Sleep

Isaac slept in until 6:15am this morning, and that was nice.

You know, nothing can really prepare you for motherhood. There are books and classes and advice, but until you're actually doing it you just don't have a clue. Motherhood is about sacrifice. We sacrifice our bodies to bring children into the world, and nothing can 100% bring back your pre-mommy body. We sacrifice our time, because it's no longer our time. In fact, our time is so rare and far and few in between that it's become sacred. And the thing we sacrifice the most is sleep. Sleep is no longer a necessity, but a priviledge.

I won't make a blanket statement and say that all ASD kids don't sleep well, but I feel confident saying that most do have sleep issues. Isaac was 3 years old before he slept through the night. We've always had a set routine for bedtime, starting at 7:30pm he has a bath and then story time and a small snack, and he's in bed at 8:00pm. Then his inner alarm would go off anywhere between 4:00am and 5:00am, and he would be up and ready to start his day. It's been maybe almost a year now that he's had his bright digital clock, and we set the rules that wake-up time is at 6:00am (a good compromise, we thought). He can wake up before then, turn on his light, read a book or quietly play with his toys, but he can't wake mom and dad up until 6:00am unless there's a problem or emergency.

Quite often in the middle of the night we'll find Isaac's bedroom light on, and he's passed back out on his bed. The night before was like that. He had some horrible allergies hit him hard, so he was just miserable. That night every time I got up to use the bathroom (every 2 hours) I'd find his light on and him asleep, so I'd turn it off and pull the covers back over him. Then he came in at 3:30am to wake us up because he thought he'd slept in past 6:00am. Since I'd already been up and down during the night using the bathroom, I was able to get Dan up and he put him back to bed.

Most days Isaac is getting us up right at 6:00am on the nose, which means he's been up for at least a little while watching the clock. So we've learned to really appreciate being able to sleep in until 6:15am, and on the rare occasion where it's 6:30am, that's just heaven.