9.12.2013

Insomnia

Miss K has had a bad case of insomnia since we took her off of the Amiodarone.  It wasn't a huge problem until recently.

Miss K started out just having about 1-2 nights a month of no sleep, she'd play in her crib in her room all night long keeping her Daddy and I awake listening to her but not able to do much about it.  And then about 6 months ago she started having sleepless nights about once a week, at which point she was no longer in a crib but in a toddler bed but she was not able to open her bedroom door on her own so we just kept her room 100% toddler proof so she couldn't get hurt and didn't worry about her, we also were running a fan in our room to help Baby Brother sleep so we could barely hear Miss K in her room playing and thus were finally able to sleep through her noise.  And then about 4 months ago she started having her sleepless nights about 2-3 times a week.  About 3 months ago she learned how to open her door, we resorted to locking the door so she couldn't get out.  We needed to keep her in her room so she couldn't hurt herself with mischief she may cause in the rest of the house alone.  A little more than a month ago the sleepless nights went from occasional to nearly EVERY night.  At her grandmother's house the only way to keep her safe during the night was to put her in a pack and play (play pen) to sleep because no bedrooms are toddler safe enough for her to be wandering them alone, it's canning season so we have been at Grandma's house A LOT.  She recently learned how to climb out of a pack and play.  This week, after a particularly bad night, she learned how to unlock her bedroom door on her own.  I spent a long night listening for her and putting her back into bed all night long as she wandered the house and got into mischief of all kinds.  I put up the baby gate AND locked her bedroom door.  She climbed the baby gate.  We can no longer contain her without drastic measures.  She climbs out of cribs, she climbs baby gates, she opens all doors, she unlocks all doors, she can even undo child safe locks on cupboards and drawers.  She's TWO years old, at this age Big Brother was an angel, at the time I didn't think so but now I realize he really was an angel, ESPECIALLY compared to Miss K.

We have been running a fan in her room for white noise since she was a baby.  We thought maybe that was part of what might be keeping her up at night so we tried a few nights without the fan, turns out she sleeps worse without the fan than she does with it.  I tried cutting naps down to 30 min. to an hour, that didn't work so I tried cutting nap out completely, this only resulted in a VERY unhappy little girl since she was no longer getting ANY sleep.  I have been rubbing Lavender Essential Oils on the bottoms of her feet and on her forehead every night since she started the insomnia, until recently it actually worked quite well, now it isn't doing ANYTHING for her.  We also had "calming bracelets", they worked better than the Lavender oil for a bit, now they also don't work for her.  Last night I tried using the Lavender oil in a diffuser AND I rubbed doTERRA's Balance on the bottoms of her feet and her forehead.  She actually slept for the first time in a long time, though I have no idea if it was the diffuser or the Balance.  Since I borrowed the diffuser from a friend just for the night I will be returning it today and we shall see if it was that or the Balance that made her sleep.  If we have yet another bad night I'll be purchasing a diffuser of my own, and if that doesn't work then I'll know it was just Miss K finally tiring out for a bit.  My next plan of action to get her sleeping is to try doTERRA's Serenity, and then as a last resort I would like to try Melatonin if her EP Cardiologist clears it as safe, I put a call in to him today to make sure before I try using it and am now waiting on a return call.

As far as keeping her contained goes...our door knobs are lever knobs, not round or oval ones that you turn.  We went to The Home Depot and purchased a lever knob safety latch system only to get home and find that if placed inside her door it locks us out permanently and we can only get into her room through her outside window, but it won't fit on the outside of her door because of the door jamb so that was a bust, we will be returning the safety latch tonight.  Our other options are to purchase a round knob and replace her lever knob with it, though this only works until she learns to turn a round knob, which puts us to a point of needing to put the knob on backwards so the lock is on the outside.  Our only other option is to put an eye hook in on the outside and latching her in, but I'm afraid this will only work until she gets strong enough, or determined enough, to pull the screws out of the door.

Last night Miss K slept, whether from exhaustion or because one of the Essential Oils worked, but she was awake at the crack of dawn wandering the house while the rest of us slept.  And, as if she wasn't driving me crazy enough as it was, she decided Big Brother needed to join her in her wanderings, she had him awake soon after she got up, she wandered into his room to climb in his bed with him to wake him so she'd have someone to play with.  Big Brother likes his sleep, he wasn't happy to be woken by his little sister before he was ready to be awake.