Unrest

That roller coaster ride I mentioned? It has become herkier and jerkier. I hadn't been putting the FitBit on Elijah since Christmas break began because it was soooo depressing looking at the "results" every morning. The word "HORRIBLE" may as well pop up every time I pull up his sleep log. I had him wear the FitBit last night for the first time in a while and just about choked when I saw the results this morning. He is not sleeping. We had a very rough day yesterday with behavior and this morning started off with a bang, as well. It is impossible to get E to nap during the day without a HUGE battle, so out of desperation this morning Dan and I piled all of us into the car and drove around on the interstates. That is the only way to get him to sleep! He's always been a good car sleeper. Maybe we should hire someone to drive him around all night long??

Do you like his attire? The ear muffs and monkey mittens have been staples lately, and today he added the lei. :)

This morning at 4:00 I laid in bed wide awake, as I do just about every morning. I thought about how unique the "sleep" schedule is here in our house. This is what happens (give or take 30 minutes) EVERY SINGLE MORNING in our house...

Elijah calls for me at 2:30. I go in and rub his back and he tells me he is scared. I do my best to remain totally calm and soothe him completely because anything else results in anxiety on his end. From that moment on, none of us (except Sam) sleep solidly. Dan and I get a solid stretch of sleep from about 10:00-2:30 every night. That is pretty much guaranteed, but after that we are in light-sleep/non-sleep mode.

Usually at 4:00 we start hearing him again. "Maaahhhhhh-meeeeeeeee!" over and over until one of us goes in. One of us takes another trip in to tell him he has TWO hours left to sleep.

At 5:00 he starts asking for a stuffed animal. We don't give him stuffed animals before this point...ever...because it would become a major distraction. I know he will not fall back asleep after 5:00 and I also want him to be quiet so he doesn't wake Sammy up, so I usually give him one at this point. It keeps him occupied in the dark until 6:00, which is when we get him out of bed.

One of us brings him into the loft at 6:00 and we get him settled with books on the couch. We turn on a dim light and he reads for an hour while we go back to bed to try to get our last bits of rest before getting up for the day.

We are all exhausted...all the time. Thankfully Sammy sleeps through most of this, but every few nights he hears Elijah and he is awake at 6:00, too. For the past two weeks Dan and I have worked minimally, so we've been able to take plenty of naps. Even after all of the naps, we are still so tired.

Please pray for Elijah! Pray for his brain to settle down enough so that he can sleep peacefully and be restored. Also please pray for our sanity! It's been a tough past few days and I keep praying for a turnaround day. Maybe tomorrow?! Thank you for praying and for checking in!