Was awful. My little man woke up at midnight... just as I was going to bed (I was up waiting for a cake to finish baking LOL). I couldn't get him back to sleep. Basically, he was up most of the night. I tried shutting the door - he'd just open it again.
I tried holding the door handle so he couldn't open it - he'd flick the lights on, which woke his little sister.
I tried holding both the door and covering the light switch - he'd just hang around until I got tired..... the boy has so much more 'stickability' for situations than I do. He gets fixated on something, and you can't move him.
I'd put him back to bed time after time after time repeating "It's time to sleep Erik. Time for goodnight. Goodnight Erik, time to sleep now. Into bed. Goodnight". - He'd just get up again when I was out of the room. When he started laughing as I'd return him to bed each time, I quit that option... he'd somehow decided we were playing a game.
I tried sleeping in the bed with him, and catching him every time he tried to get out - I copped hits to the face, random whacks to the belly and he kept trying to climb over me to get out.
After some time, I gave up. My patience only lasts so long... especially when I am already tired and in desperate need of rest. So before I went nuts at him, I left him to his own devices, put on my sleep mask (because he was going to turn all the lights on), and went back to my own bed. I can never fully sleep while he is up and about, but at least I could rest and remove myself from the situation directly before I collapsed in a puddle of frustrated tears.
Didn't take him long to work out how to remove the tape on the light switch :(
The little one had already fallen back asleep - God bless her. She puts up with so much. Fortunately, he left his own light off and door mostly shut, so she slept through most of the rest of it too.
But left to roam the house..... he turned on all the lights, went around the place doing I don't know what. Fiddling with toys and dvd covers I presume by the sounds. And blowing raspberries. He ended up by my bed, blowing raspberries in my ear and consequently spitting all over me while I tried to rest. He tried half-heartedly to climb onto me a couple of times, but I think he really just wanted me to get out of bed.
I could not be bothered. I was exhausted, frustrated, and out of energy. I ignored him, hoping desperately that he would decide to return to bed when he found nothing else happening. At this point, I think my husband must have woken up and decided to try something. Normally, I try to avoid him being disturbed, since he has to go out to work the next day. But last night, I was way past caring anymore. I was totally spent. Good luck, I thought as he carried the boy off to his room.
My husband is fair bit taller than me. He took the light bulb out of the socket, put our protesting boy to bed, and shut the door. Then I think he held it firmly closed while our little man screamed and cried his intense displeasure. I'm pretty sure he wanted me to put him back. Daddy is just wrong, mummy is supposed to do this. I heard the light switch flick on and off several times, and thought He must be going mental in there - I didn't know at that stage that my man had taken out the light bulb, I only discovered this in the morning. Again, my thoughts turned to my baby miss who now shares the room with her big brother... I felt so sorry for her. I could hear her sweetly babbling in the background of it all. He had woken her up again.
Amazingly, after a few minutes - or so it seemed - the carrying on and crying seemed to die down. I heard my husband walk back down the hallway and get into bed. The boy didn't get up after that... but it was already 3:30am... or something like that. After the whole fiasco, I was wired and awake. Trying to get back to sleep was difficult, but I guess I did in the end. Dragged my butt out of bed at 20 past 7 this morning, wondering how on earth I would get through today. I have so much to get done, and I really don't function well on poor sleep. It's one of the reasons I sleep trained all of my children early on, even my little man - best thing for the whole family. Obviously, autism throws a few things askew.
I know many normal kids wake up at this age (3 1/2) - my daughters did. But they wake for things like, bad dreams, want a drink, want mummy, etc. You can reason with them, attend to their needs, and generally know that they understand you. With my son, it doesn't work that way. I have no clue if he has bad dreams or not. He couldn't tell me he wanted a drink if he was dying of thirst, and I highly doubt he would fall asleep in our bed - he didn't when I slept in his bed with him.
I am going to cruise the parenting forums for some tips and see what other parents have done in these situations. Hopefully, we can come up with a way to 'train' him to stay in bed until morning, even if he wakes during the night.
Soooooo tired.... :(
xx
I tried holding the door handle so he couldn't open it - he'd flick the lights on, which woke his little sister.
I tried holding both the door and covering the light switch - he'd just hang around until I got tired..... the boy has so much more 'stickability' for situations than I do. He gets fixated on something, and you can't move him.
I'd put him back to bed time after time after time repeating "It's time to sleep Erik. Time for goodnight. Goodnight Erik, time to sleep now. Into bed. Goodnight". - He'd just get up again when I was out of the room. When he started laughing as I'd return him to bed each time, I quit that option... he'd somehow decided we were playing a game.
I tried sleeping in the bed with him, and catching him every time he tried to get out - I copped hits to the face, random whacks to the belly and he kept trying to climb over me to get out.
After some time, I gave up. My patience only lasts so long... especially when I am already tired and in desperate need of rest. So before I went nuts at him, I left him to his own devices, put on my sleep mask (because he was going to turn all the lights on), and went back to my own bed. I can never fully sleep while he is up and about, but at least I could rest and remove myself from the situation directly before I collapsed in a puddle of frustrated tears.
Didn't take him long to work out how to remove the tape on the light switch :(
The little one had already fallen back asleep - God bless her. She puts up with so much. Fortunately, he left his own light off and door mostly shut, so she slept through most of the rest of it too.
But left to roam the house..... he turned on all the lights, went around the place doing I don't know what. Fiddling with toys and dvd covers I presume by the sounds. And blowing raspberries. He ended up by my bed, blowing raspberries in my ear and consequently spitting all over me while I tried to rest. He tried half-heartedly to climb onto me a couple of times, but I think he really just wanted me to get out of bed.
I could not be bothered. I was exhausted, frustrated, and out of energy. I ignored him, hoping desperately that he would decide to return to bed when he found nothing else happening. At this point, I think my husband must have woken up and decided to try something. Normally, I try to avoid him being disturbed, since he has to go out to work the next day. But last night, I was way past caring anymore. I was totally spent. Good luck, I thought as he carried the boy off to his room.
My husband is fair bit taller than me. He took the light bulb out of the socket, put our protesting boy to bed, and shut the door. Then I think he held it firmly closed while our little man screamed and cried his intense displeasure. I'm pretty sure he wanted me to put him back. Daddy is just wrong, mummy is supposed to do this. I heard the light switch flick on and off several times, and thought He must be going mental in there - I didn't know at that stage that my man had taken out the light bulb, I only discovered this in the morning. Again, my thoughts turned to my baby miss who now shares the room with her big brother... I felt so sorry for her. I could hear her sweetly babbling in the background of it all. He had woken her up again.
Amazingly, after a few minutes - or so it seemed - the carrying on and crying seemed to die down. I heard my husband walk back down the hallway and get into bed. The boy didn't get up after that... but it was already 3:30am... or something like that. After the whole fiasco, I was wired and awake. Trying to get back to sleep was difficult, but I guess I did in the end. Dragged my butt out of bed at 20 past 7 this morning, wondering how on earth I would get through today. I have so much to get done, and I really don't function well on poor sleep. It's one of the reasons I sleep trained all of my children early on, even my little man - best thing for the whole family. Obviously, autism throws a few things askew.
I know many normal kids wake up at this age (3 1/2) - my daughters did. But they wake for things like, bad dreams, want a drink, want mummy, etc. You can reason with them, attend to their needs, and generally know that they understand you. With my son, it doesn't work that way. I have no clue if he has bad dreams or not. He couldn't tell me he wanted a drink if he was dying of thirst, and I highly doubt he would fall asleep in our bed - he didn't when I slept in his bed with him.
I am going to cruise the parenting forums for some tips and see what other parents have done in these situations. Hopefully, we can come up with a way to 'train' him to stay in bed until morning, even if he wakes during the night.
Soooooo tired.... :(
xx
Oh honey, that's so frustrating :( lack of sleep is very bad! I hope the rest of the week is a bit better and you manage to find some solutions to the Little man's midnight wanderings.
ReplyDeleteIt is, and I don't cope well with it! LOL. I now have a massive headache and no wits to get anything done - I even tried to start the car with the house key! ... durr! LOL We have made a couple of adjustments for tonight, so we shall see how that goes. Praying for a decent sleep ;)
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