Autistic Hangover's....recent
Taylor is like an alarm clock of sorts, because she has her own internal timing mechanism that keeps her consistent. I can usually gain 2 hours sleep before her nightly roaming occurs. I have adapted to this routine by sleeping on a couch for many years and not in a bed where I truly should be.
Such is my life. I don't complain about it any more but just accept it as being mine.
While in my nightly IM session with my friend, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet above me. When I went upstairs, there was my curly-cue on the leather chair reading her book with no pictures in it. I am convinced she is going to be Roberta Vila because of the book she reads: "HOW TO BUILD JUST ABOUT ANYTHING".
She was 1 1/2 hours early from her nightly routine.
Taylor must want to be a stripper when she grows up. She loves to take her clothes off, including her pull-up diaper. Everything is fine until she "let's loose" on the floor, or even worse--THE LEATHER COUCH OR CHAIR!
I put her pull-up and sleeper back on when I took her back to her bed and snuggled her up under the heirloom woolen blankets that she loves. She did her little, "EWWWW" which is in response to being comfy and I went back downstairs. Confident that she was now ready for sleep, I snuggled onto the LETHAL LEATHER, threw my quilt over myself, and put on the SCI FI channel for my nightcap.
As my Clonopin took effect, I heard the autistic-sounds coming from the stairs once again. The completely-naked Lady Godiva (without her horse) stood in front of me, grabbing her book to 'read' once again.
Maybe she had this need to finish a birdhouse or something. She went right back to the same page.
Again, I went upstairs, put her pull up and sleeper back on--noticing that she had gotten much better at stripping. This time she hadn’t used the zipper, but found a way to slip the clothing off of her in one single step.
Again I went downstairs, finding myself with a new series playing on Sci Fi (an hour had passed), snuggled down again under my quilt and even put the fireplace on--damn, it was getting cold outside of those blankets.
The cold didn't seem to bother my little stripper. For the third time she came down, completely naked and looking for the book that I had now hidden in the coffee table drawer.
She found it, and began reading once again.
It must have been one HELL of a project she was building. She, once again ended up on the same page of BIRDHOUSES! Maybe it was the Taj Mahal of cardinal homes that was on her mind.
I tried the snuggling on the couch. She loves doing that, for all of about 3 minutes. Her senses can't handle it for longer than that and she squirms away, talking to some unknown being in the air in a language that only she can understand.
The Clonopin were fully trying to take hold at this point, now being 3 AM and my feeling a bit punchy, I was trying to think of ways to exhaust her, including considering Benedryl at that moment. Benedryl was suggested by our grief specialists during my days of seeing aliens and hearing dead babies crying. It was also suggested by our pediatrician when Taylor began these nightly escapades.
Slap me for not being one that wants to play around with drugs. Not only that but, Taylor is not a kid that takes drugs easily. It involves me restraining her arms and legs, pouring it in her cheek, holding her down and hoping she doesn't gag on it--or worse, choke to death!
It just isn't worth it.
At 5 AM, and after her reading the same chapters for 2 hours straight, I finally saw a yawn escape from her constantly-yapping little mouth. She came over to the couch, put the quilt over her and showed me that she was, indeed ready for bed.
I took her upstairs, did the "EWWW" routine with the woolen blankets and stumbled back down to the couch once again.
Ah, to have 1 1/2 hours of uninterrupted sleep! She came down with her twin brother at 7 AM.
Because of my insurance, I have to go through some weird routine in order to get her to see a psychiatrist. Through a psychiatrist I can get the drug help that I need to deal with, not only her sensory issues (like, the vacuum causing her to BANSHEE non-stop, or the sound of someone else crying in the house, causing her to wail even louder), but to get her to SLEEP!
I have had a few callers say that, every time they call I am napping. Gee, I wonder why?
I really should set up a web cam, just so that I can play it instead of the answering machine message, having them see my nightly routine--maybe that will shut them all up on wondering why I sleep during the day so much!