Thursday Retake

Our autism journey

Last night Owen had a hard time going to sleep. It was the usual jumping up and down, there was a little of it, but then he started crying, mixed in between words that I couldn’t completely understand. After an hour of trying to comfort him, I picked him up and carried him to the couch. Pure exhaustion was there, but he was fighting sleep. I got him milk, rocked him for awhile, and sang songs to him. He fell asleep about twenty minutes later, with tears still wet in his eyes. He’s still sleeping and now I have tears in my eyes. I take a sip of coffee, it helps. I want Owen to be able to tell me why he was so upset, maybe it was him being overtired, maybe another growth spurt. I sat holding him after he fell asleep, he woke again as I tried to put him in his bed. I waited another ten minutes and successfully got him into his bed. I felt like last night I was doing better distracting him, correcting him, and focusing his energy on something else when he wanted to jump and scream, but then he got very upset and started crying. I have to remember everyone has bad nights. I can’t wait until he wakes up so I can see his smile. I hope he is in a good mood and the sleep took away his sadness. I have seen such incredible progress in Owen, especially over the last month. I’m thankful for this. The connections he is making are incredible. He’s five, but so many of his emotions and responses are more on the three year old level. I have to compartmentalize and then group it back together; knowing that Owen is this brilliant combination of it all. Life does not always go according to our plan, but sometimes the journey that takes is better than you could possibly imagine. This journey is emotional, but every step I’m thankful for with my sweet baby O. Celebrate the smallest of victories, rejoice in the rain, and look for the little things in life that make you go hmm. Make today matter. Smiles to all and donut daze!