I was wrapping presents last night, and realized that for the first time ever, I had more presents for Mikey than David. This is an anomaly because, well, to keep it super simple - David is verbal and Mikey is not so much. David has always been able to tell me what he wants, and has even been known to make elaborate and detailed lists. Mikey is quite the enigma - if you can get him to tell you what he wants, he may not want it anymore by the time Christmas rolls around. This being the case, if there's something I'm sure Mikey likes and will continue to like (for example, Disney Villains), I will grab the cheapo coloring book of Disney Villains when I see it in August & stash it away till Christmas.
I guess I'd been doing that quite a lot, because I had all sorts of bits & bobs for Mikey, yet only a couple things for David. So I go the direct route & ask David what he would like for Christmas, since he hadn't made a list. He says, "Oh, I don't really want anything - I have so much already. Maybe something handmade." GASP! This came from a 14 year old boy? My son is simply amazing, and now I want to give him the world.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Sleep
I've been trying to tell myself that I will wake up later in the mornings; allow myself to get a full night's sleep for a change, but long standing patterns are hard to break. Being the sole caretaker of my special needs kids, I am the only responsible one. If I didn't get them up & ready for school, they would not have gone. If I wasn't acutely aware of the bumps in the night, the boys might have gotten into something that I'd neglected to childproof; worse yet, Mikey could have escaped. The things that typical kids get into is not the same as autistic kids - there is a whole level of danger that these kids don't seem to sense.
Anyway, my current sleep pattern has emerged from years of having to follow the same routine, and a little bit of personal habit, too. It goes like this: at 8:00 pm, Mikey declares it is bedtime. He is nothing if not a creature of routine, and he insists on heading to bed at 8:00 every night. I am totally ok with this - by 8 pm, I am usually exhausted & ready to fall into bed myself. Now, just because Mikey demands to head to bed does not mean he is ready to sleep. Also, now that he's 14, David is becoming the stereotypical teen who wants to stay up late & sleep in. This would be ok with me if he could do it quietly. Unfortunately, he does nothing quietly.
Falling asleep is not a problem for me; staying asleep is. If I fall asleep right away, chances are that either Mikey will be talking to himself or thumping around in the room on my right and I'll wake up, or David will wake me when he thumps down the hallway to the bathroom or to his room. If I can manage to get back to sleep after this, I often wake up with thoughts of worry about things I have to get done or things I may have forgotten; again, when all the responsibility is mine, if I forget something, I don't have a backup. And after all this, when I manage to sleep again, I tend to naturally wake at 5:30 am, just because that's when the boys got up when they were smaller, and Mikey still does sometimes. 5:30 isn't too bad, but when we shift from Daylight Savings Time back to normal time, I am then waking at 4:30 am, and that isn't acceptable. THIS is what bugs me - no matter if I know I can sleep in, my body won't let me. If I stay up on the rare occasions I can have friends over, I still wake at the same time, whether I went to bed at 8 pm or 2 am. This is one area where my new found positive thinking has thus far failed me. How does one train oneself into a new sleep pattern? If you know, please fill me in - I could use the sleep. :-)
Anyway, my current sleep pattern has emerged from years of having to follow the same routine, and a little bit of personal habit, too. It goes like this: at 8:00 pm, Mikey declares it is bedtime. He is nothing if not a creature of routine, and he insists on heading to bed at 8:00 every night. I am totally ok with this - by 8 pm, I am usually exhausted & ready to fall into bed myself. Now, just because Mikey demands to head to bed does not mean he is ready to sleep. Also, now that he's 14, David is becoming the stereotypical teen who wants to stay up late & sleep in. This would be ok with me if he could do it quietly. Unfortunately, he does nothing quietly.
Falling asleep is not a problem for me; staying asleep is. If I fall asleep right away, chances are that either Mikey will be talking to himself or thumping around in the room on my right and I'll wake up, or David will wake me when he thumps down the hallway to the bathroom or to his room. If I can manage to get back to sleep after this, I often wake up with thoughts of worry about things I have to get done or things I may have forgotten; again, when all the responsibility is mine, if I forget something, I don't have a backup. And after all this, when I manage to sleep again, I tend to naturally wake at 5:30 am, just because that's when the boys got up when they were smaller, and Mikey still does sometimes. 5:30 isn't too bad, but when we shift from Daylight Savings Time back to normal time, I am then waking at 4:30 am, and that isn't acceptable. THIS is what bugs me - no matter if I know I can sleep in, my body won't let me. If I stay up on the rare occasions I can have friends over, I still wake at the same time, whether I went to bed at 8 pm or 2 am. This is one area where my new found positive thinking has thus far failed me. How does one train oneself into a new sleep pattern? If you know, please fill me in - I could use the sleep. :-)
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