verytired - welcome! You don't say how old your DS is but I remember doing similar long GW sessions with our DD - for us, although we do go through continuous cycles of sleep troub, GW gets quicker and quicker each time we do - its taken 3 nights this time round, whereas it used to take weeks, even months! so for us, it was worth persevering though so frustrating at times as now DD is 3 1/2 we're able to talk with her about GW and it seems to give her the reassurance that we will be there if she needs us, but at the same time she is practicing a skill, like swimming and that takes time..i think that actually bolsters her confidence and we do definitely find she sleeps more soundly once we've made it back out of the room...come back and vent when you need!
Bek - I'm Lal! Herbal remedies - yeah, some people like them, some not..I do and use them a lot for all sorts of things. The thing I like is that if you take them per recommended doses or in conjunction with a professional therapist/homeopath/whoever, the side-effects are very minimal. I find that if its not the right remedy, it just doesn't have any noticeable effect so you can discount it after a time and you're not dealing with any further complicating side effects. If you've never tried them before, you could use them on yourself first if you're hesitant about using with your kids...although I've found we all tend to rationalise so much and the interesting thing about herbals with kids or animals is that because they don't rationalise, they have put up no psychological resistance, generally allowing the remedy to do its job more effectively. Obviously there'll be many people who will disagree about the effectiveness of such things, but even the placebo effect - does it matter if the effect is purely psychological? if it works, it works!
there are loads of good books on herbal/homeopathic remedies, and specific ones for kids, plus all the usual info online, and if you'd like to know which ones we've found useful, let me know
rinajack - am going to find out about testing for food intols, thanks for the info, our local healthfood store does offer testing...by the way, a good friend of mine with 3 children spent a long period of time of wheat/dairy/egg free with her two eldest, so i remember from her experience how utterly tedious the whole label-checking/alternative-making/eliminating process was..but ultimately so worthwhile as eventually both of them were able to gradually return to include the eliminated foods and still remain symptom-free..
interesting too to know that wrigglers eventually get the hang of co-sleeping, recurrent SA is definitely a factor for us too and that extra reassurance allows DD to bank up some sleep that helps break the OT cycle we get into..we have a lot of crying with our DD though, unless she is in a peaceful sleeping phase and I would stick with co-sleeping more readily if it meant that we all slept well as a result..but maybe it needs to be something she is allowed to get used to rather than as an emergency measure...and accepting it as it is - definitely. my resistance is on the physical/psychological side, i am prone to depression anyway and sleep dep just destroys me physically and mentally, i have precious little tolerance to it. if you needed to torture me, i would blab straight away..hmm, something to consider there...i say i'm accepting her...but on one level i'm definitely resisting it all...will wrangle with that one
not sharing with judgemental parents? definitely futile, agree..hence this thread..
anybody got any experiences to share with consulting doctors or sleep clinics or the like?
