Will He Ever Sleep Through the Night?

Today I am utterly exhausted.

I know, part of that is my fault. I stay up until midnight at the very least, often until one thirty in the morning, writing.  My personal time doesn't begin until after nine in the evening, and I use it to recharge in a variety of ways.

But I also stay up late because I know Jake will be up at least twice before midnight, and I don't like the idea of him roaming the house without anyone supervising him. 

We have a system right now.  I'll stay at my computer writing and he will get up at ten and midnight to get a drink, then I will put him back in his bed.  It doesn't matter if there's water in a cup (or twelve cups) right next to his bed within arm's reach.  He still gets up and searches for me.  I've tried ignoring him and letting him sleep on the couch, instructing him from my chair, tucking him in and singing a song, and getting angry.  None of it will keep him from getting out of bed. Sigh.

Recently, he's also taking a pit-stop in the bathroom, which is exciting for us who have been potty training him for like FOUR YEARS now.  He's becoming aware that he needs to pee in the middle of the night.  Baby steps.

Once I go to bed, I cross my fingers and hope he doesn't get up.  Locking him in his room is frowned upon. And I have a lock on our front door that is similar to the hotel locks at the top.  It's kept him inside thus far.

Usually, he'll come crawl into bed with me sometime between two and four in the morning, and I spend the rest of the night with his face pressed next to mine, and him breathing on my face.  Drives me crazy.  And I sleep horribly.  Most days I'm a walking zombie and I try to squeeze in an hour's sleep toward mid-day. 

But he's seven and a half now.  I'm getting tired of him sleeping in my bed (and so is my husband!). We've tried weighted blankets, different pajamas - and no pajamas.  Making his room cold, music, white noise, fans, and other things. 

Now, we've completed our third sleep study and are meeting with the neurologist to get him fitted for a c-pap machine for sleep apnea.  I have NO idea how I'm going to get him to sleep with the thing on, but I'm desperate!  I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it keeps him asleep.  Because I don't know how much longer I canzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The Frustration of Being out of the Hospital only ONE day

So, we have good news....and we have bad news.

Good news is, JACOB CAME HOME A DAY EARLY YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!

Bad news is......he was re-admitted again today (Saturday) evening.

@!#$ @#$%^$%^ $%&^^#%$^ %&*(&)*(&^%*%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please excuse my mental rant as I stomp up and down, kick scream, throw things and punch holes into my walls....all in my head of course....the kids are sleeping.  I wouldn't want to wake them.  (P.S. - today would NOT be a good day to call me and see how I'm doing - just let it be.
)

It's 4 a.m. and I've just found my way home from the emergency room AGAIN.  One day after bringing Jacob home from the hospital.

He lost his IV again on Friday morning and the Dr's didn't want to have to put another one in him because it was so hard to get in and they only had two more dosages of the antibiotic, plus we're right smack in the middle of cold and flu season and he told me that Jacob would be safer at home than in pediatrics with all the sicks kids.  So, he set up to have us go see our pediatrician for our final dose of antibiotics via deep-muscle shots. 

So Friday I scrambled around, spent 3 hours to get him discharged and brought him home.  He'd been having problems with his feeding for the last 3 weeks, which we assumed was a result of his new medicines - lasiks, digoksin, Vitamin D and Zantac.  The nurses had been 'tweeking' his route of administration - when, how soon before/after feedings, etc of the medicines because he seemed to keep throwing up all of his formula and the only factor that had changed before admission was his medicines.  Before admission he never even spit up. So, we were sent home with suggestions on how we might better be able to keep Jacob's food down at home.  Other than that, he had a clean bill of health.

His first night home, was uneventful albeit restless.  He wound up sleeping on my chest as I rocked him and patted his back in the rocking recliner all night long.  He just couldn't get into a restful sleep so I'd pat him till he fell asleep.  And when I'd fall asleep and quit patting him, he's wake up and start to wiggle again. Thus was my evening.

During the day, it was again uneventful, yet restless, marred by several bouts of vomit.  Finally around 8:00 p.m. KC was feeding Jacob about 2 oz (he used to drink 4 oz at a time, but now he can only stomach 2 if we're lucky) of formula and he threw it all up.  The thing is, he hadn't had any medicines since 5p.m.  there was no reason for him to be sick.  This, plus the fact that he couldn't keep his regular formula down had us worried because now we couldn't blame the meds and now we didn't think he was getting enough formula to stay down to sustain him for very long - he was just constantly hungry.

So, KC called the hospital who told us to call the pediatrician who told us to go back into the emergency room.  They did an ultrasound on his stomach and did X-Rays.  All of them came out clear.  But the doctor decided to admit us anyway because Jacob had only gained 3 oz in the 3 weeks since he'd originally been admitted.

OK, Riddle me this, Batman????  If his weight was such an issues, how the HELL did they discharge us the day before????  They weighed him when he was admitted and they weighed him just before they left.  Why was this weight issue not caught and addressed?  Here we are BACK in the hospital full of sick children, trying to figure out how long THIS visit will be.  And why, oh why, did I have to give all of the doctors and nurses all of Jacob's medical history, medicines, dosages, etc. AGAIN,  and then have to give an explanation of why I was adamantly REFUSING to let them try to put an IV in his little body this morning when I'd just been there for 3 weeks and only left 24 hours before? Why is there such a breakdown of communication?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  I've got to get some sleep. I'm just getting madder and madder by the second.  Maybe a couple hours under my belt will do me some good.  Maybe, oh maybe, I'll be able to get through the day without punching something or someone over this whole debacle.

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