And sleep...

As I have mentioned, Reuben not sleeping has been a major problem since Easter.

Nothing big changed at that time, he just went from being a really good sleeper with a lovely bedtime routine to being up till after midnight and getting up in the night.

Various professionals have given their suggestions as to why Reuben has suddenly started staying awake. For example; the lighter nights, spacial awareness, needing later bedtime, too many toys in his room, too much stimulation and watching tele before he goes to bed.

As the weeks and months went by, we started to change/swap or remove these so called problems to help him sleep.

We started by not letting him have tele time before bed and letting him stay up later. This in turn caused him upset as watching tele in our bed before he goes to sleep in his bed was part of his bedtime routine. Keeping Reuben up later also caused even more problems as the later we kept him up, the later he went to sleep!!

Next, we brought a blackout blind and made sure that his room was nice a dark and cosy before he went to sleep. This caused Reuben to stay awake and keep his big light on. We then went out and brought him a night light, but still he kept the main bedroom light on.

After much deliberation, we decided to go down a more drastic measure and remove all the toys from his room. Obviously we didn't get rid of his toys . We just put some of them in storage in the garage and some downstairs in the living room.

Reuben's room looked terrible and more like a prison cell, but for the first 2 nights it worked so we thought we had cracked it!

But, no. Reuben then started playing with his furniture, trying to move it around or strip his bed of all the covers and sheets. He would then spend half an hour jumping up and down on his bed, shouting.

After carrying out these measures to get Reuben to go sleep and it not working the so called professionals were completely baffled. They had no other suggestions left and therefore couldn't help us. We were basically on our own to cope with Reuben and ourselves having no sleep!

The final straw came when Reuben woke up at 4am one morning and made as much noise as he possibly could, It literally sounded like he was having a mad party in his bedroom!

He woke the whole family up, he was just completely wide awake and would not settle or calm down.

At a routine appointment with Reuben's paediatrician, I explained again the trouble Reuben was having and told her out right that I wanted Reuben to be given Melatonin. I had done alot of research on Melatonin and heard about the many pros and cons.

Melatonin is a natural hormone that everybody produces. As it gets darker our bodies produce this hormone and it makes us feel tired which then in turn helps us to fall asleep.

I have heard that people with visual problems can produce less of this and as Reuben has Ptosis and wears a very strong prescription in his glasses, it made sense to try him on it.

Reuben's paediatrician didn't hesitate and prescribed the Melatonin straight away.

The first night, I put it on a biscuit for him as it comes in tablet form and needs to be put on or in something. I gave it to Reuben around 7.15pm and by 8pm he was fast asleep in his own bed....Result!!!

The next few nights followed suit and Reuben was asleep for 8pm. On the fourth night, he managed to get 12 hours sleep.

It has become a god send and I can really see the difference in Reuben and his behaviour. He seems more focused, happy and can concentrate for longer periods.

The first week of Reuben being on Melatonin came with a slight down side.

 I had a massive feeling of guilt. I felt like I was some how deceiving him or tricking him in some way. I know that's not the case and that Melatonin is a natural hormone and not a drug but I couldn't get past this sense of guilt. It seemed worse because I was so used to not going to sleep until Reuben had dropped off that my evenings were filled with running up and down the stairs checking to see he was safe and OK or trying to calm him down so that his sisters could get some sleep. When all of a sudden, I had whole evenings to myself!

I found myself looking at the clock every 5 minutes and constantly checking on Reuben, but as the time went on the guilt started to disappear and I realised that this is what is good for him and its in his best interests that he gets a good nights sleep.

When I mentioned my feelings to Lisa from CAMHs, she asked me this..."if Reuben was able to choose whether to take the Melatonin and get a good nights sleep or whether to stay up all night along with getting up in the night. Which one do you think he would choose?"

When you look at it like that, I know we have made the right decision.