Autism Awareness Day 9

Autism Awareness Day 9 - Sleep, sleep, please go to sleep. I was going to post something last night but I was too tired to mess with it so I tried to get some extra sleep. I'm tired a lot to be honest and a lot of it has to do with my boys and their sleep issues. A lot of children with Autism tend to have sleep issues. For our family it's anything from difficulty falling asleep, restlessness, leg cramps, trouble staying asleep, to waking up several times a night. Now add in the fact that I have two boys that have those same troubles and you'll soon understand why I'm tired a lot.

Both Gatlin and Draiman have issues falling asleep easily on their own. This is one reason it is important to have a consistent bed time routine to help cue their bodies into sleep time. We do give our boys melatonin, though I hope to stop using it. That helps Gatty a lot which is good so that he can sleep for school the next day but Draiman fights it like crazy so at times it's almost pointless giving it to him. Then once we get them to sleep it's a matter of keeping them asleep. They both can tend to wake up several times a night. Poor Gatlin at times wakes up with severe leg cramps which then makes it difficult to calm him down and get him back to sleep. Other times my boys will wake up at around 3 am ready to go like it's time to wake up for the day.

This can be a crazy cycle for me. I tend to stay up for a while after the boys go to sleep so that I can work on things I need to get done. Then when I'm ready to finally go to sleep about half the time Draiman has already woken up or will soon. Sometimes I spend my night back and forth dealing with one child only to get him to sleep and have the other one wake up on me. Or there are those nights that one wakes up and is so loud that they wake the other one up and no one will go back to sleep for hours at least. A lot of times I wake up with a child or two sleeping with me. Just this week I woke up with both of them laying across me.

The sleeplessness can be frustrating but it's just the way it is. Some days are good and they both will sleep through the night but unfortunately that doesn't tend to happen as often. So we just do the best we can each night and hope for the best. If a night is particularly rough then there will more than likely be naps later. Although naps for Gatty can sometimes cause more bed time issues. But like I said we do the best we can, but you'll have to forgive me if I'm not the most sympathetic to others who complain about newborns not sleeping. Most newborns will eventually learn to sleep through the night just fine. We on the other hand have been wishing for uninterrupted sleep for over 4 years now and I don't see it getting better right away. It's ok though because I love my boys regardless of any sleep I lose.