The First Week has Come and Gone....

Whew! The first week of school has come and gone and we survived. Both of us. We had a few homework battles but that is to be expected, right? It seems the Star Chart and earning the Mario plush toys has been a huge motivator for him and works wonderfully as a behavior modification plan. It has become one of my greatest ideas! Even his BSC is impressed. She even mentioned it in a meeting with her coworkers and supervisors! Whoo hoo!

Anyway, back off the side road... I've added a couple of things to his "required" items that are school related that I like quite a bit. Not only is homework one (being our biggest battle and I was forewarned he'd have math homework every night) but reading me a book is also one. On nights he doesn't have homework like Fridays and weekends? Well, he can read me another book. That makes two books and he can get his homework star! It's a great way for him to work on his reading fluency. (Can you tell I'm a teacher?)

This has actually worked out well. My fiance and I just love listening to him read. He'll do all the little voices of the characters and uses inflection! It's pretty impressive really. Not to mention how he does love to read. We have more books in this house then I have shelves to put them on! Every time the book fair comes to school this kid gets to go with a surprising amount of money and get several books. The teachers looked at me funny at first, but now they know! He'll spend every last dollar! He even helps the school aides set up the book swap and they'll let him choose a couple books in trade. He keeps bringing out books to read that I've never seen before!

What makes this chart even better right now? Since he has his own chores to do, like feed the cats and empty/fill the dishwasher and my favorite -clean up his toys, it leaves me a little more time to work on my classes for my Masters (Special Education for anyone who isn't aware). So far my house has remained relatively clean and therefore, my sanity is remaining somewhat intact. I HATE clutter. It messes with my mind. I also hate stepping on toys. Especially Legos. What makes those things hurt so much?

Anyways.... His ADHD meds haven't done a whole lot yet so his doctor doubled them. Hopefully we can see some change and we never get to "hell week." That week should be coming up soon. You know, the week where the novelty of new teachers and new classmates wears off and all hell breaks loose? I'm hoping that this year, it never happens.  Guess we'll see.

Another great thing? Sleep. Yep, I said it. He's SLEEPING! Since the melatonin dose was so high and not being effective his doc put him on a sleep aid and by golly.... It works! He's asleep within half an hour and out cold.... ALL NIGHT! Holy cow! No more 4 am eyeballs peeking over the edge of the mattress! HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I've gotten comments about how much more rested he seems at school and how he's in a much better mood walking to his class in the morning than he was last year or any other year. Yes!  Since I drop him off in the morning before school starts now he is able to wake up on his own and start his own day before we go. This is a huge plus since it's his natural clock at work here! Dropping him off and picking him up at the end of the day also gives me the face to face time with his AS teacher and aides. They actually told me last week that since they see me every afternoon they weren't going to write in the communication log because it takes too much time and they'd just talk to me when I picked him up. Ok! We still write notes obviously if need be and can contact each other by cell phone.

So far 4th grade is shaping up to be a pretty good year for him. Here's to hoping it continues!

It's ok, I'll sleep when I'm dead...

Sleep seems to be a thing of the past in this house.  My son has woken up in the middle of the night for the last couple of weeks and seems to have lost the ability to get himself back to sleep.  What ensues is lots of running up and down the hallway, lights turning on and off, and lots of being startled awake by a face sitting way to close to mine, watching me....

We have the rule that he cannot leave his room before 6:30 am.  This has actually stuck much to my relief.  He used to get up at 3am and go downstairs and play on the computer.  Since I locked the computer down and it won't let him access it before 6am that has died.  (Microsoft provides this service/software free and is FANTASTIC!)  But of course that means when he wakes, we are in close proximity to a wound up child who quickly gets bored.  The result?  No one sleeps.

The weird thing is you'd never know he was up so early.  He's always so bright eyed and grinny while the rest of us drag through the day taking naps by midafternoon.  I've never understood how that whole thing works.  If he falls asleep and wakes up, he's fine all day.  However, if he doesn't fall asleep before midnight because he has trouble falling asleep, he's one cranky terror all day.  He could get the same amount of sleep or less sleep in the first scenario, and it would still work like this.

I'll admit, there are nights that I am so worn out from several of these nights in a row that I don't even wake up for him.  He may sneak in with me or he may stay in his room.  The blessing is, he doesn't go downstairs.  It may be the ONLY rule in the house he doesn't break.  I'd swear it's the only one he actually knows how to apply to himself.  What does he do during those long dark hours?  Who knows.  Mostly read.  I always find books scattered across the floor.  He also has his dvd player up there although I'm not sure he actually plays it.  He really does his best to stay quiet so his mommy can sleep.

However, it seems that the more often this occurs, the more likely it is that he will sit on the bed and chat.  I don't know what he's talking about most of the time and I admit I mostly just grunt and make noise to acknowledge what he's saying without knowing what it is he is saying.  Trust me, it isn't easy to process Alexese when you are barely awake and your brain is not running up to speed.

After all, it is 3 am.

I do give him melatonin.  This has been a BLESSING.  He gets a pretty decent sized dose but it's my only defense to get him to sleep.  It's a well known fact that Autistics lack melatonin.  There is even a new study out there that suggests mothers of Autistics actually have reduced levels themselves and there could be a genetic link (hmm....).  I believe it.  Thousands of parents with ASD kiddos have discovered this lovely little white pill to help their children sleep.  And it really makes the difference between good days and bad days and really really bad days.  I honestly don't know where I'd be without it. However....... While it helps them get to sleep (usually within a half hour) it does NOT help keep them asleep.  That's where our trouble is.

I keep telling myself that someday he'll sleep. Someday. It's like when you have a baby and they wake every 4 hours. Someday, they sleep through the night and it is the best night of your life.

Someday.