A Woman's Work – Brooke Basically Blogging

Sydney like many children with autism don’t require a lot of sleep. For six years Sydney and I survived on four hours of sleep each night. Sydney would wake up at 3:00 am and stay awake. Which meant I was awake. Which meant we were a hot mess for the majority of the day.

It was the grace of God that kept me sane. And God that gave me the strength to work full-time and function as a single mother.

Our sleep breakthrough came last year. Sydney discovered just how great sleep can be. She still is my alarm clock most days in the morning. Now she wakes up happy singing Walk Like An Egyptian.

Before she would wake up and need breakfast right away. Now, she will play in her room or snuggle with me. While I hit the snooze buttons a few times.

Oh, how things have changed. There are many mornings that I have to go to her room and wake her up for school. Some days she will tell me, no school today. Other days she keeps snoring and pulls the covers over her head.

I used all of the tricks I had. Syd it’s time for breakfast. Or I would blast All The Singles Ladies and dance until she would get up. These tactics were not working. In no way did I want to go back to the sleepless nights. I was glad she was getting the rest she needed. But she has to get moving in the morning.

One day I hit the snooze button one time too many. We were running late. Harrison and Sydney were both sleeping and I couldn’t get them out of bed. My first thought was to start screaming but that would just stress me out. I didn’t want to start my day that way.
I know how much Sydney likes drama and acting. I started yelling “Sydney, wake up. Moses is floating down The Nile River.” “ You have to save Moses.” Instantly, she rolled out of bed yelling “Coming Moses.” “Mommy’ s coming Moses.”

Well it worked. Thank goodness I wrapped a stuffed animal in a blanket and quickly threw it down the steps. Bye Moses!!!!

 

Autism makes us laugh. Autism has made me think out of the box. To outsiders they won’t understand some of the things that happen in Copher’s Community. This is our normal. This is our autism. This is our family.