Shower Time & Sleeping

Kevin and I have had progress with his shower time.  I would have to help him with shampooing his hair every night.  You know the usual problem getting it washed and rinsed out properly.  He would be stemming so much that it was hard for him to stay focused with the job at hand and most of the time I would be drenched from helping him.  Thankfully his shower is at night and I’d just change to my PJ’s.   This past week he’s been able to do it himself and seems pretty pleased when I’d tell him how proud I am of him when he was done.  I do believe in positive reinforcement, opposed to negative.  I still supervise to make sure he’s staying focused, but I think one day he won’t even need me to do that anymore.   I’m so proud of him and every small accomplishment he makes.  As for his sleeping pattern he’s changed there, too.   He’s become a teenager.  He gets up in the morning, but falls right back to sleep on the sofa and sleeps until about 10:30 or 11:00.  Then at night he’s wide awake, but his autistic mind is telling him its bedtime.  He’s funny at night because he’ll lie on the sofa watching TV saying “Goodnight” and start to giggle all bright eyed.  The only problem is he really does want to go to bed at 8pm and then he’ll lay there ‘til late at night tossing and turning.  I don’t sleep unless I know he’s asleep, so I was able to take his ½ Risperdal he was getting at 2pm and the ½ Risperdal at 6pm and combine them into one whole pill at 6pm.  I couldn’t do this during the last school year and I’m so hoping I can keep it this way.  Last year he’d come home worked up from a day at school and need just that ½ to help him relax.  In the past his doctor has changed his dosage around to help with sleeping issues.  Risperdal can make you sleepy and knowing this about Risperdal I tried the change to help him sleep at night and it seems to be helping.  The plus is that he can get through the day without that ½ in the middle of the day.   I did ask a friend of mine who’s an RN if it’s possible that as Kevin’s small intestines heal and he starts to absorb more nutrients and medicines if it could be possible that his dosages could become too high for him.  She thought it was possible, because it not washing out of his system like it use to.  That’s food for thought if you ask me.   We’ll just have to wait and see.