eSpecially Ben

After 34 days of mostly sleeping bliss, it came as a shock when Ben stopped sleeping. At first, I blamed cake and cookies, but when sugar was not part of his diet in the following days and sleep still alluded Ben, I panicked. Ryan and I went about our days in a hazy fog, hoping each night would bring sleep. More days would follow before we would find a solution. Kim, who works with Ben each day, saw our pain and looked up ways to help Ben fall asleep after hearing about YouTube videos by Heather Feather . I was a skeptic, but by the 5th or 6th night, I played Heather's crinkling paper video. Although I dozed off, Ben left the room unimpressed. Family and friends sympathized and offered their solutions. We tried essential oils, TV, no TV, melatonin, Benadryl, special music, walks around the block and feeding Ben right before sleep. Nothing worked. During the day, it was like Zombieland at our house. Ben was a wild man until 3am, but during the day, he was grouchy an

If you have been following closely, you will know that we have been experimenting with Ben's nutrition in hopes to eliminate constipation, decrease hyperactivity at night and increase sleep productivity. In addition to Ben's nighttime antics, he started about a month ago, tearing off his pull-up, typically leaving a horrible mess of pull-up pieces everywhere. In my last post, The Real Houdini, I admitted that, we as parents, had lost that battle. But it is the war we are after and Ryan, in his infinite wisdom suggested that the reason for the pull-up disappearing act was that they were too tight. I had my doubts, but being of a gender with different parts, I did not have much experience in this department and found it hard to argue. With no other solutions on the forefront, I picked up larger pull-ups, adult size small.  It has been five nights with the new pull-up and it has remained on his body each night. We both get points - Ben for communicating his discomfort

Ben's sleeping has improved quite a bit with the recent changes in diet. His hyperactivity has all but disappeared. The last behavior still to remain is his obsession with taking off his clothes and pull-up.    We have become creative in our methods to beat Ben in this "game." For awhile, we were letting him sleep naked, but he had accidents frequently, waking him in the night, so we stopped. Then, we tried long pants, underwear over the pull-up, long johns and shorts, buttoned shorts and the latest, drawstring tied tightly inside shorts; my husband's mastermind.  Two night ago, we used the drawstring method and left Ben in his room. Minutes later, he crawled out butt naked. He had untied the shorts and pulled everything off.  Last night, with experience under my belt, I double knotted the shorts and put him to bed.  I have 30 years on this kid, I can beat him at this game and besides, no one beats a double knot.  Minutes later, Ben came out, dressed.