As we approach two months of Rowan on Melatonin, I feel vastly unprepared to ween him off anytime soon. That has been the plan along the way, but there have been a few snags, and I do not feel ready to sacrifice my evenings back to the way they were just yet.
Rowan sleep walks a LOT. I know its not something to be worried about specifically. He is completely safe when he sleep walks. He always seeks Brady and I out. He doesn’t get into any kind of scary mischief. That being said, the full moon gave us a run for our money!
The night before the full moon, Rowan was awake for HOURS. And he was TICKED. He has some pretty hefty sleep anxiety, like his mom. He finally fell asleep, I’d say, around 10:00pm? He was NOT impressed. Turns out the moon stuff renders Melatonin ineffective, haha! Thanks to that night’s exhaustion, the night of the actual full moon was without issue. But the next night was SO BAD.
Rowan came up to our room in the middle of the night, saying he was afraid. This happens sometimes. I could tell he was actually awake, not sleep walking. When he does this, I give him a hug and pray for him, and he completely willingly heads back down to his room. So, that happened again. I didn’t even check the time. It was a quick, easy interaction. But then he surfaced again, at around 3:45am. He said he was awake again, or couldn’t fall back to sleep. As per usual, I told him I understood, and I encouraged him to go to the bathroom, grab a drink, and try again. He huffed at me. I reminded him that getting up multiple times would wake him further, and that he would be best off to do the things I had said, and then snuggle up under his nice heavy blanket. He huffed and puffed and sighed and tried to escalate me, but I didn’t bite.
And he did NOT like that.
He STORMED out of our room, stomping and raising his voice, working up BIG. Brady beat me out of bed and caught up to him before he woke the entire houseful. Thus began the fifteen minute negotiation with an irrational overtired five year old. Brady did manage to talk him down and get him back to bed, but he and I were SO awake afterwards. It was a pretty sucky scenario, and the whole household was overtired and irritable the next day.
This makes clear to me that, while the Melatonin is helping him fall asleep with so much more ease, and is helping his brain get more rest, he is still struggling.
Bottom line. Its been a tough week. The Melatonin is buying us a few hours of peace in the evenings, and I KNOW Rowan is doing immensely better than he was a few months ago. But Melatonin isn’t cutting it. Neither is Magnesium.
I had someone reach out to me very vulnerably this last week and share some information with me about her experience with one of her children. It was a wealth of information, and I’m VERY excited to try a couple of other things paired with Rowan’s Melatonin. Today, in fact, my beautiful mom offered to do a grocery run for us, and she will be on the hunt for these things for us. Not only is she saving us the struggle of trying to find a window when I can get in to grocery shop on my own to save Brady’s legs and back, but she is doing some hunting and in-store research for us. Mom, you’re saving our butts this afternoon. Thank you.
On top of everything else going on in our lives, we need to keep our evenings as a time of breathing, peace, and sanity. So, for now, the Melatonin stays, and hopefully we can help lift Rowan’s anxiety in some other ways.
Thank you to those of you who follow and care about Rowan so much. He is SUCH an important part of us. We just want him well. We don’t want him to have to work so hard to get through his day.