No, that would be the sound of the white noise machine we bought for William's nursery earlier today. Based on the suggestion of the OT at CHOP's adoptive medicine clinic, we purchased one with the hopes that it would help him sleep better.
While he did shift to sleeping on Eastern Standard Time 10 days after coming home from Taiwan, William continues to have problems staying asleep during naptimes and at night. Naps are often cut short at about 30 minutes, occasionally longer, often less. Many times he wakes up crying. (Of course, it doesn't help that many of his naps are taken in the car while I'm driving Andrew to and from school, a 22 minute drive one-way).
At night, William continues to cry sproradically. Most of the time, he doesn't fully rouse, but the crying will escalate in volume and threaten to awake everyone in the house if we don't pick him up and walk him around his room. He usually returns to sleep afterwards, though once in a while he'll be up for an hour or more wanting to play. When we first returned from Taiwan, this would happen between 4-8 times a night. Lately, the average has dropped to about 2-3 rousings per night.
We don't know for sure what is causing these disturbances. We could blame them on the itchy rashes, which, with the exception of a flareup yesterday, have abated (thank you, God). They could be caused by the still-unfamiliar environment and the stress from all the upheaval he has endured recently.
Whatever the cause, he is not getting good quality sleep, a problem that can be pretty far-reaching towards many aspects of his waking day. We know this because we, as the adults who constantly get out of bed to attend to him, are also feeling the effects of disrupted sleep.
Based upon the glowing reviews given by similar, sleepless families, we decided to splurge the $69.00 it cost to buy the noisy, little machine above at Brookstone. Currently, the machine is set for "driving" mode, gently churning out the sound of motors revving along a highway. (Other modes include "white noise," "prenatal," "lullaby," "dolphins," and "heartbeat.") I nearly fell asleep listening to the humming, but then again, if you know me and my ability to nod off in moving cars, this would come as no shock.
The early response has been positive. During his late afternoon nap, William went down without crying (more on this in a later post). When I put him down to sleep for the night, he stayed awake for at least half an hour before falling asleep. He has never laid in his crib for more than a few minutes without crying, so the fact that he only let out a few whimpers is pretty amazing.
The next 8 hours will be the true test: if William manages to sleep through the night without crying, I'm shredding the receipt, throwing out the box, and buying one of these puppies for every expectant parent I know.
3 comments:
Although we're only waking once per night, I may get one of these if it works for you! At 13 mos. there's really no reason Odin shouldn't be sleeping thru...and it's like you said with William... he's not really even awake, just cries and screams until we pick him up. Can't wait to see if this works for ya'll!
Hope you are sleeping well, even as I write this. We have this white noise machine for our son. . .it's great! I hope it helps William.
Cindy
http://adopttaiwan.wordpress.com
Gosh, I can't wait to hear how it does! Our kids all sleep through the night, but it is likely that the newest little miss won't. And, boy, am I used to sleeping through the night now!
Tisra
waiting for our fourth blessing!
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