Landon is trying to turn me into a morning person.
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| It's a good thing he's cute |
It is very common for blind children to not sleep through the night. It is hard for their body to know that it is night time without the visual cue. It isn't unusual for a blind person to take Melatonin to create a sleep schedule. Melatonin isn't ideal though as it doesn't last through the entire night so staying asleep until morning is an issue because if they wake up in the night and don't see that it is dark out they can think it's time to get up. I imagine that a visually impaired child that does not have autism could be told that it's still night time and could probably fall back asleep. Not the case with Landon. You see it is also very common for children with autism to have trouble sleeping at night. With their never ending supply of energy it can be a struggle, to say the least. So as you can probably imagine, Landon's night time routine is not the greatest.
If Landon is asleep by 9 we think of it as a success. There have been numerous times that we have gone to bed listening to him jumping around in his room. I can usually stay awake until I know for sure that he is asleep but there have been times I just couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and so I fall asleep praying that he doesn't escape and leave the house (we have locks up high on our doors now so that's not a real concern anymore).
Once he is asleep we never know when he will wake up. Every night is different. It is not uncommon for us to hear him singing or playing with a toy at 2am. I don't mind those nights because he almost always falls back asleep. Every night/early morning when I hear him open his door I cringe and look at the clock. Normally, his wake up time is somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30. I count myself as lucky if the clock says 6:30 instead of 5:30. Every night I wishfully set my alarm for 7am in hopes that he won't wake me up before then. It does happen on occasion and I love those days. Unfortunately though, as often as he sleeps until 7am, he will throw in a 4:30 wake up. Not my favorite.
I'm sure some of you are thinking, "What's the big deal? My kids do that too". Well here's where I think it differs.
When I hear him come out of his room and I go to see him, I will approach him with an extra soft voice to test out his mood because I never know if he will be happy to hear my voice or scream at the sound of it. I'm always so relieved when he says "hi mommy". Some days he wants me and some days he wants daddy. Some days he's happy to go back to his room with some milk and a toy and other days he wants to go jump on the trampoline before the sun comes up. Hearing me say "Sorry, Buddy, it's too early" is not his favorite thing. He just does not understand why I won't fill water balloons for him or why he can't play on the piano at 5am. I try and keep him quiet and am sure everyone in this tiny sleeping town can hear him screaming at me. I've learnt that the less I say, the better. Sometimes I'll just sit beside him on his bedroom floor silently waiting until I think he is ready for me to speak. I'll quietly offer him something and he'll either accept it or start screaming and hitting me again. Most of the time I don't take it personally and continue to try and help him but once in a while I will just sit there on his floor and cry. Like I said before, I'm not at my best in the morning.
Landon's sleeping has been especially out of whack lately. We're not quite sure what is going on with him right now but it seems to also be affecting his day time. He's napping on the couch beside me right now as I write this. I know that this nap will only make bedtime more difficult tonight but I'm just letting him sleep this one out. He was having a rough day so far so he must need it. Plus he's just too cute when he's sleeping.
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| Cute, right? |
Anyway, this is an area that I wanted to share because it's another part of this autism package that people don't see. It's why I have big bags under my eyes and it's why I yawn like crazy when I'm out past 9. It's the reason I pray, a lot, in the wee hours of the morning and it's the reason I listen to songs like the one below. So if I yawn in your face during a conversation, please don't be offended, I just need a nap.
