As it nears two weeks of sleep deprivation I find myself smiling. It’s not even that hard to do, really, I mean think about all the wonderful parts of my life I love; my children, my husband, my business, my blog, my online friends and the list could go on. Although I feel really bad for my dear AJ because he is not getting the sleep his brain needs to function during the day. All too often AJ wakes up miserable and that is when I know my day will go bad. The whining, the constant crying over everything, the list goes on. AJ will rarely eat anything anymore and when he does eat he won’t sit still long enough to finish his plate of food. He is a healthy boy, as far as his pediatric check ups say but I fear something is not normal with my sweet boy.

Think about it, this is a child who has had the SAME bed time routine all of his life. The reason for a strict bed time routine is because he is a very routine driven child, so much so that he refuses to drink Juice out of his "milk cup" and will have a total melt down if something is out of order. My husband and I literally have to spell out which cups are used for whatever drink he may have, what toys he enjoys playing with, what foods he can have at what time, etc etc. His daily life is not as structured as it seems to be in this blog post, but his bed time ritual is truly the same each night and has been that way for nearly two years.

After meeting with our pediatrician, behavioral health counselor, a psychiatrist, and last a neurologist the “label” has been given, he has ADHD. I get that he may have ADHD and that the doctors wish to place this label on him, however, his daytime energy is not so out of control we can’t figure a way to bottle it up or use it towards something more productive and fun.  The problem is this boy will not sleep, and when we do finally get him to pass out in his bed he is groaning and moaning all night long. AJ is lucky to get a good hour of rest, and then it’s noises all night long.

The problem is not that AJ is up running around, and causing a ruckus, it’s that he is just flat out refusing to sleep. The new thing is now Mama me can’t sleep,  so he is literally laying in his bed, eyes ready to close, playing with his hair while sipping on his water sippy yet he "can’t sleep". My husband and I are so clueless on what to do, how to handle a child who refuses to sleep and now Baby K is starting to be the same way … it’s like a nightmare over and over again. Each night we get less than four hours of sleep and each day we are to be happy parents who are loving, fun and energetic.

How can a parent be loving, energetic and happy while suffering from sleep deprivation? Well it isn’t an easy thing to do, it take a strong will and the conscious awareness that the children need our positive energy to function during the day. Our next test for AJ will be an MRI since his EEG came back normal, as much as I wouldn’t wish anything ot be wrong for my child I partially hope they figure something out, because without some medical reasoning behind his lack of sleep we are stuck living this out until he does sleep and if he never sleeps well then I guess this our life. Each day I am thankful that my children are happy, and each day I am thankful for the strong, supportive husband I have because without the happy children and supportive husband I would lose my mind!