Just put Jonah to bed… in his bed and he fell asleep within 20 minutes.
(Whaaaatt??) 😎
I know a lot of you guys are struggling with bedtime routines. We did for a long time.
This was the first meme I made for this page. I took the photo before Jojo was even diagnosed.
It seems like it has been this way off and on for the past decade.
It started with Jonny. He would cry sometimes 10-12 hours straight through the night. Nothing would console him. My wife and I used to take shifts with him. (I had the “stay up until I couldn’t stay up any longer” shift and she had the “after I fell asleep and before she had to leave for work” shift. That probably went on for years.
I don’t know who is/was worse… Jonny or Jonah.
Jonah’s sleep schedule was always a toss up. He could sleep 12 hours or he could just stay up all night.
And the night time meltdowns… oh God…. things would get thrown, broken, he would violently flail, lash out, hit, kick… it was AWFUL.
Looking back i realize just how far we have come in two years with Jonah’s sleep routine.
I feel we have been very fortunate with his progress.
(I hesitate to write about this for fear of “jinxing” it)
Because now, he has an established bedtime routine. (Jammies, brush teeth, bed. They must ALL be done in that order, and each time, you have to “find him – hiding in his bed” to do the next step. Yes he runs and hides under the covers until you find him to get jammies on and then again to brush teeth.)
Night time Meltdowns have virtually vanished, as long as the routine is kept.
He goes without a nap and will sleep most the night now, (getting up in the middle of the night to climb in bed with us 9/10 nights). We only use melatonin now if he has napped during the day.
He sleeps until it is time to wake up most nights.
That being said, it’s not all “easy” at bedtime.
We will still deal with the occasional “won’t go to bed” drama, but his communication has gotten so much better he can let us know what is bothering him. We will usually have it sorted under an hour.
I now realize, that was the biggest missing piece 2 years ago. He had no real way of communicating.
And that has GOT to be frustrating.
To not be understood and to have no way of communicating his needs must have been so frustrating for him. It was for us as well.
And that is the single most important thing we have been working on since we started this thing.
Communication.
Making sure Jonah understands us and knows that he is being understood.
And that has opened all kinds of doors for us.
But like I said… we are fortunate.
There is really no advice I can give you, if you are struggling with the sleep routine, because you have already (most likely) tried EVERYTHING.
All I will say is “I’ve been there too. You are not alone…. hang in there.”
You’ve got this.