Update | It's a Crappy Situation

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, for more information please read more here.

Before I get into Jaxson's poop and sleep journey, I was finally able to catch little man signing for more! I'm very happy to share Jaxson's first official sign with our readers! Yay for baby signing! Can't wait to share more!

He USE to be a GREAT sleeper:

Jaxson slept pretty well in his little rock n play sleeper up until he was eight months old. We swaddled him, he took a binky, and he was golden. It wasn't until about December after his tubes and lip and tongue clip surgery that he started to sleep poorly. He also stopped taking his binky so we thought maybe there was a correlation with the surgery and sleep problems. We were wrong.

One of the features of DYRK1A Syndrome is sleep disorders. I was researching within the Support Group and found endless posts about our littles not sleeping well. Some tried different medication, a weighted blanket, co-sleeping, anything and everything. I was an exhausted momma and up until a month ago I didn't want to consider sleeping aids. Not that I have anything against sleeping aids, I am just an overly paranoid mother haha. Jaxson was diagnosed with central and obstructive sleep apnea when he was itty bitty so sleeping aids made me uneasy. Our Pediatrician reassured me that he will be fine as long as I keep it at 1mg.

We started 1mg of Melatonin mixed with his last bottle of milk and within 30 minutes he's asleep. Which is a miracle because sleep has been nonexistent with Jaxson. Sometimes you can find him up until midnight, fall asleep, and up a couple hours later. He does seem to be sleeping longer but I question his quality of sleep. I am questioning it because even with the Melatonin, going to bed by 9pm and waking up at 6am, he's STILL tired throughout the day. At this age JJ was taking one long nap at 11pm to 1pm. I know, I shouldn't compare my kids because every child is different. There are a bunch of children in our support group that don't sleep very well and I can't wait to have our third sleep study when we move.

We are PCS'ing to North Carolina next month and will have to look for new specialists for Jaxson. We have already been referred to Duke University since they have a prestigious Sleep Center. I'm anxious to see if his apnea eventually "resolved itself" like his Pulmanologist claimed would happen and to see what his quality of sleep is like.

Related Post: How to Prepare for a Sleep Study

Being blocked up isn't fun:

Jaxson didn't start having constipation issues until he was about five to six months old. We noticed that he would start to strain really hard to poop but really didn't think much into it. As he got older, it got worse. He started to strain really bad, screaming, spitting up, etc. I've changed his diet to prunes, pears, almond milk, you name it. It wasn't really helping much, but then I started Miralax. I started with 1 tsp a day per some families of the DYRK1A Support page and it worked wonders. He was no longer straining hard and screaming or crying.

Fast forward to the last couple days.. He has been doing great so I stopped giving him Miralax a couple weeks ago because I felt that he was eating better, more foods, and drinking fluids. Evidently I was wrong.. he is starting to strain again, hard stools, and now he's starting to throw up. Looks like Jaxson will have to continue our Miralax once a day routine and try to give him a bunch of pears, prunes, and peas (yuck!) to help things along with the Miralax. He still likes to eat some stage two baby foods so I'll stock up on some of that.

Do you have any natural constipation relief tips for this momma?

Previous Posts:

Jaxson Update | Signing

DYRK1A Awareness Day!