How tired do I look?

Well, I feel super tired and judging by the red squiggly lines in my eyes, I look how I feel.  Looks like I have been drinking wine already today, but oh, it is only 9am.  I never drink until after 5pm, but I already look like crap and the day has hardly started for normal people.  Yet, I am not normal and my day starts when Tiara decides it should.  Hence, I have already been up for 5 hours.  If I were some cool financial wizard checking the opening of the stock market, it would be understandable, yet I am not.

Many children with autism or developmental delay have sleeping problems.  Since Tiara has both of these issues, her sleep patterns have always been crazy.  It is not uncommon for her to wake at 1am and want a snack, watch a movie or listen to the iPod.  We try to trap her in the bed with us, but invariably she always wins and one of us has to get up with her.  Because Lou actually has to work and make money, I usually feel it is only fair if I am the one to follow her around.  Once Tiara falls asleep for a nap in the morning, I attempt to lay down with her but I CAN NEVER SEEM TO SLEEP.  So I walk around like a zombie.

About 8 years ago this whole exhaustion thing was new to me I went to the doctor.  I told him ” I am always dizzy, I am having a hard time driving the car and I feel like I am going to fall over.”  He did the usual check -up, talked to me for a bit and then said, “YOU ARE TIRED!  There is nothing wrong with you, except you need to sleep.”  This has become a common theme with me and my doctors throughout the years.  They try to figure out how I can get more sleep, run through different scenarios with me and still their medical degree can’t fix this problem.  They could offer to work the night shift at my house for free, but they never seem to present this option.  Hoping I will get more sleep tonight…..

Happy Wednesday!