Sleep, baby, sleep

I've always been an early riser.  Back when I was working in the videogame industry, I would go to sleep thinking about a problem, and dream up answers.  I'd wake up at 4:00 a.m., convinced that I had solutions to try out.  I'd shower quickly, throw on some clothes, and drive off to the office, trying all the while to reconstruct what I'd come up with.  I'd hurry to my computer and test my theory.  It was right maybe a third of the time.  On the bright side, I was up and thinking and had the office to myself (although Jason, Jeff, and Paul were often earlybirds, too). 

The usefulness of this attribute ended about 10 years ago, when I became a stay-at-home dad.  As a parent, the survival skill is to sleep when your kid sleeps.  Sleep is important.  It's important to you and your kids.  You need it to make your thinker work well.  They need it to help their brains develop and assimilate all the stuff they're learning.  A lot of ASD kids have sleep issues.  Apparently, they don't produce melatonin the way the rest of us do, which means that their systems don't recognize that it's time to snooze.

With my typical kid, I would wake up early (but after 5:00 generally), thinking about things that needed to be done. I'd go make coffee, shower, and play World of Warcraft until my son woke up at oh, say, 7:00.  It was all me-time up 'til then.  Ah, the good old days.

Bed time was kind of fun, too.  We'd sing a song, read a book , make up a story about adventures with Princess Aurora and her dragon.  There was one summer when we put his mattress inside an old camping tent and he slept in there.  It was pretty smooth sailing.

When Ben came along, things changed. He didn't want to sleep.  He would wake up in the middle of the night.  He wanted to get up and do stuff.   As parents, I think we were doing all the right things -- keeping a routine, a night light, comfy pajamas, background noise (cool-mist humidifier), etc.  It just didn't work all the time. 

Lovely Wife and I split up the responsibilities.  If there was Ben action any time after, say, 4:00 a.m., I would not be able to sleep anyway, with my morning-brain, so I might as well get up.  If it was earlier than that, she would generally take over and try to bounce him back to sleep.  This wasn't every night, but often enough to be exhausting. 

Travel is the worst though.  Sleep disruptions always occur when we travel, and there are other people to worry about, and no basement to retreat to.

A joke for ya

Little Timmy was five years old and had not spoken.  His mother had taken him to all kinds of therapists and doctors and nobody had an answer as to why.

One morning, she was making his breakfast and overdid the toast.  Being in a hurry, she buttered it and put it on his plate.

Timmy made a face and announced, clear as a bell, "This toast is burnt!"

His mother was astonished.  "Timmy!" she said, "You can talk!  In complete sentences!  Why haven't you done it before now?!"

Timmy calmly said, "Everything's been fine up to now."

I find that funny, but there are some grains of truth in it.  For instance, some Asperger's kids talk early (little professors), but some talk late, and when they do, they sometimes start out with complete sentences.

Also, one speech therapist we visited recommended making our son ask for things, even if it gets frustrating for him.  Being parents, we often know what our kids want or expect without asking.  It can help get speech going to drag your feet a little and make them use their words.