Josiah's Journey

Navigating life with a special needs child.

Sleep Solutions

By 9:44 AM

For some unknown reason Josiah has decided he no longer needs sleep.

For some unknown reason, my body has not been in total agreement with Josiah's recent decision.

The first sentence on my last blog post said, Josiah slept GREAT last night.

I think that was the last night he has slept well. Since then Josiah has been up til almost 2 am every night.

Which means of course, that either Rick or I are up til 2 am every night.

Last night I was determined to be in bed, sound asleep, by 9:30. I planned on making up for a few nights of sleep deprivation.

Never happened.

Josiah had such an exuberance of energy, much more energy that we have seen from him in a long time.

He was bouncy and vocal and wild.

Fortunately, I discovered a new trick that's been working.

I take Josiah to the couch. I bring my extra long, comfy pillow. I lay down beside him, squishing his body between mine and the back of the couch.

I pull up Netflix on my phone and Josiah and I watch, My Fair Wedding.

It's a show about a wedding planner, David Tutera, who 3 weeks before a wedding, intervenes and changes just about everything for a bride and her groom.

He takes what would have been a ho hum, mediocre occasion and creates an unbelievable, over the top, extravagant wedding.

Chandler and I love watching the show. We've seen almost every episode available on Netflix so far.

It's been helping to calm Josiah down and relax enough to fall asleep.

I'm not sure why. I don't know what it is about the show that makes a difference. But, if it works, I'll continue to watch with him.

I've tried other videos. One night I pulled up Children's Bible Story videos. Josiah wasn't interested.

I've tried Children's musical videos. Nothing.

So, a few nights ago, I went back to My Fair Wedding and Josiah was enthralled.

He literally pulled his head up off the pillow to stare intently at the screen, his face just a couple of inches away.

He smiled and seemed genuinely interested. I was amazed because Josiah does not watch T.V. or videos of any kind.

For some strange reason, he really likes this show.

Before it was over, Josiah was asleep.

It's worked now for the past 3 nights.

Last night however, since Josiah was so energetic, it took a little more effort.

After one 44 minute episode of My Fair Wedding, Josiah was still bouncy and wide awake.

It was only during the second 44 minute episode that he began to get drowsy. About half way through, Josiah started to relax.

He laid his head down on my pillow, sighed deeply and fell asleep.

I am so excited to have found something that works. I'm guessing it may only be a temporary fix though.

Before long, we'll either run out of episodes or have to figure out something else to calm down our little guy enough to get him to go to sleep.

I'm up for whatever it takes.

And who knows. When Josiah grows up, is completely cured of his challenges and becomes a world famous Wedding Planner, he'll have me to thank.

I suppose I'll let David Tutera take a little of the credit.

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