Primary school auties step into Christmas and the New Year - thread 8

[openupmyeagereyes]

New thread.

This is the continuation of the thread for parents / carers of autistic children / children with additional needs. Most of us are parents of children in year 1 / year 2.

Links to old threads

Thread 1 - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3080753-DS-with-ASD-starting-school-Sept-2018-I-am-feeling-overwhelmed

Thread 2 - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3451020-Reception-auties-2018-19-thread-2

Thread 3 - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3628263-Auties-transition-to-Year-1-thread-3

Thread 4 - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3748449-Primary-school-Auties-into-2020-thread-4

Thread 5 - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/3953023-Primary-school-auties-summer-and-beyond-thread-5?pg=1

Thread 6 - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/4166833-Primary-school-auties-spring-2021-and-beyond-thread-6?pg=1

Thread 7 -
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/4303826-Primary-school-auties-summer-and-the-new-academic-year-thread-7

dimples illuminated trail sounds lovely and at ds!

We moved into our house this time 9 years ago. I was so excited to go any buy my first real Christmas tree as an adult.

Totally agree with open And dimples, light you are completely part of this thread and there's loads of crossover! It would be very weird without you!

Open glad ds's last day was ok.

Dimples if I could reach the Christmas tree past all the boxes I would have done it first too!! The illuminated trail sounds great.

Amazingly no problem getting ds on the bus this morning and he seemed to have a good last day of term. I have been unpacking all day and I've barely made a dent!

Don't worry I wasn't threatening to leave or anything dramatic! I'm actually really glad you mentioned it @openupmyeagereyes as it's kind of an awkward topic and much better to be out in the open about everything.

We moved into our house in December too (11 years ago now!!) I remember having to dig the kitchen salt out of the kitchen box as soon as we arrived as it had been snowing and the pavement was slick with compacted ice! We'd moved from a flat and our furniture was all wrong - leaving us most of a room with just a Christmas tree in! And then our boiler leaked all over the floor when we came back after Christmas, and we met our amazing boiler engineer who rescued it for £65 (£60 call out and £5 for a new bolt). It was a 25+ year old boiler and did us another 3 or 4 years after that. Everyone else had said it was an immediate replacement job and we'd be without heat over NY!

It was a very happy time to move though, despite the boiler stress.

Love your DS's comment @dimples76! Good that he's thinking ahead .

Ha, funny how so many of us have moved this time of year. Our house was quite cold that winter as the windows were knackered and we didn't replace them until the spring.

A quiet weekend here. We were supposed to see friends tomorrow but their youngest has tested positive on a LF test today so we will go to a park instead and maybe see my parents on the way home.

I’ve moved quite a few times, people used to joke me and Dh needed a caravan. Lol. Before ds was born obvs. We have been at this house 5 years or so. No plans to move. It’s only a small 2 bed, but there are absolutely no worries about me having a second child 😂 So we don’t need another bedroom.

Ds has overflow again, he keeps leaking Pooh and it’s messy. I’ve had him back on laxido this weekend to try clear him out. Incontinence asked our gp to put it on repeat prescription, so I need to order some more tomorrow. She said I can give him 4 sachets a day if I need to, so I’m going to this week try get the backlog gone.

I’m not giving him adhd meds on a weekend anymore, i don’t notice much difference in him at all whilst he’s on it, school apparently do, so he has it school days of course, but not at home. What’s the point? I literally can’t tell he’s had anything! If it’s making him able to concentrate a bit more at school to do his work (the little work that he does) then that’s good but it’s not been the miraculous drug I was hoping for in all honesty. I’ll give him it Monday to Friday in the holidays too (anymore than 4 days off it can cause side affects when restarted) so just going to give him Saturdays & Sundays off it.

Yesterday was a bad day (he deliberately made himself sick shoving his fingers down his throat, sicking into a McDonald’s cup, silently! I honestly didn’t hear him, he was making no sound! and he waited until it was half full and chucked it at me in my car and all over my car. Took me ages to clean my car last night. what the actual fuck?!)

Today he’s been ok, he’s been pretending to record YouTube videos, hi guys, etc etc finished with thanks for watching, please subscribe to my channel. So cute 😍 he’s been quite chilled today (no adhd medication)

I asked him what on earth he was doing after the McDonald’s cup incident and he said ‘he was reaching his fingers into his sick pipe’ (he is soooo literal with his explanations)

That doesn’t want to become a thing. He’d just eaten a McFlurry too. Gross!!!

Omg @danni0509, hope all OK!
Yes, it has begun here. DS food mongering the whole time, taking food and being messy, me telling him off so of course he does it more laughing etc. Me flouncing off declaring Xmas cancelled, then him upset, then DH upset me over something little but still argh. DS just bouncing off the walls. I know I need to ignore the wind ups but it's so hard, I've got pmt too, and fed up already.
Gah. Roll on 27th although our nye break is now looking unlikely :(

danni that must have been awful, I hope the smell doesn’t linger.

Magrat NY isn’t looking promising, is it?

We went on a little walk tonight to look at some of the Christmas lights in our village. It was nice, I think we’ll do the other half tomorrow. Fingers crossed that ds goes to sleep in his own bed tonight, last night he slept in with me. Dh’s turn to do bedtime.

Oh Danni that's grim. DS used to make himself gag a lot, occasionally to the point of throwing up (but he never caught it in anything so fortunately could not throw it). I think that it is sensory seeking in overdrive. I want to type he seems to have grown out of it but that seems to be tempting fate.

I like the sound of your walk Open.

We are off to our local open air museum this afternoon which is one of my favourite places and especially lovely at Christmas. However, I am going with my sister and children so that means 2 children diagnosed ASD, 2 on waiting list for ASD assessment and a 2 year old between 2 adults. What could possibly go wrong?! Think that I just need to manage my expectations and it is likely to be a short visit. My 2 love it there as does my niece so we might split up if my nephews are not coping.

Oh Danni that's grim. DS used to make himself gag a lot, occasionally to the point of throwing up (but he never caught it in anything so fortunately could not throw it). I think that it is sensory seeking in overdrive. I want to type he seems to have grown out of it but that seems to be tempting fate.

I like the sound of your walk Open.

We are off to our local open air museum this afternoon which is one of my favourite places and especially lovely at Christmas. However, I am going with my sister and children so that means 2 children diagnosed ASD, 2 on waiting list for ASD assessment and a 2 year old between 2 adults. What could possibly go wrong?! Think that I just need to manage my expectations and it is likely to be a short visit. My 2 love it there as does my niece so we might split up if my nephews are not coping.

Next year, I'm taping a note to my door when the rotary club santa visits, telling them not to knock!! They knocked two times, DS saw santa, but today disregulated all bedtime. Santa really seems to set him off! Argh. He's just gone to sleep...

Magrat ds didn’t go to sleep until 9 and is in our bed rather than his own…

dimples open air museum sounds great. I hope it went well.

Oh dear Magrat and Open hope that you got some sleep.

At the museum Santa was driving around in an open top car and that was just the right amount of contact for my two. We had a good afternoon although DS kept raging if he didn't get his way but snapped out of it fairly quickly. We went on a carousel and it was one of those rare moments in my family where I looked around and everyone, especially DS looked so happy

But then last night DD started coughing again. I think it's the same cough that she has had on and off all Autumn but I'm keeping her home (she was meant to be at nursery) and taking her for PCR. My only available child and work-free morning has vanished and I had a v disturbed night's sleep with DD. Fingers crossed for another negative result.

Ds didn’t go to sleep until 10.30pm and was awake at 5am despite being on 2 sleep medications I might just not give him any sleep medication for a week or two and restart them and see if a break helps, although it didn’t last time. Fuck knows.

I did manage to cut his finger nails and a few of his toenails at 11pm last night when he’d finally gone off. I’m going to try finish his toes off tonight. Been going in his room with scissors for weeks! So I’m pleased I got them done last night. The things we have to do lol.

Magrat, bedtime visitors piss me right off! I don’t even like Dh coming home from work when he’s been on days as he walks in about 7.15pm. I would of been tempted to grab Santa by the beard and rough him up so he didn’t come back next year 😂

I’ve been poorly for a few days (since the day after my booster) feel tired and loads of sneezing and have a cold and just generally can’t be bothered to be a parent my dad is covid positive (he came here about 8 days ago) he got a positive test at the weekend, anyway I did a couple lft and they have been negative.

I had a very decent night actually. Ds was a bit restless around 5.20 but then went back to sleep until 6.15, a rarity here. I might move him in permanently.

Ugh, last few days. So much wrapping still to do and not sure I have enough for dh.

dimples sorry about yet another pcr for dd.

danni hope you're feeling better soon.

In the long list of "things they don't tell you about parenting" the sheer volume of wrapping involved at Christmas is high on my list. Probably my own fault for wrapping stocking stuff. OH always says not to bother but it makes the stocking last much longer when you do and I remember from childhood always being a bit disappointed if the stocking didn't last very long (spoiled I know!)

Hope you're better soon Danni! Glad to hear we are not going to be banned from family Christmas. All my outdoor shivering this week and keeping the kids out of holiday club has not been in vain!

Light I don’t think I have enough for the stocking. Ds not interested in sweets which makes it trickier as it’s easy to bulk it out then.

I am wrapping tonight. I had forgotten how much I had bought for DS, although quite a few of his are quite educational/sensory/developmental. The only thing DS asked for is a whistle. DS loves sweets but unfortunately spied the Skittles selection box when the food shopping was delivered last week and has an excellent memory for things like that so that is out.

The present that has made me cry with laughter is from my sister to DS. DS loves staircases especially spiral ones. She has got him a toy spiral staircase designed for hamsters. The packaging said 'Good boy' on the outside. He will love it.

My other problem is that I have hidden some of the presents so well that I can't find them. This is the terrible part about being a single parent - I have no one else to blame!

Oh ds loves stair cases too dimples. The first thing he asks people when he meets them is do you have straight stairs or round stairs. Good luck with your wrapping. I feel it’s such a pointless exercise, all that time doing it for it to go straight in the bin.

Danni that is DS's first question to people too! If we get a negative test result back tomorrow we are going to visit a National Trust house tomorrow primarily to admire the stairs.

Fingers crossed for a negative test and delightful stair experience!

at the stair love. That is so cute. I have a friend who has a small spiral staircase, the kids would love it.

Ds has started to swear here unfortunately, after overhearing some bloody gamers. At the moment he's not exactly sure what words are the bad ones so he occasionally says fuck but then other things that aren't swearing at all. This is when he's annoyed about not being able to play his game, obviously, the bane of our lives. The in-laws are going to be so impressed when they hear!

I had my booster today. Hoping I'll be fine as have tonnes to do still.

Oh and my period started so that's going to be a great combination.

Anyone else's DC really struggling with their excitement this week?! DS is trying so hard to keep it together but he's just so disregulated on and off, so hard! Roll on Saturday! More trying to come back down at bedtime yesterday, which hasn't happened for ages, I blame the street santa!