SLEEP! Glorious SLEEP!

(Last time I posted about our struggles with Xander, I got a few anonymous nastygrams about how no one ever needs medication.  If that is your stance, please don't waste the time to send me a nastygram.  Instead, feel free to visit another blog.  Brandon and I walk a very fine line between medication and natural remedies and as with every other decision we make for our children, family and marriage, we have weighed options at length and prayed until our knees are raw.) 

Brandon and I have lived on less than a handful of hours of sleep a night for over 3 months now. 

Nope, Isaiah was not the culprit.

Nope, not the next babiest either.  (Solomon.) 

It was Xander Jeremiah.  Our three year old.  My child that slept through the night beautifully until this year.

Yet, nothing in his routine had changed other than adding a little brother but we struggled before Isaiah arrived. 

None of our medical professionals could believe how little sleep he was receiving each night.  Every one said that his lack of sleep was just exacerbating his behavior issues.  We trudged on. 

We knew we had to fix it somehow.  We tried all the usual advice.  Dietary changes, less TV (truthfully my children get very little tv compared to most of their peers), a solid bedtime routine, bathing before bed, more physical activity during the day. 

Nothing helped.  In fact, everything seemed to get worse.

But here is the thing: sleep affects growth. And what is our biggest issue with Xander?

Growth.

We hesitated to use medication to help him sleep and then his growth stopped again, despite his stomach issues being much better than before.

So after a heap of prayer, we started a low dose med.  And it didn't work. 

We kept trudging on.

We changed to another and we saw some improvement. 

Trudge, trudge. 

Today his dosage was changed. 

And we saw this...

Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! 

Pray it works for the night! 

~Stephanie, who is shutting down the computer and running to bed!  *yawn*