Is it bad to think about slipping your children Benadryl so that they'll sleep at night? Is it bad to actually do it? Or is it worse to tell your three old that he's ruining the family's well-being because he won't go to sleep until 10pm, he wakes up at 2am to play with his trains and then wakes again at 5am, each time waking his baby brother and mother in the process?
Uh, this is all hypothetical, of course.
Two boys have been sharing a room for a while now. The three year old used to at least go to sleep on time. Now he stays up. . .disturbing his six month old brother. He gets up all the time. . .disturbing his brother. He plays with his trains .. .waking his brother. Then his brother wakes up close enough to three year old's version of morning that they're both up by 6am.
And, uh, the mother is starting to
lose her shit become concerned. She knows their horrible behavior is coming from lack of sleep. She keeps the room dark. She has a bedtime routine with relaxation techniques. She's been reluctant to take away the trains, as they are security for the three year old. But he also has a stuffed animal that he loves and doesn't play with. And he thrives on any kind of attention, being three. So when his mother
yells in frustration discusses the situation, he doesn't care. He also doesn't seem to relate consequences from behavior the night before to punishments the next day.
Does anyone PLEASE have suggestions for this poor woman? She is actually losing short term memory skills from lack of sleep. Really. Between this and her red eyes from crying in frustration, people are starting to think she's a stoner.
6 comments:
I knew of someone who dipped a pacifier into cough meds.
Hi! Just found your blog. I'm sorry I have no advice as I too am sleep deprived and finding it difficult to make sense of anything at the moment. I've considered a drop of whiskey in the milk before bed though... okay not really, but nice idea.
you have my best wishes - I was in your shoes, and while I did live to tell about it, I was hell to live with at the time. I FINALLY resorted to creating a bed on the sofa for our older son and putting his "toys" in that room - he went to bed with one lovey - chicken elmo - and then actually left his room to play instead of waking his brother.
He usually just fell asleep on the floor when he was playing, then slowly started laying down on the "sofa bed" and eventually stopped waking up at night.
I had a doctor tell me that the waking during the night was a direct result of the falling asleep late - I actually found that if I could get him in bed by 6:30 (tortuous, believe me), he would sleep straight through the night ... but that just wasn't always possible, so we worked on moving his natural sleepy time later and later.
This was such an awful awful time for our family ... so I have an inkling just how you feel - we took about 2 months to finally resolve this issue once I realized we had a real problem (I probably spent a month and a half telling our oldest to "GO TO SLEEP AND STAY ASLEEP"!!! Yeah, like that would work!!)
Good luck and email me if you want more reassurance that your desire to drug them is perfectly natural!! :)
Man, that sucks. Your boys sleep in the same room, right? Is there a way to move the little one out? I've been known to put my little one in the pack n play in our walk-in closet (ahem). Putting your 3yrold down earlier is a good idea. Also, you may have to get the toys out of the room.
On another note, my FIL practically brags about how he used to put a bit of brandy in my husband's bedtime bottle. Seriously.
I might know someone who might give her son Benedryl every night before bed so that he stays asleep.
sorry jersey. nothing to add only that once or twice I did give my son some Benadryl to get him to sleep...
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