No joke.. So I woke up this morning, to a flood of hallway bathroom lighting under our bedroom door.. Having no idea what time it was, but figuring one of my kids was up, I got up, and walked toward the bathroom, half expecting to see my oldest on the toliet, as he NEVER shuts the door, nor remembers too, but nobody was there... Anyway, the kids bedroom door was closed, so I went into the kitchen and turned on the coffee pot. Suddenly I hear this moaning, or maybe it was groaning in the other room. I walk back to the bathroom, pull back the shower curtain, and there was my Asperger son, lying in the bathtub, under two thread bare bath towels, and a hand towel for a pillow. It was a very startling thing to find..
So I asked Chris, 'What are you doing in the bathtub? Were you sleeping here all night? Are you okay?"
And he says, "I got up at 2am, and had a really, really bad dream last night Mom, and was too scared to go back to my bed. I wanted to come into your bed, but didn't want you and Dad to get mad, so I slept in the bathtub." His hands were FREEZING.. Mind you, this is a cast iron tub from the 1950's, and it got down to 32 degrees last night... heat or no, it was still cold. So I had him jump in our bed and snuggle up with his Dad to warm up. I know he didn't sleep well last night.. and seeing his little body in the tub was so odd... and the way he chose the tub, rather than say the couch in the other two rooms, was surprising, but also not. So, we discussed the tub issue on the way to the bus stop this morning. I explained that it is okay to come to our room in the middle of the night if you have a bad dream. He was apparently thinking back to our days in NY, when he woke up at 2am EVERY NIGHT for 2 weeks with a bad dream, and we finally had to put our foot down, to have him stay in his bed.. hence, the bathtub last night. That is where aspergers has a hard time reasoning with oneself, and may do odd behavior. He was not thinking, "Geez, that was over 2 years ago when I got up every night, so I bet its okay for me to go in their room," but rather the opposite. It is the "rational" thinking we have difficultly with at times, especially when it comes to anxiety and bad dreams. I think this is one of those examples where behavioral therapy might be helpful.
Hello, my name is SPD Mom. I'm a 37 year old self-employed US.