Sleep Update

It's now been 3 weeks since I last wrote about Moe's sleep issues. Jeff and I read your comments. We tracked and experimented. We have not done a formal sleep study, but we met with our developmental pediatrician. I'll leave out the boring details, but here is a brief summary of what we've been doing.

The first thing we did was to try take a break from the melatonin. The first day, we put down Moe down at his usual 7:00 bedtime. He didn't fall asleep, so at 8:30, we gave him the melatonin. He fell asleep within 15 minutes, and he didn't wake up until morning. We did this for the next few days.

Last week was spring break, so we decided to wait it out a little longer. We put him down at 7, skipped melatonin, and he still fell asleep around 8:30. And he didn't wake up until morning. Interesting, right?

We wondered if it was time to push Moe's bedtime back. We had thought about this but any time we tried it in the past, he woke up tired. Now I think Moe wasn't tired because he went to bed too late, but because he was awake part of the night. The melatonin was putting Moe to sleep artificially early, so he was waking up. Aha!

It's been over a week and Moe has been off the melatonin and consistently falling asleep on his own. Some days are easier than others, and he has woken up a couple nights for a brief time. But it's better

So here is what we learned:

1. Moe can fall asleep on his own. 
2. Moe doesn't need as much sleep as we thought.
3. Inconsistent sleepers are consistently inconsistent, so this will likely change again.

We're still putting Moe down early, around 7:30 or so, since it seems to take him a good hour to wind down. We wonder how much the fact that it is staying lighter later is a factor. And things may be a little different this week, since Moe will be back in school.

Hoping for the best, and enjoying some uninterrupted sleep, at least for now.