If you’ve followed my blog or read any of my post previous, you maybe have picked up on the info about my son being non-verbal. It's certainly a bit of info you need to understand the funny part in this post - but now you know either way.
My son is a terrible sleeper. I’m not sure if its because of his ASD diagnosis or if its just in his genes. You see, I am a terrible sleeper, my mom is a terrible sleeper, my daughter often wakes in the night and is a terrible sleeper. Whatever the reason, my son is a terrible sleeper.
If he does manage to nod off to sleep around 7-8pm then he wakes up about 4 am. More often though, we put him to bed around 7:30-8:00 pm and he tends to keep coming back out of his room till about 10 pm. We play this cat and mouse type game of, he comes out, we put back and so on and so on. You get the idea.
Anyhow, when he finally goes to sleep, he’ll sleep for about 8 hours; well with the odd occasion of him waking up after like 4-6 hours and waking us up at 4 am. So, he sleeps for 8 hours and wakes up around 6-7am on a regular day. He then comes downstairs for a few minutes and waits. Waits to see if we follow him. Most often we hear him and so I get up and wander down.
I know this may seem like a whole life story - but its the back story for my little post here. Believe me, the punch line is almost here and it may be something you can relate to or laugh at.
If its one of those days where we don’t hear him or are not in a rush. 5 minutes go past. Then he decides its time to take action. He wants breakfast and we have to come down to make it. So, he comes upstairs and into our room. Remember, he can’t say “Get up and make my breakfast!” as he is non-verbal. He has his own communication though. It consists of, get on the bed and jump on us to make sure we wake. Then grab the hand and try to yank us out.
Kind of reminds me of those cat videos you see, where they scratch the face of the owner to wake them up - or the dog who licks there face. With our son, its jump on us. It's not the only time he uses the bed as a trampoline, but that's similar to neurotypical kids anyhow.
There you have it, short and sweet. But I thought I’d share - probably because this morning was one of these scenarios of being dived on and pulled up.
Do your kids do anything similar? Maybe they have a different technique - like my daughter just says ‘get up lazy!’. If so, why not share it below with all of us?