“Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not.”
― Valery Satterwhite
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Sleep Issues (Part 2 of ∞)
Yesterday provided us with the quintessential example of our falling to sleep issue (which has nothing to do with the actual staying to sleep issue -- stay tuned you will enjoy that too!)
So yesterday its January 2. The winter break is over and the school bus will arrive promptly at 8:20 a.m. the following morning. And by “promptly” 8:20, I mean – not really promptly at 8:20- give or take 10 minutes. Like every other family on the spectrum or otherwise, we have to have the Little Man up, dressed, fed, and ready to go or we shall feel the wrath of the bus driver and/or the drivers of the cars who sit not-so-patiently behind the school bus waiting for him to get in and get strapped in.
[As an aside, you will not believe how impatient morning driver’s are. The short little yellow school bus stops outside our house. It is no secret what the short little bus means. It’s a universally understood symbol. We live on a relatively infrequently traveled suburban residential side street. But heaven forbid if you make a morning commuter, who could turn and avoid our street altogether, wait. We get looks, honks, huffs, and occasionally gestures. Really? I mean, really? Hey Mr. Impatient – the Little Man is a flight risk okay. We can’t stand by the curb for extended periods of time as we wait for the sometimes – on –time school bus to pull up. And, yes, he needs to be strapped in a harness. I know he is six and handsome, but he is also smart and strong, if he’s not strapped in, he’s running around. Again, did I mention it is a short, yellow, bus??? Sorry our little Autism got you a little late to your latte. Maybe you should plan better. Or go on a diet and give up the latte - fatty.]
Wow, that felt good!
Anyway, my wife and I did it all. I took him and his older brother out for some heavy physical play and some new experiences. (Okay it was Bowling. I would tell you how went, but let’s just say I will confirm that the lanes on the other side of the foul line are VERY slippery and make it difficult to catch your child as he runs down the lane after the ball he just rolled toward the pins). We wrestled at length. I then took him out for a late night walk to gaze at the stars. We read books, got a bath, and he climbed in the “white bed” in a seemingly tired state at 9:00. At about 9:15 Autism struck. A burst of energy you would not believe. I swear if I could bottle whatever causes that, I would make a killing selling that to professional athletes as a performance enhancer. Unfortunately, my poor wife had the difficult job of playing defense against that performance enhanced exhibition put on by Autism, as I had the much more difficult job (hehe) of getting the brothers to sleep. You, know the “typical brothers.” Let’s just say I fell asleep with them and woke up to the sound of the Little Man hooting and hollering something about Baby Einstein or some other muckety muck.
I would bore you with the details, but to steal a line from Seinfeld: yadda, yadda, yadda – he fell asleep at midnight.
Did I mention that you don’t tell Autism when to sleep – it tells you when its ready to go to sleep. Oh, yea, I did. See my post: Wherefore-art-thou-sleep.html
UPDATE: The so-called SuperNanny has not yet taken me up on my challenge.
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