I once had a person tell me that a child with Autism at bedtime can be much like someone who has had MANY cups of coffee. They are just wired and have to let it run through their system. Tonight I would say it was a 9 or 10 cup night for Jacey. Not as bad as when she had 23 cups a few weeks ago! :o)
Restless Body Syndrome is another description I have come up with after laying with Jacey for forty minutes tonight. We lay down with her every night to get her to go to sleep. Otherwise, she is up climbing on the dresser or changing table, turning the light on and off, playing with the fan, unloading all the blankets in the drawer under the crib on top of Kenna...and all of this of course upsets Kenna who will then cry. So we lay down with Jacey until she falls asleep.
This summer we cut out her naps and that made the time for her to fall asleep SOOO much faster. It used to be an hour and a half, easily, before she would fall asleep. Now, it usually takes about fifteen to maybe twenty minutes. Except for tonight of course....
When we lay with her, we completely ignore her and (I) pretend to be asleep (Judd isn't good at pretending!). (I'm HOPING that Jacey will allow the service dog to take over our job of laying with her!!!) She wiggles and moves about, covering herself with her blanket and kicking her feet to make sure that they are covered too. Then the blanket comes off and she rolls over to her other side to snuggle her blankie into her face. That might last a few seconds before she is turning back over to her other side. She will try to cover herself again with the blanket but decide she doesn't want it when she just about has herself completely covered. This goes on and on and on.....Until she finally finds that magical spot and position that works for her.
She is kind of like watching fireworks. She is constantly wiggling, and every once in a while you think she's at her grand finale with even more wiggling and then will finally settle down. But you discover that it is not her grand finale and the show goes on for another thirty-eight minutes! And finally after she has had her true grand finale of wiggles, she falls asleep.
So for the forty minutes of laying still on Jacey's bed I had a lot of time to think. It was this time when I came up with Restless Body Syndrome. So many people suffer with Restless Leg Syndrome, but for Jacey it is not just her legs, it is her entire body. And tonight happened to take forty minutes for her to get it out of her system.
....And to think if I just had half the energy she has.....
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