Hugely disrupted sleep from DS sniffing

[grosgirl]

I’ll try to ensure this isn’t too garbled…

I’ve had the most horrendous night: I’m 35 weeks pregnant so not sleeping very well anyway and constantly having to get up to have a wee/ turn over because my hips hurt/ move position because my arm’s gone numb. DS has just started reception and has, seemingly, taken the whole thing in his stride but we have noticed he’s got a bit of a tic, where he squeezes his eyes shut. He’s done this before temporarily and it’s clearly related to feeling anxious. We’ve also had a couple of wet beds. Over the past few days, he’s started to dry sniff. I’m not talking about a little bit: I mean so loud it can be heard from another room. He sniffs so violently that his nostrils close and then he cries because his nose is blocked. Last night, he did this from 2am-4am. He came into our bed until I said he’d need to go back to his own room if he was sniffing. I then laid there listening to his sniffing from my room. I have been putting eucalyptus oil on his pillow but this doesn’t seem to make any difference.

I have tried ignoring; I’ve tried explaining that he’ll make himself even more uncomfortable; I’ve tried taking things away such as time on his tablet and I’ve tried being cross. The latter feel unreasonable because he’s clearly panicking when he feels he can’t sniff properly.

I haven’t contacted the GP because I feel
this is behavioural and linked to the wet beds and facial tic, all of which are happening despite him skipping into school each day and telling us he loves it. I’m getting to the end of my tether and to make my night even better, I went down to let the dog into the garden just after 7am to find that she’d taken a brand new pair of my shoes out of the shoe basket this morning and chewed them up. £42 that I can’t afford to pay out again. Not ashamed to say that I had a little cry. She then proceeded to vomit on my light grey carpet so I was then scrubbing that.

Maybe the most ‘amusing’ thing about all this is that my DH literally slept through the whole thing. Didn’t wake up once.

Please give me some sympathy and some advice re. how to stop my son from sniffing and keeping me awake all night.

TLDR: DS4 sniffing violently and crying kept me awake all night. Dog is an arsehole. Husband sleeps like the dead.

Have you spoken to school about the changes in him since starting school ?
Has he made new friends ?

I don’t envy you, I remember being pregnant and unable to sleep

if DS is enjoying school is it possible he’s developed these tics etc as the baby is due soon, if he is your youngest maybe he feels anxious about being “replaced” ?

on another note, I sniffed a lot as a child to my parents annoyance but it was because I have a deviated septum and couldn’t get air in properly so I sniffed to over compensate (until I eventually just became a mouth breather)

Also apparently dogs chew their favourite humans stuff. My dog always goes for my shoes if he can (rarely leave them in an accessible place) over my partners which are always around

Ear plugs, good ones

My DS has suffered with similar throat and nasal tics on and off since reception (he's now in y7 and we're still dealing with it although he's much better at managing it through the school day and the unleashing it at home in the evenings). Tends to be worse when he's tired so sleep is v important. Also when he's anxious about something but can't quite rationalise the anxiety. It's quite common especially in boys. Try to make sure he is as relaxed as possible in the run up to bedtime and don't try to get him not to tic in the evenings as he might just need more time to get it out of his system before bed. Good luck! Apparently they generally grow out of it with puberty...

Why didn’t you wake your husband up to help?

DS1 developed tics when he started school (actually, they probably started earlier but were subtle and we didn't notice). By around 7 they were VERY bad - constant throat clearing, sniffing, blinking, twitching, neck stretching, all kinds of things. It was horrid for him but in all honesty it was very difficult for us to live with. I felt certain he would end up with a Toutettes diagnosis (he fitted the criteria for several years).

The usual progression is that they get steadily worse until around 11, and then either reduce over time (the more typical outcome) or progress into Toutettes. Thankfully DD followed the former path and now at 14 the tics have almost completely vanished.

There really is nothing you can do except ignore it, difficult though it is. The only thing we tried which I think made some difference was a liquid magnesium supplement (if you Google you will see that there is some research in support of this). Difficult to be certain though because they do wax and wane all the time.

@KangarooKenny I haven’t because they’ve been very vocal about these changes impacting children and what to look out for etc so I felt like it was just normal! I will mention to the teacher. He’s gone from their pre-school to reception with his friends and I’m told by my DM (who does drop off because I work full time) that he runs off with his friends as soon as they arrive in the morning!

@Lullabies2Paralyze yes, there could well be an element of this. He is very excited about the baby and having a sister and we’ve very much involved him from
the beginning but I’m hyper aware that all
of these changes are happening at the same time so even if he’s happy about them, it must be very overwhelming. I’m a mouth breather too due to enlarged adenoids so maybe he’s got the same. I do keep telling him to breathe out of his mouth but he’s resistant to doing so. You made me laugh re. the dog: I can just imagine her turning her nose up at my husband’s shoes! My fault for leaving them reachable though.

@flippetyflaps thank you: really good advice. I am so hoping that he does grow out of it! He never does it when he’s distracted or doing something he’s interested in, only when he has time to think about it I suppose, which must be why nighttimes are worse. He is also knackered because of the longer days at school so the tiredness element certainly checks out!

@PaniniHead he’s an armed police officer, who was up and out fairly early this morning, whereas I have a three day weekend so didn’t feel fair. Plus, not sure two of us being awake and miserable would have been necessary really.

Get the Dr to check there isn't anything physically wrong

Possible reaction to air-conditioning? The air might be dry at school?

Have you tried an antihistamine?

Help with what? Letting the dog out at a normal waking time by OP? Stopping DS sniffing? Prevent Op from hearing the sniffing? Lie awake in sympathy? Take of the late pregnancy?

Ear plugs OP. If the getting up at 7 for the dog is an issue, ask DH to do it, but I'm always up by then anyway, as it's not particularly early. Have a nap in the afternoon while DH takes DS out.

@hewouldwouldnthe I’m usually on my way to work by 7 but after the distinct lack of sleep last night, it did sting a bit!

Well helping to clear up the dog sick would have helped surely?