Oct 20 2008
Manic Monday: Bite
Prompt by Mo at Manic Monday .
The bite of cold air pierced my spine as I stood at the bathroom doorway watching a silent child staring back at me. He took a drink of water and then waited. I knew the look on his face, calculating, looking around me toward my bedroom.
Oh no you don’t, mister, I thought. I wrapped an arm around his shoulder to lead him back to his own room, but he tried to dodge. But I’d anticipated the reaction, so I got a grip on him and got him back into his room. He promptly curled into a ball on the floor, not wanting to get back into his own bed. It was 1:30.
Got him back to bed, still freezing without my robe on, and he didn’t want the light off. I learned that the stupid CFC bulb we put in his ceiling light doesn’t work on a dimmer, so I plugged in an extra night light, told Gus to go back to sleep, and got back into my own cooling bed.
I should have been glad - he woke me from a nightmare about water mains all over New York City breaking and causing massive flooding. If I’d stayed asleep any longer, there would have been a tidal wave for sure. That’s what happens when your downstairs bathroom springs a leak just before dinner.
I lay in bed, listening to the thumping of my own heartbeat, not soothing, just loud, and eventually drifted back to something resembling sleep. And wouldn’t you know it? I wouldn’t have expected inspiration to bite me in the brain stem at that hour, but it did. It was a weird stream of consciousness thing going on, but I came to the conclusion that Gus’s sleep problems started about 6 months ago - when I changed his room around! Duh! Of course that would have disturbed him! If this sounds like middle-of-the-night brilliance, also consider that I started thinking that I’d arranged the furniture in a way that didn’t work with feng shui. It was 2 a.m.; cut me some slack. So, I decided that if I am ever going to get a full night’s sleep again, I will have to put the room back to its original state. Then I went back to sleep.
For half an hour.
I heard a door open then slam shut again.
Damn.
The light was on and he was huddled back in the corner on the floor.
“Did you have a bad dream?”
“Yes.” Talking was good; now we could get somewhere. “It was about a man with a sting ray tail for a face.”
Uh huh. I’ve often heard that Aspies don’t lie. Someone should tell Gus this. It’s not that he doesn’t lie, he just really stinks at it. I knew he was making up Sting Ray Face by the little half smirk at the right side of his mouth.
I coaxed him back to bed and then asked, “Would you feel better if we moved your room back the way it was?”
His face was a sun rising over the mountaintops. “Yes,” he breathed in relief. Who knew? I promised to do it today. And then I was graced with three hours of unbroken rest.
To an Aspie, change is not always good, even 6 months later.
That was a very interesting story. I bet it could be applied to most little children.
The White House
I hate it when I have to get up earlier than normal then can’t get back to sleep!
I’m glad you’re putting his room back the way it was. Change is difficult for us all. I can only imagine how difficult it would be for a person with autism.
A moment of brillance and relief all at once! We have had that happen too. I wish they were able to express what is bothering them but with M I usually have to come up with it on my own as well. Sometimes it does take a while to figure out. I hope sleep is easier now!
Gayle: Thanks for the comment. I think lots of kids would be disturbed by rearranging the room; not sure if they’d still be disturbed after such a long time, but perhaps.
Corina: The room is now back almost the way it was. When he comes home I’ll let him decide where to put everything else.
Marla: I don’t know why it took me so long to think of this - must have been the sleep deprivation
One of my 8 year old nephews is PDD-NOS. Your story reminds me of a similar incident my sister shared. Here is an excerpt from a January 2008 post:
Good morning all! I woke up at 11:00 last night to the sound of cooking in the kitchen! Chef Thomas apparently woke up and decided to make a pie. He had taken a pie crust out of the cabinet and a brand new jar of Folgers Coffee, full box of salt, and water and was in pie heaven. Jim woke up this am for work and wanted to know why there was no coffee. Poor hubby! No coffee before work! Plenty of pie though!!!! All of you Dears have a wonderful day, I am off to Market Basket! Love #3
Your son sounds like a cool kid. It’s great you figured out why he’s having difficulty.
I read your Leary post too. Don’t put much stock into the rantings of a jackass. It’s not worth your time.
Andrea, a great story and I learned something… Thank you very much!
Happy MM! Great short story. My kids are lucky. I’m too lazy to change their room around (smile)…
Thank you for visting my blog earlier today. I invite your blog readers to see my tribute to the Black Vampires!
peace, Villager
I guess there’s a lot to be said for the comfort of familiarity, especially to special needs children.
And sleep deprivation is THE worst!
How great that you could be in tune with him enough to see it. I can reassure you that a lot of children have that same problem with change.
I hope when it’s back to its previous layout, you will get a more restful night! LOL
awww poor little guy. I love change but when I do move my furniture it keeps me up as well. I lay in bed looking around at how everything is different because I’m so excited and happy that there was a change. =)