As an #Autism parent, do you ever just feel like crying? 

I fully realize I'm a grown man but I'm so far over the edge today that I feel like breaking down. As a father to three boys with varying special needs, but all with Autism, I'm in over my head on most days. I feel like I'm being crushed under the weight of the load I have to carry. The boys have been having a rough day and that means I'm having a rough day as well. Elliott has been struggling quite a bit as well, especially in the sleep department. Rather than trying to repeatedly justify our struggle with sleep issues, I going to ask that you simply take me at my word that were doing everything we can to work through these issues. Sleep has been placed on…

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#Autism and Issues with Sleep are Killing Me

This is going to be very short and to the point.  I'm fucking exhausted. Both Elliott and Emmett are awake and show no signs of slowing down. It's currently 2 am and my body just wants to shutdown. Elliott's not been sleeping well at all since the bullying thing started up again. It may just be coincidence but that's just when this particular sleep issue began. Emmett was actually sleeping until he woke up at midnight to use the bathroom and realized Elliott was awake. I basically had a choice of making them go to their rooms and try to sleep, while I did the same or just cut my losses and move to the living room. I chose the later because it had the best chance of sleep. Elliott…

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He’s driving me f@#king crazy today

Let me start things off by reminding everyone how much I love my kids.  I've got tons of new readers and I just want to be clear on that because of the tone of this post. That said, and with my profession of unconditional love for my children, here's the deal. They are driving me fucking crazy. More specifically, Gavin’s driving me fucking crazy. The other two are actually doing okay today. Gavin is having a really tough day, in several areas of his life. Veteran readers will probably already guess that a large part of this is in regards to his constant, incessant need to talk to me. No one has this much to say and neither does Gavin for that matter. He's just talking about totally random things…

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My son’s broken heart kept him up last night

It was a rough night and a tough day. Elliott was unable to fall asleep until well after 2 am. He was very preoccupied with something that kept his brain churning throughout the night.  The most impactful thing he's stressed out about is the death of my parents dog, Bailey.. That was a couple of months ago now but Elliott's still heartbroken.  He won't talk about it and doesn't like to even admit that he's as upset as he is. Last night, he spent a lot of time drawing a pictures, which I'm allowed to share and a beautiful slideshow that he's wanting to remain private.  I didn't even know he knew how to make a slideshow but it made me tear up because it was very clear how much…

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How I’m dealing with my son’s bully

I've been largely absent the last day or so because I've been busy. Most everything can wait until a bit later today, but I did want to talk briefly about the bullying situation at school. I met with the school this afternoon and had a thirty-minute discussion about what's going on with Elliott and this bully. While I'm not happy at all, I will say that since I know how to handle this and who to talk to, the process is much easier. The person I spoke with today is very genuine, and I truly believe that she's as horrified about this as I am. In fact, she may even be more upset than I am and I'm pissed off. We decided that she would meet with Elliott on Monday…

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Can you identify the 2 reasons we experienced massive meltdowns this week? 

While I feel as though we had a pretty good week, there were two things that I can pinpoint that triggered meltdowns from my youngest of three with Autism. Meltdowns are a very dynamic phenomenon because while it's common for kids with Autism to experience them, the triggers, duration and severity of the meltdowns can and will vary from person to person. As parents, I feel like we're always on the lookout for things that will trigger a meltdown and then do whatever we can to avoid those triggers. Sometimes triggers are obvious and other times, not so much. There are times when our kids will have meltdowns and we never know what's triggered it. Typically speaking, we're usually looking at sensory issues as the trigger to many, if not…

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My son is being bullied again at school 

It's been a couple of months since we've had any issues with this kid that's bullying Elliott at school. I thought we were past all this crap. In fact, I even stopped asking about it because every time I asked Elliott, there wasn't a single issue. As Elliott was getting into the car today after school, I could see on his face that something was wrong. Before I could even ask what was wrong, he said don't bother asking about my day today because it was a terrible or something to that extent. 🙁 Of course I asked him anyway and he unloaded his frustration. Apparently, this same kid began taunting Elliott in class.  He was telling Elliott that he had taken something from him and it was in his pocket.…

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Huge Update: We need to get caught up

Rather than break this into a few different posts, I figured I would write these updates into one post, complete with videos and pictures from the last few days. So much has happened this week and as usual, I've fallen behind a bit. Now it's time that we play catch up...  Let's begin with the boy's return to Occupational and Speech Therapy this week. They've been off for a month or so due to the holidays and sickness. Both Emmett and Gavin were thrilled to get back at it.  Gavin's in Speech while Emmett's in Occupational Therapy. Both of the boys did well and they had a great time.  Check out the video and pictures of the boys in action..  ☺ https://youtu.be/4KibPu9MGag Next up is family therapy. Dr. Pattie gifted…

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