Raising a 2-year-old with ASD and a newborn: A realistic daily life

Thank you for visiting the page of a science-major mom raising a 2-year-old and 11-month-old son who only speaks a little, and an 8-month-old daughter.😊

Sunday is 'This Week's Diary' day. If I had to summarize this week, it would be 'I'm so tired!'

Here you go.

11/26 (Sun)
Fever of 39 degrees, cough, eye discharge, and bloodshot eyes.

My son's physical condition is at its worst. When I search for 'fever and eye discharge,' 'adenovirus' comes up. Also known as swimming pool fever.

If it's this, it seems he won't be able to go to daycare for a while even after he recovers. Mom is in despair.

11/27 (Mon)
Even the doctor was surprised: Adenovirus negative

My son's fever has started to go down, but his eyes are even redder. When we went to the pediatrician, the doctor also said, 'It looks like adenovirus.' When we tested for it, even the doctor was surprised: it was negative❗️

Hearing that he can go back to daycare once his symptoms clear up, Mom is happy.

11/28 (Tue)
I felt like I came back to life just by having someone watch my son for 30 minutes

I took my daughter and my son, who stayed home from kindergarten due to a bad cough at night (though he was energetic), to the library. We happened to participate in a storytime session held by volunteers.

During the time for infants, the volunteer kindly played with my son the whole time. It was only about 30 minutes, but I felt so refreshed and like I had come back to life. Thank you, volunteer.

11/29 (Wed)
Both of them only want Mommy!

Just as both children had fallen asleep, I heard crying from the bedroom. When I went to check, both of them were crying.

My daughter, who had been sleeping in her crib until now, has started experiencing separation anxiety and insists, 'I only want Mommy!' My son is a veteran with 3 years of 'I only want Mommy' experience.

Because of the chaos, my husband came to help, and after struggling for over an hour, all three of us fell asleep (including me). My husband got up afterward to work. It was tough, wasn't it? Thank you.

11/30 (Thu)
My son and daughter sleeping while hugging each other🤭

I put the two of them to sleep and went to the living room for a moment. When I returned, my daughter and son were sleeping while hugging each other😆 They must definitely think the other is Mommy...❗️ How cute.

12/1 (Fri)
My son, starting a new class today!

My son, who turns 3 this month, is moving up to the full 3-year-old class starting today. It's the class next door, but the teachers and friends are all changing... Maybe he's a little anxious, as he was fussy while getting ready this morning.

Seeing that, I felt a little anxious too, but when I went to pick them up, it seemed like they had a good time. Even adults get nervous in new places, so they are strong!

12/2 (Sat)
I slept for 9 hours and I'm still sleepy!

I'm a long sleeper. I want to sleep for 8 hours by default, but even after sleeping for 9 hours today, I don't feel quite right.

Looking at the sleep tracking measured by my Garmin, my sleep quality was poor today. No wonder I didn't recover. It was a day where I finally felt a bit better after taking a nap.

For reference, here is today's stress level ↓

For comparison, here is a day when I got good sleep and recovered ↓

↓ I am using this Garmin to measure it.

This is what a science-loving mom's week looked like.

Writing a diary makes me realize that I really lived through every day.

Thank you for reading this far.
I hope you have a wonderful week next week too.

Best regards.

🏅 You can download the sticker reward chart

You can download the sticker reward chart that is very useful for our home therapy here ☟

I have also created a Coconala page so that I can respond to requests such as "I want to change the items" or "I want it made with illustrations of girls." I apologize that the page is still a work in progress, but I will post it here.

🧩 We are looking for members

We are looking for members for the "Jointly Operated Magazine for Neurodiversity"!

The "Jointly Operated Magazine for Neurodiversity" is a jointly operated magazine specializing in developmental disabilities that anyone involved with developmental disabilities (individuals, parents, support staff) can join.

We operate this with the hope that it will be useful for building horizontal connections regarding developmental disabilities, for
☑︎ empathy like "Oh, I totally get that"
and
☑︎ solving worries like "What should I do about this?".

If you would like to participate, please let us know in the comments! We look forward to your participation.

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