Thank You & Sleep

I truly appreciate all of the love and support I got on the blog and off...means more to me than you could know.

I thought about updating you all on Saturday after a much-needed, too-long-in-the-making, really freaking refreshing night of sleep. But then, I was afraid to jinx said good night of sleep and decided not to mention it.
Well, apparently the inner workings of my brain have some connection to the jinx gods and told them what I'd been thinking, so the bastards went and screwed up our sleep for the next two nights anyway. Sigh...

M has NOT been sleeping for over a week now. We have no idea what is going on with him. I tried to blame it on starting a new probiotic, but I don't think that is really it. He wakes up every single night (except for that amazing Friday) and comes into our room. After that, it is as though he has restless leg syndrome. I can feel his leg twitch-twitch-twitching next to mine when he is actually laying sort of still. And the rest of the time is spent shifting, sleeping upside down and sideways. Oh, and let's not forget the crying and occasional kicks and jabs at our faces. It's clearly terrible for him, and in turn, terrible for us. We're exhausted and don't know what to do to fix the problem.

Sleep was always our check mark in the positive column. Kids with autism are notoriously poor sleepers, but not our M. Our M fell asleep with little to do and stayed asleep until we woke him for school. On weekends, he could sleep until 9 or 10 am. So this new wrench in his schedule has really thrown us for a loop. I have tried melatonin, which does seem to help him with the actual falling asleep part, but certainly doesn't help with keeping him that way.

Do any of you readers have any advice for us? Have any of you in a similar position experienced this sudden HUGE change in behavior and sleep patterns in your autistic child? M is six and I am wondering if this is some sort of hormonal or growth issue. In other words, I am hoping very much that this is just a phase and will pass quickly.

Pardon me...I am about to fall asleep on my keyboard. Time to set the ol' alarm and attempt to catch a few zzz's before I pick M up from school...