I Have a Child With Autism
Well, I should have remembered that on special occassions Leah is prone to not sleeping, even with the aid of sleeping tablets. It was the night before her 13th birthday and I allowed her to have a friend stay over as I thought she might actually wear herself out and sleep all night.
I let her stay up later and gave her the medication later than usual.. hoping we all might get a few more hours lie-in! OH NO Leah had other ideas! She first woke up at 2am saying 'its my birthday can i open my presents?' to which i replied 'Leah its too early go back to bed'. She said she couldn't sleep so i told her to watch a video or something. Then 3am came and and then 4am.. I finally caved in and gave her the presents. The largest being a laptop so she could chat to her friends on msn or whatever its called.
YOU would think I would then get some sleep? How wrong was I to think this. She thought it was broken (she was in too much of a rush and had not plugged the lead into it to keep it charged!!!) So leah being leah woke the whole house up plus our neighbours (who are still not talking to me!) and I completely lost the plot! To say I was in full party/birthday mood was not the case at all, I was knackered and close to meltdown from broken sleep and had my youngest daughter in tears as Leah kept shouting at her about the laptop. I gave her some more medication and told her enough was enough and that she had to go back to bed.. which she did till 8am.
I apologised to her friend who had never seen Leah in full swing and explained that once Leah is excited about something its hard for her to sleep. Leah came into my room as if nothing had taken place during the night. She was all smiles and singing 'its my birthday'.
Has the laptop been a blessing in disguise or a nightmare? Well... for the moment she is fixated with it and whilst its working ok (for now) she plays with it in her bedroom, which she has never stayed in for more than a few minutes; we are now getting maybe upto 2 hours of peace when she comes home from school. HOORAY. So one point to remember, if buying your child a present that needs charging... CHARGE IT UP BEFORE YOU GIVE IT TO THEM as it makes life more easier and then everyone has more fun!
