DS, 2.6, has ASD, everyone has most likely said AS because his language skills are very very good and he doesnt appear to have any additional learning disabilities. We are still waiting for formal assessment on the NHS but as he is so young we might not get all the answers for a while although fucking NHS we are on our 4th referral now. Dont get me started.
Last couple of weeks has been really hard I have pneumonia so routine has been thrown out a bit & DS has been not well. But the meltdowns are getting so much worse. He is getting so violent its unreal, and completely unreachable.
Long story short - I am so short on sleep - last night took 4 hours after putting him to bed to get him in a state we could even communicate with. Basically he just wouldnt settle, wouldnt sleep, wanted juice instead of water or soya milk which I was reluctant to give because of sugar at night etc. It was just awful. Then as time wore on he got more and more violent and distressed. We tried everything. We left him alone, we didnt look at him or talk to him (he screams dont look at me, talk to me etc)
He wanted to come into my bed and I finally said he could but only if he took some medised first. I said this because I felt he was acting so totally out of character that I was worried he was getting under the weather again and I wanted it to help him sleep. It took another 2 hours to get him to take the medised as he doesnt like the taste. I felt we had to stick to that though as otherwise I thought we would have a night with no sleep at all and it had all gone so terribly wrong I was just trying to patch it up enough to get through the night.
When he took the medised we got into bed and fell asleep. It was me & him, DH was still up. An hour later I woke up because he was kicking me. I tried to soothe him thinking it was a bad dream. He was kicking me more and more and hitting me and just raining down hands on my head. DH came in as he heard the noise. It just got worse from there. He wouldnt let us touch him or talk to him and we had no idea what was going on. He just woke up like it. It lasted over an hour, and he crawled around the room crying and sobbing and we just sat there on the floor to make sure he was safe but couldnt do anything else. I am sure we tried things I havent mentioned here please just ask if you are wondering I am truly exhausted. It was awful watching my poor baby so confused and distressed. Eventually he started to wind down enough that we could approach him so I held him on the bed - he was in front of me, his back to my tummy - he was between my legs with my arms & legs wrapped around him and I held him there until he fell asleep.
DH and I talked about what had happened. Then I tried to lay him down next to me so we could all go back to sleep. He woke up and it started over again and I instantly went back to the restraint like hold and stayed in that position for around an hour til he was so fast asleep I could lay him down. We then slept a good 5 or 6 hours til just now.
What is happening? I thought of AS as making him socially awkward. He is more and more like what I think of as more "classic" autism for lack of a better word. I am confused. He is getting totally locked up in himself and violent and impossible to manage it has nothing to do with socially awkward and everything to do with being autistic. Please help. What is happening. I am already on the plan to help things as of tonight such as making a chart to show him routine... although I didnt think we needed one as we have had the exact same routine for over a year and never deviated from it. And cards to show emotions. Are colours a good idea?