Simon doesn’t sleep well. Simon has never slept well. The poor child may never sleep well. Our attempts to help him sleep better have resulted in him sleeping on the floor. He sleeps under ten blankets, including his weighted one. He sleeps on top of three pillows. There is cardboard blocking his entire window, leaving him the pitch black when his lights are off, his door is closed, and a towel is adjusted in front of the crack under his door. A personally mixed selection of white noise plays from an app on old, nearly dead iPhone while the lullaby versions of Smiths songs play on repeat all night. Since his first year we’ve read and followed the most scientific and plausible sleep book we could find, regulating his sleep times, getting him to bed abnormally, for modern society at least, early, following a bedtime routine.

And still, about 1/3 to 1/2 of his nights, Simon does not sleep well. We get a tiny face, inches from our own, at 2 am, requesting a pull up change. We leave our own door open, so when the lights pop on at 3:30, we can shuffle the reading boy back into bed. We get books thrown at us at 4:30 when the reading boy is more tired, more cranky, and less willing. And all three of us wake up the next morning irritable and pouty. …continue reading