Kaleb sounds a lot like my own son, who just recently turned 9 years old. Like Kaleb, James is always up very early, usually around 5:30. In years past it was even earlier on many days. I always have called him my little Marine because he always gets up before daylight.

James is also a seeker, and he has also had sinus problems and sinus surgeries, tubes in his ears twice, in addition to acid reflux and sleep apnea. We had his tonsils removed over the summer to try to help with the sleep apnea but a follow-up sleep study revealed this week that the apnea is still there. We are looking at our options now to determine how to help him rest better.

One thing that has worked with James is that we use timers with him. He doesn't do well with stopping something abruptly during the day, so we usually set a timer and warn him whent he timer is getting close to going off, so that he knows to expect a change in his routine. It works so much better than just saying, "okay, it's time to do something else." James likes using timers so much, he actually asked me if I would start setting an alarm clock so he would know what time to get up. Now I set his alarm clock and he waits to get out of bed until the alarm clock goes off. I think it has resulted in him getting more rest on many days. When we forget to set it he will come in and remind me that we forgot. It has become important to him. We made it a little more fun for him by getting him a Phineas and Ferb alarm clock. That has been his favorite cartoon for quite a while now.