Anyone elses dc keep them awake at night? Come and sympathise with me!

[SammyK]

DS wakes several times a night, always has, and will be wide awake*. He trots into our room, sits on my shoulder and twiddles my hair, making noises very loudly (both comfort things for him, as is my presence).

Last night I had him going "diddle diddle doodle doodle BBEEEEEEE!!! weeeee, hohoho, DING!,".....ETC,ETC in my ear at the top of his voice. He also prises my eyes open, plonks toy catalogues on me to find his favourite page, and says 'hey mummy I am talking to you'. He also wedged himself behing the back of my bed last night 'squeezing' and I had to prise him out!

I am soo tired!!

I have a safety gate on the hallway as if he gets in the living room he wreaks havoc, has tried to let himself out before and set house alarm off. So he just has mine and his bedroom which contain toys and beds only.

Is there even anything I can do? He goes to bed well, he just wakes up too often at full speed IYKWIM. Sigh.

DS not dx yet, suspect asd - aspergers, anxiety. And maybe ADHD?

Sorry you are so tired! How old is your Ds? Mine used to prize my lids open and squeal full volume in my ear too! Still does if I am ill and dare to close an eye! Its really horrid!! I'm afraid when he was small we had a gate across his room (door open). He hated it at first but eventually adapted!
Another tired mum today as ds (8) is full on today after taking dh for much too early early flight - and I have a heavy cold! All those hours when everyelse is still asleep eh?

He is almost 4 magso.

DS would just see a safety gate as a challenge, drag something across his bedroom, stand on it and attempt to get over it - and then fall straight down the stairs! (His door is at top of stairs so I just daren't ty it).

Hope your cold goes soon.

Thanks Sammy K.
Ah -Yes I see. Too tall and adventurous for a gate!( we had a tall dog gate just inside ds room but only till about 4 ). Dh sleeps very deeply and nothing short of a fire alarm or ds favorite pterydactly screach will wake him! When he does wake he tends to startle in a way that even eventually made ds notice! So now ds tends to creap in in an exageratly quiet way, prod my eyes open and ask 'is it morning yet?' I put him back to bed and he comes back in 10 minutes later just as Im dropping off again! It is exceptional for him to go back to sleep but I live in hope! We have bought him a bunny clock and in theory he is supposed to stay in his room till 6am! He is still er learning this! Also he has learnt that shaking the clock opens its eyes so he can legitimatly claim it is morning! Grr!
Does lots of running around help wear your ds out or just wake him up! My sleep benefits from a lot of wearing ds out early in the day - followed by a gentle ( tedious!)routine at bedtime.
Hope you find an answer!

oooh Sammy I sympathise
Sounds like a rough night.

Dd2 (7 and has DS) is an really crap sleeper and we went down the medication route many years ago - haven't found anything that works well yet though (after having tried 7 or 8 different sedatives ).

We lock her door at night because she'd happily go and wake the other children up at 1am otherwise.

In the morning she is always fresh and full of beans - I have no idea how she manages that.

I hope you find a solution - don't shy away from sedatives, they work well for some children and parents having no sleep is such a drain on the entire family.

my ds is 5 and was diagnosed with autism when he was 3 he used to be a good sleeper and go to bed at 7.30pm and sleep till morning but now he goes to bed at 7.30 but doesnt sleep just runs around till he falls asleep somewhere normally top of stairs at 12amish then he is up again running around at 4am,he doesn't nap in day we are just waiting on his medication to come through to see if that helps

Dd wakes me up a lot still at nearly 12, but it's with pain (or fear of pain). We took the plunge and spent a night camping in the Forest at the week-end and it was grim. Oh well, at least I got to hear both the tawny owl and the dawn chorus (grim smile emoticon).

mines 3am and its not unnormal for him to wake me at 2-3am and thats t im u fpr the day but been told oh well its just one of those things bags under my eyes lol i have suitcases

We had another terrible night last night. I am beyond tired and ds is bounding about all hyper.
Finding it hard not to be snappy.

How does everyone else get through days like this?

Hiya sammyk, like you i am so very tired this morning , infact i,m like this most mornings. cant give you any real advice just empathize with you . My son(13) has never slept through the night, i just manage to sort one thing out and then something else comes along , at the moment he is soaking the bed through, so i,m now changing the bed at least twice a night. Thankfully he is a school now ,so i can chill a bit(in between loading the washing)
I think we all get snapy when tired and my elder children get the worst of me, i think they still love me though .

Thanks for reply 45nanny, I know what you mean about them getting the worst of you, I childmind and often think I am harder on ds, which makes me feel so sad and guilty as he is soo adorable.

Well he hasn't napped (been hyper all day), am taking him to bed now...

Hope he sleeps at least till nearly morning SammyK! Just got ds off to sleep too! Tempted to go too (DH away) but school sweatshirt in dryer (cooking at school today so rather mucky - and lost the second one yesturday). It has got better through the years so there should be better days ahead Sammy! Can you get an early night if ds gets off to sleep soon?

dd2 has just started a new drug for concentration and behaviour. Downside is she is not eating or drinking much, and won't sleep at night. I have had her in bed with me for the past 2 nights (drug started Monday). When I 'got up' (having been up most of the night!) I was so tired I wanted to cry! Then dd2's nursery called to say their loos were not working so it was closed.... So no naps for me this afternoon!