess]

what's he doing now TM? DS1 is sleeping until 7 (bliss) but won't go to bed before midnight.......

[2shoes]

i could have thrown her out of the window. she finally went to aleep about 1pm. all would be quiet and juat as I got back in bed she would start again.

[tobysmumkent]

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[tobysmumkent]

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[Peachy]

LOL Melatonin- except it stops workinga fter a while so we have to reserve it for the worst times, esp. atm as terrified ds1 will kick me in stomach so need a bring-downer

and having no bloody choice

and temporary but regular steps into the alnds of insanity, melancholy and desperation

[onlyjoking9329]

MY GIRLS SLEEP FAIRLY WELL THOU THEY GET UP IN THE night if they are excited about something happening that day EG coming down at 1.30 & again @ 2.15 & 4am fully dressed in fav clothes as it was wear what you want day.
DS only needs 4 hours sleep usually midnight til 4

[TotalChaos]

DS isn't brilliant (on a bad night, could be up till 1 a.m, a good night these days is asleep before 10.30 pm.) but at least one he goes to sleep, he usually stays there for a respectable length of time, or just comes onto our bed and flops back down within a few minutes until the next morning.

[Davros]

Having gone through many different sleep patterns, DS goes to sleep by about 9pm. I don't put him to bed, he just goes which I attribute to him taking Risperidone. Because the Risperidone makes him sleep deeply he wets the bed....... every night, sometimes twice a night. He wakes me up at around 4am every night more or less and has done so for the last 3 years I would say. He's not usually much trouble when he wakes, goes back to bed and sometimes goes back to sleep but often not. Then he does start to make noise and I have to drag him downstairs where he won't disturb DD at about 5.30am. I manage by sleeping in the daytime when I can, which I can't always. I had a few nights recently when he woke at about 6am and the HUGE difference it made to everything was a real eye opener. Melatonin does not work for him during the night, it will get him off but that his not a problem. We did use Chloral Hydrate for a while which is real knock-out drops and I'd rather tolerate it than drug him up, I don't think it helped in the long run, just a short fix. Having respite one weekend a month has also helped a lot.
Go on, tell me how much you admire me [grin[

[tibni]

Totally agree that it is the pattern changes that are the real killer. We have periods when ds will settle ok but be awake by 1am and stay awake. He will then do a full active day at school and I am told he shows no sign of tiredness! (unlike me)

At the moment (I whisper fearfully in case I jink myself) he is not doing too bad. He is going to bed late (still playing downstairs with hubby as I type) but he is sleeping most nights through the night which is more wonderful that I can express.

Not gone the melatonin route because we were told it will only help him go to sleep rather than stay asleep - which tends to be our problem.

[blueshoes]

ds wakes every hour. Fine if he settles quickly - we co-sleep/nurse. Agony if he starts to play up, which he is doing quite frequently these days. My trick is NOT to sleep during the day (I am still on maternity leave). That way, I am good and tired when I go to bed. So if ds only sleeps a 30 minute stretch, I also sleep (or more like fall unconscious) during those 30 minutes. Nothing worse than lying awake watching the minutes tick by for those 30 mins only to have ds wake again ....

Dd was exactly like this too!

[gess]

Davros - ds1 stopped that bed wetting overnight Although I think his was behavioural.... He is still up making cat garotting noises happily now. Perhaps we should try melatonin but I'm a bit worried about upsetting the 7am. He does have a moon obsession going at the moment and stays up to watch it.....

tibni- ds1 is like that- I send a note into school saying 'may be tired only 3 hours sleep last night' and they write back and say he has been absolutely fine and happy as anything... (meanwhile I'm on the floor)

[onlyjoking9329]

my three all wet the beds althou DS only once/twice a week, the girls wet most nights sometimes twice a night, yet they were dry at night until they were about 8, whats that all about will they ever be dry at night again,please let them be dry at night before they start getting periods.

[tibni]

gess - I sometimes think school must think I am making it up! (apart from the obvious evidence of bags under my eyes). I think adrenalin keeps him going at school but sometimes he "flops" when he gets home. Evil mum then insists he stays awake until bedtime (which is getting harder the bigger he gets)

[gess]

OJ- ds1 was like that- dry for years then started wetting. You use kylies as well don't you- I decided that he liked the feel of the wet kylie. Luckily he started to hate the feel of the waterproof duvet cover so I told him 'if you wet the bed you have this cover, if you keep a nappy on then you can have a nice cover'. He may be non-verbal but he understood and stopped overnight He wears a nappy now (I daren't take it off) but it is very very rarely wet- maybe once every 6 weeks.

[onlyjoking9329]

one of my girls always has a rash fron laying in a wet bed, someone suggested putting them back in nappies but i really don't want to do this, babies & nappies have been their obsession for many years, they can spot and tell the brand of any nappy from across a roon

[gess]

ah luckily ds1 has no nappy concept iyswim (but will only wear the bedwetting pull ups). I was trying to get him in one before but he kept taking it off to wet, only kept it on for the duvet cover deal.

I did ask Donna Williams for some advice I seem to remember she recommended the alarms as being something she would have hated!

[expatinscotland]

I would not be able to cope with that so RESPECT to folk who do.

I think they deserve a gold medal and if I won the Lotto I'd dedicate as much as I could to doing what I could to get them a few good night's sleep I swear I would.

[onlyjoking9329]

main problem in this house is getting any of them to be quiet if they wake up, tis a nightmare having all three up in the small hours.

[kittykat172]

I wish Melatonin worked on my daughter she is 15 months old and has 22 mls and still doesnt work me and hubby do shifts but its bloody hard work isnt it. And cause of her heart cond they wont give her anything else

[kittykat172]

I forgot to say she sleeps for 2 hrs in a 24 hr period

[Davros]

OJ, my DS sometimes has a rash from lying in wee but then that means he's slept through the wet bed.... no free lunch! I have also resisted putting him in Pullups which everyone suggests like I must be stupid as I haven't thought of it! I just don't want to do anything that could upset his daytime toileting which is fine. He has no idea that he is wetting the bed, I am sure of that, so doing any deals is not possible. I have just bought one of those (expensive) alarm things as I really believe he could be trained to get up and go to the toilet, but then that means he will be woken every time, ho hum! I am working up to using it and think I will put a baby monitor in his room so I can hear it, rush him to the toilet and get him into bed without waking him too much. He was also dry up until about 8 years old, now he is nearly 12 so it is something that could continue for many, many years....
He also seems to be fine at school when he hasn't slept enough and many of my friends say the same about their children with ASD, little s*ds!