Sleeptime Troubles

I don't know how many of you have troubles with getting your kids to get to sleep in the evenings.

As far as I know, most Autistic people either go to bed really late, or get up in the middle of the night and do stuff - just restlessness... I'm not quite sure why.

Jono used to have dance parties in his room from around 1am to 3am, in the house we are in now we have wooden floorboards.. so that makes things very interesting of itself... we also put a lock on the outside of his door, for safety. If he was up at 3, and went into the kitchen and accidentally put the stove or oven on, our house wouldn't burn down.

Anyways... he's grown out of the dance parties now, and just has trouble getting to sleep, most nights he doesn't crash till around 10pm or so, even tho he gets put in bed 7:30 ish. He's usually up around 7:30 am... so I really don't know how he is coping on so little sleep for his age.

Tonight, he got put in bed at the usual time... I checked on all the kids about 20 min later and both his brother and sister were snoring, but he was still pacing in his room. My hubby and I settled in to watch a movie, and when the movie finished I went up to check on the kids. Jono was not in his bed.. nor in his room... this was very unusual, so I started searching.

I didn't have to look far.. his brother was on a mattress on the floor tonight, and I found Jono on his brothers bed... and as his brother and sister share a room it was very sweet to see all 3 in the one room... awwwwww shucks :)
Now just to get him to actually get to sleep a little earlier ;)

Writing

Today I found in Jonathan's school bag 3 pieces of paper with his name on them... one was tracing over dots in the right shape, the others freehand.. they were very child-like.. I'm not sure if he did them himself, or if he had someone holding his hand and directing him - I shall find out. [Edit: he had help to write them.. but he really understands that a 'J' with some scribble after it is how to write his name ]

But.. I showed them to him and praised him on writing his name.. he was well pleased.

I get amazed at times by his progression, it seems to 'normal' and at other times it seems so restricted. Some areas he functions exactly like any other boy or girl his age... and there are some kids in his class whose language is almost as restricted as his, yet have no special needs.

It's so hard to gauge just what he is learning and understanding.. at times it seems like he knows everything around him, he just doesn't want to tell us about it. Other times he is waaay in his own little world and its hard to break in... is he simply daydreaming...? I honestly couldn't tell you.

Oh, and this winter's big news.. he is actually staying under his doona, last winter it was not something he wanted and we just dressed him extra warm and hoped for the best.

With his often restless nights it seems to be getting harder and harder to get him out of bed now in the mornings... especially when the doona gets ripped off him, and he fumbles around for it then drags it back over his entire body like a cocoon.... toooo cute!