I Just Need a Lot of Love, Mom

The past couple of nights have held the same cycle for us. The kiddo gets sent to bed. He comes downstairs pretending to sleepwalk. He walks over, curls up in my lap, and pretends he's fast asleep.

If I try to move him he puts on a pretty convincing performance of being asleep and unaware.

Well, convincing if it wasn't for the grin on his face. Oh how he warms my heart!

Tonight it was different.

On his way up the stairs to go to bed he dropped his container holding a bunch of food shaped erasers. He started freaking out about it because he knew he was supposed to be upstairs and he was still in the hall scrambling to pick them up. He gets upset when things don't go according to plan because he knows it can lead to "unexpected" behavior (thanks to his bsc for that gem.... /sarcasm) which really only serves to upset him more. I hear him scrambling and ask him what's going on.

I'm met with panic, whining, and him making his usual freak out noises.

I ask him again what is going on, hoping he'll just say it (I can't see him because I'm still in the living room). Same response. So I get up and to go see. He hears me walking and starts freaking out more. I walk in, assess what's going on, I tell him it's ok and to simply finish picking them up and get his teeth brushed.

I leave the hallway, hoping he'll calm down once he realizes that he was not in trouble. I hear him go upstairs and think everything is ok.  Not so much...

He's back on the steps and freaking out again. So I go investigate. By the time I get to him he's in full freak out mode. He's running to me, then away from me. He's covering his face with his hands. He's on the verge of simply falling to a heap on the floor. He can't find one of them.

I ask if he checked under the dresser in the hall. He's so busy freaking out that he tells me he can't look. Very typical when he's upset. He literally loses control and even if you walk him through something, he's just frozen and can't figure out how to do it. He just falls apart with any further attempt. So I look. It's not anywhere I can see. I tell him just to run upstairs and check his room where he has the others and make sure he actually dropped it.

Insert another freak out. I tell him he may have to go without for tonight as he has to get to bed for school and I can find it tomorrow.

Wrong answer mom.

This sent him totally over the edge. This is usually how he would respond if it was a Mario plush toy. He was crying, freaking out, total negative self talk, and talking about how he couldn't do without it.

Oy.

I have a feeling he never lost it since I can't find it anywhere. Next task? Get him back up to his room and see.

After practically carrying him upstairs, he goes running into his room and lands on his bed. His lamp isn't even on yet. This is a sure sign that all is not right. He's petrified of the dark... So I turn on his lamp, ask him where they are, and to check.

Wrong again mom...

He's now throwing himself around on the floor crying. Ok, so I will check. Lo and behold...

Yeah, he never lost it.

He immediately freezes again, panics, starts crying all over again, and repeatedly tells me he's sorry he didn't listen and check.  I keep telling him it's ok and he's just tired, he has it now, so let's go to sleep. I assure him that I love him and leave his room.

He comes down not too long later with a note and huge pout. I have him sit next to me and ask what is wrong. He's just crying. I read the note and it reads: Dear Mommy my haert (sic) is broken :( </3 :( :( from A. :( </3 </3

I give him a hug and tell him everything is ok and that I love him. He tells me he just needs some love.

Oh, this momma has lots of love to give! So we sit. Him snuggled into my side. I "give" him a piece of my "heart" (a total pantomime gesture he started long ago with me when he was sad and was missing pieces of his heart and would ask for pieces of mine to make his heart whole) to help his heart feel better.

He smiles. He feels better. He tells me he just needed a lot of love. I said, ok. Then he says: If I ever have too much love then I will always be happy.

Heartmelt!

We go back upstairs. I tuck him in again. He smiles all happy and snuggles into his blanket.

Half an hour later he is "sleepwalking" down to me and snuggles back in my lap.

I'd say all has returned to our normal.

As he lays sleeping and I sit pondering all of this I can't help but think: how true is what he said? "I just needed a lot of love." In that moment when he was upset, confused, frozen, etc, all he needed was a little bit of love for those dark skies open right back up again. And he knew it. His self awareness reappears again.

I admit, I met him with some frustration. He has school tomorrow, he's good at delays, heck I'm just tired after this long weekend... I stand corrected. He needed met with love.

Migraines, trantrums, and "wth?"

When you suffer from migraines frequently like I do (the kind that never actually go away, leave you literally on the floor, eyes squeezed shut, completely down for the count and incapable of even making a squeak) you end up with a lot of time to think. Since you can't do anything else but lay there and you don't really want to dwell on the fact that your head will probably explode at any second, you try to occupy yourself. 

Today as I laid on the couch with two of my kitty pride purring away all cuddled up with me, while my totally awesome and thankfully pretty independent child kept as quiet as he was physically able, very mindful of Mommy's ailment, I had that opportunity. These are the kind of moments you have as a single mom where you have those "what if" and "holy crap" moments. While I have learned to function despite the pain, nausea, sensitivity, etc, that goes with migraines, enough to know that if something major happened I'd still be able to work our way through it, I still freak out a little over not being able to respond.

This thought path led me to think about how hard it is to be single mom with an Autistic child. I have pretty much spent the last (almost) 10 years raising this kiddo alone. I've been getting these knock down, drag, out, ha-ha you can't do sh*t today cause of me type migraines for over 15 years. Never did I think I would ever have to figure out how to manage the two. All I can say is, "Thank god my mom lives so close!!!!" Over the years it has become a less frightening thing for me as my son gains independence and knows what do to do if something happens. Granted he'd most likely call Grandma before 911, but I'll take it!

This then led me to think about how hard it is in the dating world to find someone who can honestly handle kiddos like mine.  Thankfully, I found such a guy in my fiance, M. He is actually a little upset that he is out of town right now and unable to be here during this current episode. All I can think is, "How lucky am I?" while I sit and smile to myself. In the past with guys I've dated, they've just avoided me like the plague. This guy wants to be here, knowing all he can do is curl up with me on the couch, make sure I'm ok, and take care of my son.

Holy golden jackpot, Batman!

This then led me to think backwards through our relationship and how M has been with my son. There was a very defining moment for me, early in our relationship, where I knew we'd be ok with M. We had been together for maybe just over a month.  I had to go to rehearsal and M said he'd watch the kiddo and everything would be ok. This stopped me dead, for two reasons really. One: I never leave him with anyone who doesn't know this kid inside and out, and two: I was sure that the relationship would be heading out the door in the days following... After all, at this point I was used to people running from our situation. After he assured me many times over and told me to get the hell out already, I went to rehearsal, frequently checked in, got reports that all was well. When I got home both were all smiles and they were watching Over the Hedge. I sent the kiddo to bed and everything seemed fine.

Then that defining moment happened.

When I came back downstairs I sat on the couch. M looked at me and said he had something to show me.  While I was gone the kiddo had misplaced a toy. At the time he was still very much of the mindset that if it wasn't where he thought it was then it was gone forever, stolen, missing, he'd never see it again. Well, apparently he lost something. M had recorded the ensuing tantrum partly so I could see what happened, but I think, mostly because he was actually quite amused by it. Why was he amused? Well... M is an extremely laid back kind of guy, very sharp contrast to me for sure. Not much ruffles him at all. My son can be overly dramatic and somewhat theatrical.  Picture a scenario like this:

A is laying on a stability ball, crying, screaming, yelling, just losing his mind, incapable of listening to reason.

A: It's gone! I'll never find it! Mom will be mad cause I lost it! (screaming continues)
M: Well, if you can stop crying long enough and tell me what it looks like then we can find it.
A: It's gone! I'll never see it again!
M: It's not gone, we can find it. Why don't you tell me what it looks like?
A: (screaming and sobbing) It's gone!!! I'll never get it back!!!! (more sobbing)
M: A, we can find it. I promise. If you can tell me what it looks like I can help you find it.

This goes on for about 5 minutes or so when...

A suddenly stops.... Looks at M.... And asks hopefully, "We can find it?? Really?"
M: (chuckling at how it suddenly and finally sunk in) Yes buddy, we can find it. What does it look like?
A: Let's look for it! Maybe we can find it!
M: (more chuckling)

The wayward toy was found within 5 minutes.

Throughout the exchange you could hear M give a little chuckle during the times when A got overly dramatic (which I will admit, those moments really are funny). What got me the most, was how calm M was the ENTIRE time and how he instinctively and simply talked A through the crisis. M just kept on talking to him, trying to talk him down and realize that the world was not ending.

That's exactly what I do with him. Well, bugger. And it just came to him naturally.

I never hesitated over the idea of leaving those two alone together from that day on. The two of them are like partners in crime hiding evidence of ice cream cones and comrades in arms when ganging up on Mommy. And let's face it, sometimes he's better at handling times of crisis than I am!

I snuggled down further into the couch pillows and kitty fur. Yeah, we'll be just fine. Are we lucky or what?