I’m not sure how Addy could have possibly celebrated her eight month birthday this weekend.
Maybe that’s because time has warped in some horrendous way due to her inability to sleep.
This weekend she went several nights where she was up at least every 45 minutes to an hour. All night long. NO stretches of sleep. And, of course, she doesn’t play nicely in her crib or anything. Actually, she screams as though to say “where the heck am I and I’m sure that the boogie man is going to get me!” Which is doubly fantastic since she shares a wall with her sister. Fantastic.
And it’s not something that I can just put her back to sleep and wander back to bed. No, no- usually these episodes leave her awake for several hours at a time.
She’s on a schedule. She goes to bed early. She sleeps during the day (when she does, of course), but not so much that it should affect her night time slumber.
I’ve spent many nights in tears because I’m so gosh. darn. TIRED.
Anyway, flash forward to last weekend. We met some friends up north and we went to a park to let the kids play (more on this later.) Adalynn and one of her little boyfriends fell asleep in the swings together. Addy was OUT, but her feet kept kicking. We laughed that it looked like she had restless leg syndrome. For kicks, when I got home, I Googled it.
And, wouldn’t you know it, it made sense. I always thought that it was a load of hooey, to be perfectly honest, but I found some studies done through Mayo Clinic, so I trusted what they had to say. They said that one of the precursors to RLS is a low iron level. So, I Googled THAT. And one of the risk factors for low iron is having a low birth weight- specifically, being less than 6 1/2 pounds. Addy, if you remember, was 5 3/4.
So, I emailed her pediatrician and asked if this was something worth looking into. I drove Addy down to Children’s for a blood level the next day. Found out yesterday that she DOES have low iron!!! Go FIGURE!!! Tonight I picked up the 16 ounces of ferrous sulfate (her daily dose is 2ml- should last a while…) and started. Please, oh pleeeeease, let this work. I fully expect to have to break her of a LOT of bad sleeping habits at this point (the kid HAS to be nursed to sleep…) but surely, surely, if we can rule out the medical reasons, we can deal with the behavioral ones.
Because this little girl has GOT to get some sleep.
…and so does this mama!!! Wish us luck!
Crossing my fingers for you :)
ReplyDeleteI'm almost in tears today over my own lack of sleep. Waiting for our sleep study is driving me crazy. Maybe that's an option for Miss Addy too...
ReplyDeleteI've always had good sleepers, but Emelia just won't sleep at night consistantly. Maybe I'll have her iron checked next week at her 1 year and see. Let us know how it goes.
ReplyDeletehum...maybe we need to look into this too? stephen has it and so does his mom. i know it's genetic. can't wait to see how it works for you!!
ReplyDeleteHoping this works...and way to go on the detective work that led to a possible cure...another day in the life of a mom, huh? We should really get paid the big bucks!
ReplyDeleteInteresting stuff! What would we do without google?? I hope it works.
ReplyDeleteI hope this works for both of you Aimee. Mal is a horrible sleeper as well, since birth. He is up every hour after midnight, it's exhausting. Looking forward to an update!
ReplyDeleteI'm keeping my fingers crossed that this has already started working and you are getting at least a little more sleep!?!?! You are doing amazing...especially when you take into account you haven't had sleep!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, interesting! Claire's got low iron too, and has been on supplements for about 6 months now. She's always been a good sleeper though....
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