Sleep

I wrote about Lexy's sleep issues here.  After that time Lexy's sleep patterns have gotten better.  Most nights she can get to sleep on her own within a reasonable amount of time.  She has learned to use an array of tools to get herself to sleep...mp3 player, lava lamp, sound machine, watching the fan, musical snow globes, talking with her stuffed animals, wet cloth on her eyes, etc.  On occassion she will come out and tell us that she has tried everything and still can't get to sleep so we will give her half of a melatonin and that does the trick.

The past few nights Lexy has had a lot of trouble getting herself to sleep.  We are thinking that the anticipation of the holidays is to blame.  Even with the melatonin she has had trouble.  For a couple of nights she got herself so worked up (she was crying big crocodile tears) that Mike sat in her room and rubbed her back or held her hand so she could calm down.  Last night was a little better, we told her that we wouldn't sit in her room again and she finally got herself to sleep.

It's interesting how something as simple as upcoming holidays can cause such trouble for her.  She told us a couple of nights ago that she "couldn't make her mind stop thinking".  Poor thing has a mind that goes a million miles a minute!  Then if she gets herself worked up over not being able to go to sleep she makes it worse.  She has always had trouble with not being able to calm herself down well when she gets upset or worked up over something, we have always had to intervene for her and rub her back, rock her or talk with her. 

It's sad to watch her having such a hard time, makes me wonder if she'll ever outgrow this!