Babies Born ~ September 2007 #74

**AnyDream** · February 13th, 2014, 10:42 AM

Cass, so relieved to hear the fire is all sorted out up your way - what a country summer baptism it has been for you! xxx Weather definitely kinder here today, still warm but we've have a few microdropules of rain, hopefully more to come. Sweet relief. Class teacher at school commented how different the kids all seemed this morning.

Well I think I'll definitely have to schlep over to Ikea then (although our store is a bit haphazard with having stuff in stock). Also thinking of getting one of those multicolour LED bulbs with a remote control - for DD1. That would look awesome in a plain frosted glass lamp. Getting very serious about sleep in this house since I read the research that came out in Dec that has pretty well proven (*block your eyes and ears, Arte*) that sleep deprivation causes brain damage - evidenced by increases of proteins in the blood that are biomarkers of brain damage after only one night without sleep. Jeppers and yickkers! I don't even want to think what days, weeks, months of it must be doing to us. It's also pretty clear that collectively, we (electrified westerners) sleep nearly 2 hours less on average than we did a few decades back, and nearly 45 mins less on average than only 10 years ago. Holy duvet, Batman! So, Cally, all power to you my dear, tucked up in bed at 9.30 at night, you'll probably outlast all of us

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**ETA - actually the Ikea light I wanted was one of those daisy-looking ones but they have recently recalled them (poo!) - something about the cord needing to be affixed to the wall with clips. I hope they bring them back because a) they come in every shade of the Ikea rainbow and b) they seem to be the right combination of dim enough but bright enough to function as nightlight as well as bedside lamp. But they have these other little critter things so that'll have to do.

**Artechim** · February 13th, 2014, 11:13 AM

MD, are we always looking at the same sort of stuff?? I have just been looking into this in the past week or so and read the same thing. A has been identified at kindy as being behind developmentally and when I cast my mind back I remember that she just would not sleep as a baby for love or money. I am sure I complained at the time about her being a chronic cat napper, but aside from having to deal with her being tired and grizzly all the time I am now wondering what long term effect it had on her - she was only sleeping maybe 1.5 hours in 3-4 naps in a 15 hour day, then the broken night sleep on top. I could never get her to engage in activities and she had a terribly short attention span. Probably pretty understandable considering she was missing out on so much sleep. Apparently the effects are worse in infants

It is definitely something I will be asking the pead about when an appointment rolls around. I can only hope that it is reversible.

**AnyDream** · February 13th, 2014, 12:39 PM

MD, are we always looking at the same sort of stuff?? I have just been looking into this in the past week or so and read the same thing.

LOL! Apparently so.

My reading didn't stray into the realm of infants, but I did notice a kind of negative feedback loop where sleep deprivation = brain damage (probably incremental) and brain damage = disturbances to sleep patterns. Which kind of leaves people like me with incurably broken sleep up Foofer River (well, for now, until they crack the solution on how to scrub those bad chemicals out of your brain). That's one way to look at it. On the other hand, armed with this knowledge, we also know that any improvements we can glean in either quality or duration of sleep can have a positive, curative effect. And there are many different ways to get improvement to sleep. That's why I'm all about the colour of lighting, and turning the telly off, and wakeup times, and the magnesium/Vit D/calcium supplements, and even just taking the family along on an attitude adjustment ride (yes, I've borrowed every junior reader from the library that deals with the topic of sleep, for Miss E's benefit). I'm personally resigned to the fact that I may never stop feeling tired, BUT I'm damn well going for an improvement in brain function, any way I can.

For Miss A, I'm sure you will ask lots of probing questions. If her sleep is still poor, it might be a good idea to get her screened for apnoea/other sleep disorders. But be prepared for the answers on that front to come back as a vague "nothing identified". I understand that kids with conditions like ADHD can often have very poor sleep (and I'm sure you've already read/considered that) but it's unclear which direction the causality flows. A lot of that will be outside your control, but some of it you may be able to influence using things like strategic sunlight exposure, as well as nutritional supplements, attention to food chemicals, etc.

**Artechim** · February 13th, 2014, 01:05 PM

She sleeps alright now, a night owl still but sleeps from 9ish until about 7am. I am putting all my eggs in the restorative sleep basket, hoping that because she sleeps alright now that slowly any damage done as an infant will be corrected as her brain matures. I have looked a fair bit into ADHD (inattentive) because she is very vague and it is hard to get her attention but I wonder if it is more how the pathways formed as a baby because of the sleep thing? Egg and chicken. Then the other week the kindy teacher said she lacks empathy (not in a mean way) and doesn't interact properly socially. We have upped our efforts for one on one time because I know that she missed out a lot as a baby because W was taking up most of the day (and night) in a never ending tantrum back then. We also had a big leap when I started her on Omega 3, which reminds me that we have run out and I need to get more. There is a bit of a compliance issue with it though - the ones the kids will eat are inevitably lower dose. She was supposed to be my easy child!

**Artechim** · February 16th, 2014, 07:35 AM

Well, it looks like we won't be moving

I made DH contact the people to ask about the salary before he bothered to take two days off and travel hours to have a trial with them. Turns out they are offering a 35K base salary pay cut, bonuses and super that are better than now but overall we would end up on a much lower day to day living budget so it is probably a no.

Got hit with a tummy bug yesterday. It has been ages and was just as unpleasant as I remembered lol. I missed out on going to the A & P show where W got a third place for some of his artwork.

**Cassius2** · February 17th, 2014, 02:28 PM

Yay for no moving but BOO for tummy bug! they suck!

Miss L is doing some active after school program this afternoon...feels weird not picking her up from school at the right time...feels like i am forgetting to get her lol.

also beginning to have doubts about the school...