The biggest problem we’ve had, since the diagnosis, honestly is traveling. We usually handle the ‘travel’ portion of the entire itinerary just fine, but as you, my faithful readers, have seen, it’s the overnights that give us trouble.
I can handle meltdowns in amusement parks, and I can handle the Monster’s finicky eating when we’re out and about. What I can’t handle is a constant lack of sleep. Continue reading
I’ve probably been fairly spoiled, as it goes, when it comes to sleep cycles and Autism.
I see and hear a lot from other parents of children with Autism about how they have struggles with their child and sleep cycles. Admittedly, you’ve all heard about the struggles we have when we’re on the road. At home, however, we mostly don’t have that much of a problem with the Monster sleeping all night – he occasionally does get up at like 6 or so, but more often than not, he sleeps through the night or has proven capable of getting himself to go back to sleep. Continue reading
Just one of those mornings today – I got back late last night from curling, and so it figures that the Monster would wake me up at 5 AM.
In his defense, I don’t know why he was awake. I don’t know if it was a matter of a bad dream, or just being bored, or whatnot, but I woke up to him screaming, and decided to intervene before he either woke his brother or his mother. Continue reading
For a while now, the wife has wanted to get the Monster into a big boy bed.
I’m not really opposed to the idea in principle. The major issue is that he likes the futon he’s been sleeping on, and I’m more of a “hey, if it works, don’t break it” kind of person. Continue reading
A while back, the Monster decided he’d rather sleep on the futon in his bedroom instead of the toddler bed… or really any bed.
Where I sit, this isn’t a problem. I don’t care what he’s sleeping on, as long as he’s getting enough sleep and isn’t putting himself in any real danger. The wife’s of a slightly different mind, and would rather he use a bed. Continue reading
So vacation got off on the wrong foot this morning, with both children waking up before 4 AM.
Now, this wasn’t entirely the Monster’s fault – the baby woke up around 3ish and was hollering in his room, which served to wake up his big brother. That’s not to say that the walls are quite thin… but probably that we were remiss in not making sure the monitor was on and that we got the baby soon enough to keep him from waking others. Continue reading
I got home last night from my curling to hear that the Monster had decided he didn’t want to go to bed on time.
Now, usually, the Monster’s very good about going to bed – he likes his schedule, and he sticks to it well himself. I realize that all kids have these incidents, but this was a bit closer to a meltdown than the usual I-don’t-want-to-go-to-bed fits. Continue reading
I was informed, over the weekend, that I don’t talk enough about the baby. That would make sense, since the baby’s also not diagnosed with Autism, but… I digress.
One of the frequent complaints I hear from other parents in the community is the difficulty they have in getting their children on the spectrum to bed at times. (Yes, yes, I know this is a problem for most parents.) On the other hand – we almost never have an issue with getting the Monster to bed. Tell him he’s going to bed, and off he goes. Continue reading
Parents of children with ASDs are, I’m sure, aware of one of the biggest things we can do to ensure that our children behave themselves – make sure that there’s a factor of predictability to what’s going on. The Monster, for example, knows his schedule well – whether he sticks to it himself is another matter altogether, but.
Of course, going on a trip means throwing that all into chaos. Continue reading
Of all the things that we do have trouble with at home, the least stressful of them is bedtime.
I remember, as a child, putting up plenty of fights about bedtime – wanting to stay up later to watch TV, or to read, or to just do anything besides go to sleep, which was boring. (Those were the days.) And inevitably, I had ways to get around those problems, but in the end, my parents won. Continue reading