The house that never sleeps!

[gcvmom]

I don't know what is in the air lately... difficult child 2 is up well after midnight for the second night in a row. Last night he was up until after 1:30am. Realized he never ate dinner (husband lets them fend for themselves when I'm not home to supervise) so he decides to get up and finish his leftover lunch. He finally settles down and asleep by 2am.

Tonight, same thing, but he doesn't complain of being hungry. Just says his head's buzzing again, and he's very hyperactive. He tries reading. Then he tries listening to music. Then he gets up. Then he goes back to bed. Up. Down. Up. Down. Mom, my head's buzzing. Starts singing to himself. Mom, my head's buzzing. We see the psychiatrist in two weeks, so maybe it's time for more Depakote... but he'll probably need to check levels again, too. Sigh. Just ONCE I'd like to get this kid through an entire summer without issues like this!

Then there's difficult child 1 who gets home from his sleepover today with a moderate sunburn and since he's so tired from swimming all day and staying up late, he's crabby as heck and snarling at everyone because his shoulders hurt from the sunburn. Of course I spring at the opportunity to ask him if he thinks I always nag him about wearing sunscreen or his swim shirt/rash guard to just annoy him, or if maybe there's a good reason, like, oh, avoiding sunburn? But I PUT sunscreen on, Mom! Well, either you didn't put enough on, or you got in the water too soon after putting it on, OR you never reapplied it after swimming (like it says on the label... DUH). But he doesn't really care to hear that, so I let it go and walked away as he's moaning and whining about his shoulders. He passes out around 9pm after I send him to his room for general nastiness, but then he wakes up after his little nap in an hour and is hungry, but still grouchy because of the burn.

He eats and goes back to bed, but then begins to pound on his wall (I'm upstairs brushing my teeth trying to get ready for bed, and of course, husband is sound asleep and doesn't hear anything because he wears his iPod to bed so he can't hear his CPAP/BIPAP machine), so I go running downstairs to tell him to knock it off.

After searching for the aloe, I can't find it, so I ran a tepid bath for him and he's in there now soaking in the cool water. I gave him some Tylenol, so maybe he'll get a little bit of relief from that. I confirmed that it was going to hurt for a while before it gets better... it's just one of those things we all have to deal with. He didn't like that. Gosh, I'm such a mean mom. Guess that's what happens when your kid chooses the school of natural consequences over the lessons their parents try to teach them!

 

[susiestar]

Sorry. It is a strange summer all around I think. Jessie has been staying up most of the night for WEEKS. I finally had to tell her that I didn't care if she sleeps, but she HAS to be in her room with the lights out (light from every source, I swear she has a dozen flashlights and booklights in a stash somewhere. I also had to tell her if she came in an woke me up even ONCE she had better be dying. Not needing the ambulance but DYING. Not feeling bad because she has a migraine - she knows where her migraine medications are and if she takes that dose and forgets to tell me she needs another one she can just suffer until 6 or until her dad wakes up at 5 and can get it. She is having a hard time, esp iwth the not waking mom up part of the rule. WHY does she need me to open this or that bottle in the middle of the night when I am FINALLY sleeping? It is every hour and a half that she wants me to do something.

So I think it is in the air. Cause Wiz is doing the same thing some nights.

Or else my kids are vampires.

I hope they start going to bed at a decent hour and that you can take a nap or two later today.

 

[AnnieO]

Understand and am sending lots of hugs. difficult child 1 does this - school nights, weekends, holidays, summer... Stays up till all hours. Barely sleeps when she does, and then about once every two weeks she'll pass out early (4 PM, Saturday) and sleep round the clock. I don't know how she survives. One night with less than 7 hours' sleep and I'm a zombie. I know what triggers this - nights are when creep used to go to her room.

Hopefully, you'll gets some sleep. We started the "must be in your room by 10 PM" about a year ago. It sort of works.

 

[gcvmom]

You know what, I'm wondering if difficult child 2's issue is related to the days getting even longer now that summer is in full swing and we're almost at that longest-day-of-the-year point? I know there a couple of kids on the board who are messed up this week... coincidence?

I'm getting him up at 9am and we'll see if that helps. No more sleeping until noon.

 

[AnnieO]

Errr... Longest day of the year was June 21. Summer solstice and all that.

However this is the summer midpoint (approximately - last week) - maybe that could be it. The point where things finally begin moving back towards school... Where the feeling of freedom goes away and boredom starts to set in???

 

[KTMom91]

Try tossing some tea bags in the bath water for Johnny Sunburn. The tannins help soothe the burn.

Have you started your Cleveland countdown yet?

 

[TerryJ2]

ugh. You've got your hands full.

Let's hope that difficult child 1's sunburn is a good lesson for him. One can hope!

So sorry about difficult child 2 and the sleep issue. Definitely, put him to be earlier. But the buzzing ... is that an effect of the medications? Does he have tinnitus?

 

[Mandy]

Ugh, summer's are the hardest for us and sleep! Since we also have daylight savings it really stinks when it's not dark until 10pm. If it weren't for melatonin I don't know how we would do it. I give Little Bear 1.5mg at bedtime after his nightly bath and it really works for him. easy child on the other hand wants to stay up until 1am and sleep until noon the next day. I told them next week they are getting up at 6am everyday to get ready for school!

 

[susiestar]

For the sunburn try using dairy products. Pour some milk in the bathwater (whole, skim, canned, powdered, as long as there is no sugar in it most any dairy will work, even plain yogurt), or apply yogurt directly to the skin. Not sure why it helps, but it is almost magical. You can even use cottage cheese directly on the skin. If all you have is cottage cheese it will work fine as is, but it can also be put in a blender or food processor and smoothed out.

There truly IS some enzyme or something in the dairy, I just don't know what it is. I do remember using Noxzema as a kid, or bactine, but as an adult they STING. The solarcaine with aloe can dry into almost a crust or film on the skin that the blue can of solarcaine does not.

I hope he feels better. You can use dairy WITH the tea bags also. Oatmeal in the bath is also soothing. Instead of aveeno bath stuff (which I find is exorbitantly expensive) put some oatmeal (not the sweetened stuff in the bags) in a sock or the foot of a pair of pantyhose cut to about 12-18 inches from the bottom. Use about a cup of oatmeal. Tie the end of the sock (best to use a single sock widowed by the dryer troll or the foot of a pair of snagged or holey pantyhose) firmly and put the sock of oatmeal in the bath water. Have the kid smoosh it around so it is like a sock of playdough. This will release enough of the oats so they will work like the aveeno stuff. It is FAR more reasonable than the aveeno stuff.

I hope he is less grumpy soon and that he stops hurting soon.

 

[Wiped Out]

The lack of sleep would drive me batty. In fact, I found this board after way too many nights of difficult child being up for all hours! I am so thankful we don't deal with this anymore as he now takes medications for his sleep.

Sleepovers and grouchiness I think go hand in hand, easy child turns into a total difficult child after a sleepover because of the lack of sleep.

Hugs to you and I hope there is more sleep for you tonight.

 

[gcvmom]

Thanks for the sunburn care tips! He ended up feeling better after the cool temp. bath and was able to sleep. Today it was stinging, but bearable. He's still up watching TV I need to go yell at him in a minute to shut it off.

difficult child 2 on the other hand is having a rough night. He/I forgot his afternoon Seroquel, and by the time I remembered, it just seemed like it was too late. I think that was a big mistake. By 8pm he was calling husband and I on the phone (we went out to dinner close by since we had a gift certificate and the kids didn't want to go anywhere) -- actually it was difficult child 1 on the phone saying that difficult child 2 was upset and saying he felt crazy and was just acting weird. I could hear difficult child 2 in the background kind of talking to himself and making weird noises and saying he couldn't stand how he was feeling. So I got him on the phone to talk. I asked if his head was buzzing again, and he said sort of -- he said he just felt hyper and like his head was a filing cabinet that had exploded from the inside. His thoughts were just zipping past and he couldn't hold onto them and it was making him mad. It was still early for his evening medications, but when I asked if he thought he needed them he said yes. So I checked to see if he remembered what to take since his pill box was empty, which he did, then I told difficult child 1 to supervise and told him what difficult child 2 was supposed to take and said to just make sure he doesn't make a mistake. Then I told difficult child 2 to go up to our room and watch TV until we got there, and asked difficult child 1 to sit with him.

Then difficult child 1 put the phone down and forgot to hang up. I could hear difficult child 2 sort of yelling at himself and carrying on that if this is what crazy feels like he doesn't want to find out what happens next.

So we high-tail it home (we'd already finished dinner and had been just strolling outside). difficult child 2 is lying in our bed quietly when we walked in, engrossed by the TV show. We talk to him some more and he's anxious and his pupils are dilated and he's agitated. All from one missed Seroquel, I'm thinking! He's asking how long it will take for his medications to work, poor kid. Then I ask him if he wants me to call the psychiatrist to let him know what's going on, and if he wants to leave part of the message. He does, so we make the call and he gives his file cabinet description again. I also told psychiatrist about the insomnia the last two nights -- but that he only missed one dose of one medication today.

So we'll see if I get a call back tomorrow with any instructions to adjust the medications.

He's still up reading with his light on and can't sleep and it's nearly midnight. I did get him up earlier today. Gave him his Depakote at 9am and forced him out of bed at 10am.

It just seems like maybe he needs more Depakote... we'll see.

 

[Christy]

You poor thing! You must running on empty by now.

One idea I had after reading your initial post...call the psychiatrist office and tell them that difficult child 2 has an appointment in two weeks, and you suspect that the doctor will need to adjust the depakote , can they give you have a slip for blood work now so you'll have the info at the appointment and the psychiatrist will be able to adjust the dose.

Hope the sunburn is fading!

((hugs))
Christy

 

[crazymama30]

Ugg. I sympathize with you, our house was that way before medications! husband would stay up untill I got up to go to work, and difficult child would wake up an hour before husband went to bed. Hugs. Just no fun. Summer is a hard time. For us it is the lack of schedule, structure so I have done what I could with that. It does get harder to give structure as the kids get older--I am seeing that.

 

[lizzie09]

I sympathise too...I had these night but not for a good while now.

Also just for the record, my son difficult child is on Depakote (Epilim) Chromo 500mg (1)
and recently on hols in Spain he got a severe sunburn even while wearing
sunblock...there is sun sensitivity associated with this medication.


I do hope things settle...I always am afraid of summer and the lack or routine..yoou cant beat routine everything seems to go better...roll on Autumn!!!!

 

[gcvmom]

difficult child 2 got his morning and afternoon medications on time today, and slept undisturbed until about 2:45pm (!) He was a lot calmer and said he felt a bit better.

We talked more about how he was feeling last night and how it compared to the way he feels when he says his head is "buzzing" since he used different language this time to describe it.

From what I can gather, his recent symptoms are more like intensely scattered thoughts and not being able to grasp anything, like the information was in a popcorn machine. He describes his "buzzing" as more like having too many thoughts crowding his head. I don't know that it makes any difference, but we'll try to convey the nuances when we see the psychiatrist on the 21st.

Meanwhile, the psychiatrist wants me to increase the evening Seroquel by 100mg for a week and see how he does. So he'll now be at 1200mg a day Seroquel XR and 1000mg per day Depakote ER.

Sure hope it helps, and sure hope husband continues to be involved and observant like he has the past few days (perhaps his Trileptal bump is to thank for that!) since I'll be gone for most of the next week.

Thanks for all the support!

 

[gcvmom]

Well, difficult child 2 fell asleep BEFORE midight last night!!! Amazing Although he slept late because I had to sleep in after all the chaos with easy child last night, he got his morning and lunchtime medications when he got up. So far today he seems to be doing pretty well. He's a little bit squirrely... but maybe he'll mellow out after he's adjusted to the new evening dosage level.

I left instructions on dosing with husband for the weekend. He tends to be a bit lax with timing of the afternoon medications... Hopefully he'll keep things on track while I'm gone.

 

[tiredmommy]

Poor difficult child 2, his descriptions of the filing cabinet and popcorn machine are so articulate. I really hope the new dosing helps, he's such a good kid. And kudos to difficult child 1 for recognizing that you and husband should know the level of difficulty difficult child 2 was experiencing immediately. He's a good brother.