When Nighttime Falls

I am so glad it is summer and my attitude about schedules is fairly loose. We have been weening Ian off Zyprexa for the last few weeks, and in doing so, his sleep patterns have changed dramatically. It seems that the bi-polar diagnosis was way off. Ian was only bi-polar because he was over-medicated. Now that his meds have decreased in number and dose, my little guy is a very happy dude.

He took his last dose of Zyprexa on Thursday night. Originally, this was used to help him sleep and to gain some much needed weight. Thursday he was awake until 10:15 p.m. Friday, with none of the drug in his body, he was awake until 11:00. Last night, it was almost midnight before he fell asleep.

Around 10:00 Saturday night, Ian called for me to come to his room. He never gets out of bed to tell us something is wrong. He only gets out of bed to do something wrong. For example, I watched a quilt crawl across the floor into the play room Friday night. It then sat in the chair in front of the kids' computer and began playing Star Wars, and was surprised when I admonished it and told it to go back to bed. Last night was just as silly, but a little different.

I went to Ian's room and asked what he needed. It took about 3 minutes for him to be able to say he wanted me to snuggle with him. It made me feel good to know he still considers close time with mom to be the antidote to all his woes. The room was really dark. All I could tell was there was a strange shape in the bed, and it was breathing. I reached out to give Ian a hug and to straighten out the covers when I touched something very smooth and close to my face. It wasn't Ian's face. Thank goodness I didn't assume it was his face and offer a smooch prior to investigating.

"Ian," I asked, "is that your butt?"

Giggles came from under the quilt.

"Why is your butt on your pillow?" I inquired further.

"I don't know," he laughed.

He continued to toss himself around the bed for a few minutes, eventually planting his head on the edge of his pillow. Just when I thought he was calming down, I heard a loud thud. A moment later, Ian dived off the side of the bed next to the wall, leaving only his ankles an feet visible above the mattress.

"Ian, what are you doing?" I asked with exasperation. Only grunts and snorts came from below. "Get back in bed, silly child."

He made his way back up, brandishing his light saber.

"Will you be sleeping with that tonight?" I asked.

"Yep," he said.

Still more tossing and turning. It is difficult to cuddle up to a light saber, I would imagine. Eventually, I became weary of being the victim of random thrashing, so I tucked in Master Ian and his weapon and left the room. Descending the stairs and shaking my head, I wondered how many more hours this would go on. Before I reached the bottom step, another thud echoed from above. Steve was waiting in the foyer below.

"It's your turn," I sighed. Looks like tag team bed time is back.