Melatonin to the MAX!!

So, I mentioned a few posts back that I'm reading some books on ADHD  to refresh my memory, and to apply it to the kids and their hyper ways, scatterbrain issues, and the whole non compliance issues we are having with 2 adhd (plus) kids, and a ADHD mommy who forgets to be consistent in the routine department and consequences to keep them in a routine ( which is how ADHD kids cope best)

Some of the techniques have been things we did before, but me and my ADHD ways, I forget, stop doing them, and things go back to the chaos.But the last two days have been decent when I started the "1,2,3 magic" over again, and I've been able to nip unwanted behaviour in the bud by usually the calm but firm count of two.

One of the biggest issues of ADHD kids is night insomnia...and their inability to "shut off their brain" and get to sleep, they just keep going and going and going, and even when they are totally exhausted and totally crabby and bawling on a puddle on the floor from frustration, they still have a hard time some days falling asleep. it is completely physically and mentally and emotionally exhausting for all involved, and everyone ends up short tempered when lack of decent sleep sets in.

Last night hubby and I were laying in bed chatting and reading the books and comparing notes, and for like the 6th night in a  row, our 8 year old daughter who has been having ever increasing issues falling asleep due to her compulsive worrying and anxieties, comes in unable to sleep again, very frustrated with herself, and upset...I mention to hubby that the book I'm reading mentioned melatonin, and it was something I'd forgotten about. He reminded me that he had some he stopped using because the doctors recommended it for his CFS, but it gave him adverse side effects due to his strange and complex system functioning. So he took out the bottle, read it to see recommendations, weighed our daughter, determined a safe dose and gave it to her for a try. She took it after much convincing and crushing the small pill, and went back to bed, and nothing more was said. She seemed to fall asleep, but we were not sure how long she laid and read or watched a dvd to do so.

Then, she slept in until noon!!! And we had to get up and out the door for a party. she was SOOOO crabby...Yesterday we went to a birthday party for some friend's youngest daughter ( first bday), and we were there for a good 4 hours since I was hired to do photography for the party for them, and since I was busy flitting about the room, my kids filled up on pop and chips and other  hyper inducing foods with very little substance...we got home and once again our children were too hyper at even midnight to sleep ( usual bedtimes is 8:30 and 10 pm) they were fighting and jumping around, watching dvd's trying to "settle" in the kid den, and I was so mentally exhausted i didn't care if they did or did not sleep, I was just at LEAST hoping for a hyper focus on their parts of a movie they liked so I could have some silence and hear myself think after being at a party with over 35 people!

So, forward to today, they had finally fell asleep at like 3 ish AM, and we were heading to bed at like 4 am, because we NEED some no kid, alone time that doesn't involve sleeping side by side....they slept until about 11 am, and got up, and were their usual busy, energetic selves, running all over the house and just going totally full throttle all day.

I was so not in any position today to hear their fighting and arguments, and trying to explain personal space to a wiggling 4 year old...I'm feeling like I am getting some stomach bug of some kind, and my plans to do anything productive to make up for my total lack of housework the last 3 days was  foiled...i did a few dishes and cleaned up after the stuff they did today, so as not to have a COMPLETE disaster to clean up tomorrow or whenever I feel better, and I was mentally drained and in no mood to deal with kids again until 3 am!  

Hubby reminded me to try them both on melatonin tonight, so I broke up the doses and put it in their drinks at the table for their evening lunch ( snack really, but in Cape Breton the  food and tea consumed between the large evening meal and bedtime is called lunch)

Within 35 minutes, my son who ate his lunch licking his milk from a bowl to "play puppy" while he danced standing on the chair while eating his food, yelling and singing at the top of his lungs to annoy the pants off his sister, was laying over the computer chair in the living room, starting to look TIRED!!! and my daughter, who during her lunch at the table being pestered by her little brother ans was whining in piercing tones to tell me to make him stop bugging her and SCREAMING at him while she swung her leg from the chair in a  rhythmic motion to keep moving, was sitting easily without figitting beside hubby looking at the latest video going around on twitter ( david after the dentist!) and was giggling, not LAUGHING so loud that she was shreaking and getting wound up!!!! I looked at them and almost wondered where my children were and who replaced them with these reasonable replicas!! I then said to hubby.."I gave them the melatonin at lunch eh?" and he said, " you mean just now?" ( he still cannot understand why we east coaster call it lunch) and I said Ya.. he looked at Bupba and was in shock! " he's actually TIRED!!!"

Usually bedtime is an hour fight to get them upstairs and requires me to be with them for 4 to 5 story books, dark rooms, and whispering and keeping them in their rooms. Tonight I said " time for bed I think" and told them to head on up, and they pretty much went without arguing with ME or each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went up to check on them and found them laying on the floor in the den camped out watching fox and the hound being very interested and quiet and NOT climbing the shelves, jumping off the desks etc....so I just left them....then I went back and checked again... in less then 20 minutes of them tucking THEMSELVES in ( albeit on the floor in the den with fox and the hound playing on the TV but who am I to be a stickler at THIS point!), they were both asleep!!!!!!

I almost began to cry from relief!!!... it is ALMOST 2 am here, and hubby and I have had about an hour and a half of alone time already!!! I hope this is NOT an anomaly and that this will continue!!!!

Tomorrow night, I'll give them the melatonin with a snack   half hour before their respective set bedtimes and see where it takes us...lets hope we've hit on something to help them regulate their sleeping issues.

Now for the crappy part.....hubby is trying to convince ME to take melatonin too, so maybe I'll get to bed before 5 am and sleep better in the night....and I'm resisted the urge to argue about it, because 2 am is when I do my best hyper focusing on stuff like getting my website updated, or chat with my friend on gmail, or tweet, or blogging.... etc... LOL...