Will The Weighted Blanket Be The Answer?
Finally, after nearly three months, we have received our handmade, custom ordered weighted blanket from Dreamcatcher Blankets. The blanket is beautiful and perfect for Ava. It is purple with a sparkly thread (which is evidently all the rage this fashion season) and has the Disney Princesses all over it. We ordered a five pound twin size blanket based on the recommendation from our occupational therapist. Tonight we try it.
I’ve put a lot of eggs in the weighted blanket basket because we’ve tried just about everything else to help Ava with her sleep issues. She used to just have a hard time going to sleep and staying asleep. Now she has major anxiety/fear issues with sleeping alone. She is in her room for just a few minutes then something happens and she absolutely panics. She’s not trying to manipulate us (I don’t think she’s cognitively at that level); she is simply terrified. She will come running out of her room at break-neck speed and her heart will be pounding so hard you think its going to come out of her chest. She doesn’t have the language capacity to tell us why she is scared so we either lay in bed with her or she comes in bed with me. Lately what has worked is having her fall asleep in my bed, then a few hours later she asks for her bed and we move her to her bed. She’ll wake up in the middle of the night wide awake and freaked out and someone ends up in bed with her. At least she stays in bed longer now, even if she’s not sleeping. Hopefully the blanket helps quell her fears as well as increases her sleep - we’re all tired in this house.
