Bed

Bedtimes have been a nightmare for Bright Eyes in the last few months. I say a nightmare for him. I really mean a nightmare for us.

Before daylight saving started last October, he would crack off to sleep about 7.30 pretty easily every night.

When the switch happened and 7.30 became 8.30, I could not get his body clock to move. In fact, he began to go to sleep later and later until for the last four or five months he's been getting to sleep between 10 and 11 every night.

He's been the proverbial camel in the tent in this period. First he wanted this, and we'd give it to him to keep the peace and allow us to enjoy our evening. Then he wanted that. And that, and this and that and a bit more of that over there.

With his bedtimes in a strange pattern, his little brother was not going to be sent to bed happily, and he also has been staying up and up and up. His day-naps have had something to do with this.

Anyway, to make a long story short, tonight was the first night of my new routine. At 8, we 'shut the house down' and pretended we were all going to sleep. There was nothing else interesting to look at or do. I lay in the room with both boys until they went to sleep (on the floor!). The baby took about 45 minutes. Bright Eyes took 1 hr and 45!

My aim is to spend the next three weeks or so making it comfortable and comforting to go to sleep in the dark with the door shut and gradually move myself out. I'll also be waking him up earlier so he's more tired at night.

Preschool

Happily, Bright Eyes went off to preschool with no hiccups this morning - and apparently had a great day.

He's being quite helpful when he's motivated to be in a task. eg. if he wants a drink, he'll get out the juice and the cup for me.

He seems to have taken a step up in language and understanding today. He was literally 'bright eyed' all afternoon. He was ultra-keen to talk on the phone to his grandma. Lovely!

Carrots

Yes, Bright Eyes actually ate some microscopic pieces of carrot tonight. Probably the first vegetable he has eaten in 3 years. It's a cause for mild rejoicing.

Of course, there was a down-side - it was on a regular piece of pizza. But tomorrow night there will be GF/CF pizza on the table for him ... with carrots!!!

But on a good day...

... this is more what you get. Here he is with his new skates on. Notice he's holding on pretty tight! I've just got myself a pair so we should be able to put them on together.

On a bad day...

When Bright Eyes has a bad day, he often looks like this. His face is slightly swollen, his eyes seem bleary. He's certainly not 'bright'. I wonder what makes this happen - I wish I had more answers and solutions without having to go on extreme diets. GF/CF is bad enough.

Today...

...having an autistic son is incredibly, incredibly depressing. It's far easier to put him in front of the DVD than to interact with him.

Prayer updates

I sent this out yesterday to our group of prayer supporters.

Dear gorgeous amazing friends and family who pray for Bright Eyes,

It’s been a while between prayer updates. One reason is that I managed to give myself RSI from... no, not sport or anything sensible... but knitting! I’m now able to type a little more, but this will be short!

I asked you to pray for his relationship with his sister. The day after I sent the email out, he stopped yelling at her and hasn’t done it since. It’s definitely improved their rapport! Thanks to God. Unfortunately things with his brother are still not fabulous, but I do notice less physical bullying and more pleasant playing in general.

This month I’m asking you to pray for the following (neatly packaged into three R’s. Even if you don’t get the RDI lingo, God knows, so just say the words and he’ll get it! (: )

- Both husband and I keep having to refocus on our RDI objectives. It’s an ongoing challenge for us. Pray that we’ll be creative and persevere every day in guiding Bright Eyes.

- Bright Eyes needs to develop more resilience in things that we want him to do.

- We are working on developing more relationship through our facial expressions. Pray that he’ll ‘be with us’ and connect using his face.


Thanks guys. Your prayers really do have effect. We certainly appreciate it.