A Typical Morning - Sensory Style!

I've had several conversations recently, with various lovely people, about Sensory Issues.  It struck me, from these conversations, that there are so many things I take for granted now that actually aren't part of everyone's lives.  I wondered if reading my posts sometimes people are thinking - pah, her children don't have Autism or Sensory Processing Disorder! Look at all the stuff they do - there's no way they have those issues...... 

So I just thought I would take a few minutes to tell you the usually unwritten tale of our morning so far, on a typically ordinary day.  Today is not a Bad Day, it is actually a Good Day. Today is the best kind of day it gets, and yet this is how it has unfolded thus far....

DS has wet the bed - for the 23rd day in a row.  He is 7.  In the body of a 10-11 year old.

So, 23rd day in a row of wet bed.  This is because at the moment he is over-tired.  This is because of Sensory Issues - he has had a loose tooth and has a blocked nose (probably because of the tooth).  All of this alters the world ENTIRELY for him, as it is not how Things Should Be.  Consequently this causes a breakdown in communication between his brain and his body and a breakdown of the order of things.  This causes wakefulness, amoungst other things (a MASSIVE increase in Stimming - Self Stimulatory Behaviour - and physical manifestations).  So, the knock on effect of that is a wet bed.

Two weeks ago I replaced the mattress, and mattress protector, and we now have a fully waterproof mattress (rather than one sided) and I do 3-4 loads of washing a day to clean his bedding, and try and keep up with everyone elses washing at the same time!

So, that was the first thing of the day.

The Tooth Saga continues to affect our entire day today - as yesterday he pulled it out.  He couldn't bear the sensation any longer, and literally pulled it out of the gum.  In doing so he has broken the tooth.  This is the THIRD time he has done this :-(   So we are off to the dentist today to be X-Rayed and see whether they need to remove the remaining shards of tooth (Gee Whizz that's gonna be a whole Humdinger of fun right there!!!)   In the meantime, we are surviving with Calpol, ice cream and cold milk...... 

It also means we are going to have to get the train, as today DH has had to take the car we share to work so that he can take it for new brake pads/ discs as I was not going to do that on top of the whole dentist thing with two stimming autistic children in tow!

So, back we are to getting DS cleaned and dressed - this involved him wandering off and drawing the numbers from 14 to 100 in permanent marker on printer paper??  (I know!) Which of course went straight through to the table cloth.....

Amidst this, DD is wandering around, not quite sure what to do with herself as no-one has prompted her in to Start Up mode!  She is unable to think a cohesive thought such as 'breakfast' or 'get dressed' without prompting (SO MUCH PROMPTING!!!). She is 9.  Yes, 9.  And yes, she needs this prompting ALL THE TIME.  EVERY DAY.  ALWAYS. 

As I was busy, doing Different Things, I was unable to Prompt her - so she wandered and roamed, quite literally lost and confused - almost like a robot without programming :-(   Eventually she let the rabbit out!  Then got Super Stressed that the rabbit was out and she realized (more than 2 hours after getting up!) that she was now cold and hungry....   Of course there was much screaming, and a lot of pointing at the floor and non-verbal signals (hard for those that know my highly eloquent girl, to imagine) until we established - with much help and prompting from Mummy - that she needed to put the rabbit away, get dressed and have some breakfast (she still hasn't by the way! She is dressed, in a Halloween witches costume, but still nothing to eat or drink!).  I am still prompting (3 1/4 hours since she woke up!) - we will get there, eventually!!

Hmmm, what else - oh yes, put the rabbit away!!  Make sure other pets are fed and watered and whatever they need (I prompt, they do :-) )

DS is now dressed, in acceptable feeling clothing - this means changing yesterday's socks at lightning speed as we currently have a Thing about bare feet.  He cannot bear the sensation or the look of bare feet.  This is one of the (many!) reasons he wants to quit gymnastics, as he sometimes has to take his socks off.  It also means none of us can take our socks off in his presence, at all, ever.

Then is means finding the softest pull on clothes.  Pants are currently on the IN list, so that's a battle we're not having to have at the moment :-)

For DD, same - although she prefers not to have socks as they "crunch" or "squash" her toes - so we do have to have that battle as, at the moment, his inability to tolerate bare feet supersedes her desire not to wear socks (as we do have a number of 'acceptable' pairs of socks!).  But everything else must be soft, button-less and pull on. It CANNOT be tight and it CANNOT be loose and floaty.  Unless it is a dressing up thing - then she has to squeeze in to it like a sausage!!!!

Anyway, so back to empty the washing machine and put on the second load.  Check train times for journey to dentist later.  Make sensor-ally acceptable packed lunches, as we will be Out at lunch time, due to Dentists appointment and cannot rely on being able to get something acceptable to the palate !!   Bear in mind at this point please that before I had children I was very much in the "Children will eat what they're given, wear what they're told, do as they're told!" camp!  Oh, how life taught me a "bite-in-the-ass" lesson!  Lmao!!

So yes, lunch needs to be vegetarian (their choice, they won't eat a dead thing!).  For DD it must pretty much be white or pale yellow and not touching any other food group whatsoever. It must not be wet, blended or a mixture of food (ie she can have a white bread cheese sandwich and some sliced cucumber in a separate pot) but DO NOT put the cucumber in the sandwich - this will make you an unimaginable, despicable, tortuous &*(%$^# ! DS on the other hand is slightly easier to please, as long as you are doing a brown bread peanut butter sandwich.  If it is anything else at all you are pretty much f****!  This presents a massive problem now there are so many Nut-Free Zones :-(  In which case we are probably having milk, and maybe a flap jack!

So now we are doing Halloween colouring, while I type this to you good people - to share, as I've said, that this is a typical morning on a Good Day.  It is 10.30am, so we still have the lion's share of the day (and night!) still to go!

Oh dear God and now DS has hiccups!!!  Action stations people ;-)

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)