Staying awake

We’ve had a fairly quiet week. I was worried earlier in the week as Sunday night Beth was a nightmare. She has been sleeping in with me as the double bunk we bought for her and our youngest – Bridie – didn’t suit Beth. As she jumps about sometimes she kept banging her head on the top bunk and we don’t have anywhere now to put another bed. On Sunday night Beth didn’t go to sleep until 12.30am!

One of the problems I have with Beth sleeping with me is that I fall asleep before her. Beth has a fascination with me when I’m asleep, I don’t know if it’s because I snore or because I’m still but she keeps doing things like touching my face. I’m not sure if she’s checking to see if I’m still alive or because I snore so loud that she’s trying to wake me up. Either way it’s bloody annoying! On Sunday night I’d had enough. I woke with a start to Beth pinching my lips. I had fallen asleep with the tv on and Beth was still watching something. I grabbed the remote from her hand and switched it off, yelling at her that she shouldn’t be watching it so late anyway and that I was fed up with her touching my face all the time.

Beth has got in to the habit of speaking her thoughts out aloud. She was clearly still wide awake at this stage, it was only 11.30pm after all. Well, she wasn’t happy at all that I had turned the tv off. As I was drifting off to sleep I could hear her saying things like “Good, she’s nearly asleep, I’ll get the remote back and turn the tv back on when she is.” This went on to the point that I gave her three warnings that if she didn’t shut up about the remote, she couldn’t play or watch any electronic things the following night. She just couldn’t help herself though and she ended up being banned. Finally she leapt out of bed and I yelled “What are you doing now?” Her reply was that she was just getting a drink of water, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world at midnight. Of course I was beside myself at that stage and let her have it. Finally she went back to bed. As I realised she was drifting off I heard her say “I wish my Mum wasn’t so bossy.”I said under my breath “I wish Beth wouldn’t be so naughty.”

On Monday morning I told them at school about our bad night, worried that maybe it was the medication. Luckily on Monday night Beth actually went to sleep at about 9.30pm. Before falling asleep Beth said to me “We made a deal didn’t we? I wished for you not to be bossy and you wished for me not to be naughty!” She was so cute!

Another funny little thing we’ve picked up is from the Smurf movie. You know when you see some kids movies and there is adult humour in there? The word Smurf was inserted into lots of the sentences. If they were angry they’d say “Oh for Smurf’s sake!” One of the lines we say to each other as we go to sleep now. Beth will say “I Smurf you Mum”  instead of her usual “I love you Mum.” Then she’ll have a little grin. She drives me crazy but I love her so much.

About Sarah

Mother of an autistic child wanting to write about my personal experiences
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