Dec. 17, 2005 - Sleep
It's 6am. On a Saturday. I dont sleep in, this is my usual time to be up and on the computer. Pete, who is going through one of his night owl stages, actually slept most of the night and got up with me at 5:35. For the past couple of weeks he's been awake (we do not allow him to come out of his room before 5 am) in the middle of the night a few nights a week. It goes in shifts. approx. 8 weeks worth of learning/sleep- 8 weeks worth of nightwaking , sleepy/grumpy days with little progress.
Everyone else sleeps- including Aidan, his brother who shares the room, he sleeps through it all. Aidan is my only kid I have to drag out of bed the mornings we have to be somewhere, otherwise -he sleeps in- flexibility is a homeschooling perk.
Lily "bean" turned two years old yesterday. We bought her a sweater and a purple set of measuring cups - so hopefully she'll stop stealing mine!
Jessica gave her a Care Bear she bought with money she earned doing extra jobs for me (gave her a quarter a job- I know its very little, but it's real life- working your tookis off for pennies) she was so proud to get that for her.
Today. Well today Jessica has quite a busy social calender - she's going to an all day cookie making thing. Jason is taking Aidan to watch a karate class, see if he'd like to learn too. Me- I have nothing planned but confession. I go once a month now. it is really nice. I get the jitters beforehand, but after everything is off my chest, and I receive absolution plus usually awsome advice - I feel so fresh and new.
Nothing else planned. Wow, that sounds nice.
Comments
Dec. 21, 2005 - Sleeping
Posted by KarlaAkins
I have a son who is a super night owl, too. He is 14 now and sleeping is so hard for him. I know what it's like! And it's not because he isn't made to get up. He has to get up at 7 AM regardless of how late he stays up. He is just wired that way.
Dec. 21, 2005 - I have twins with autism!
I had no idea your son had autism but when I read your post I wondered! I have twins with autism and a son who has semantic pragmatic disorder which is on the spectrum.
I don't know why other kids don't have skills as our kids do in preschool but I do know that I hate television! I think some of the reasons these kids don't have skills is that no one is working with them for one thing or reading to them for another.
We have a cottage school and I've noticed at church that the kids who go to our cottage school have much longer attention spans and better listening skills than the kids who don't. We even have one child whose mother thought her daughter needed to be around more kids than the number of kids we have at the cottage school put her daughter in another preschool and now that child is waaaaaay behind our kids of the same age. (We have a very small preschool -- about 3 kids in all.) We read to the kids at school several times a day -- I believe that has really helped them develop the habit of attention.
I think it's neat how the Lord puts us in touch with other people who know what we're going through!
My twins with autism are on medications. They did not get their dx until they were 4 years old. Until then it was just awful. And they didn't potty train until age 8. They are 10 now but thank God they at least try to get to the bathroom. There is urine all over the bathroom floor a lot of the time, but at least I'm done changing diapers and pull-ups!
Keep in touch! I'm excited to find another autie mom! Thanks for posting on my blog!
Edited by KarlaAkins on Dec. 21, 2005 at 1:39 PM
Dec. 21, 2005 - Risperdal and other meds
Posted by Anonymous
Amanda,
Thanks for your reply. My twins are on risperdal and they also take tenex which I think is a blood pressure med. Oh it has worked wonders for their sleep!
My other son takes seroquel to help him sleep.
I hate autism! But I wouldn't trade my boys for anything in the world! :-)
Are you familiar with social stories? That's what we used to help with potty training the boys, as well as story boards posted in the bathroom.
