If you missed the start of this series, you can find it here. A lot of things will be the same or very similar.

I took my sleeping pill at 10:30 and was still awake at 2:30. Just one of those nights.

Ben didn’t Bounce me this morning. Instead, he yelled “Gramma come living room!” from my door. I just went, no clue what time it was, no clue about anything except another day had begun.

I found him waiting for me on the couch, Fully Dressed… Great… I was able to focus my eyes enough to check the time… 2:25am. Fan-freakin-tastic! Ben was pretty chill, thank goodness, just watching my tablet and asking for the occasional juice.

Daughter got up around 4:00 (she’d gone to bed around 8 or 9 last night) to use the bathroom, saw us in the living room, saw that Ben was fully dressed and said “Uh oh!” Yep, that about summed it up. She said she’d get her stuff and take over.

She settled into The Spot and I finally used the bathroom. I’d been afraid to leave Ben alone, even to use the bathroom.

After potty time, I went to my room for Horizontal Time and Sleepy Nigh-Night Time. I’d been half asleep since I was commanded to the couch so the other half came quickly. There were a few bedquakes as Ben joined me on my bed periodically, but I didn’t really wake up.

The wakeup came around 7:00 with Daughter yelling at Ben from the side door (which, as you know, is opposite my bedroom door, separated by about six feet) to “Get down! Quit trying to break the wall.” She yelled a couple more times then went out to get him. I was slowly waking up and I heard them outside, it wasn’t going well. I got up and went to help. He was focused and obsessed. He wasn’t going to stop. I asked Daughter if she wanted to sit on him now, meaning did she want to force the meltdown. She marched him into my room.

She got him belly down on my bed and straddled his back, not actually putting her weight on him. He was hitting her, so she’d hold his wrists. Then he was trying to bite her. He kept kicking back at her with his heels so I went and sat next to his legs with my bent leg over his. He could move them but not kick back.

This is how we restrain him without hurting him. I’m sure it isn’t comfortable for him, but it’s the safest way we have. He needs to explode. He needs to release the pent up emotions or thoughts or whatever. It sucks for all of us. We hate restraining him because he hates it so much. Who doesn’t?! But if we don’t, then he kicks the front door to jiggle the lock loose, or runs out the side door and tries to get out of the already broken gate. If we each sit in front of a door, then he pushes at us, hits us, kicks us and throws things at us. He also hits Zeus and knocks things over. It almost always ends up with us restraining him anyway, so we decided to just go with that first.

At 8:30 we let him up. He went straight to the side door, which I blocked, then ran for the front door and started kicking it. I moved him away from the door to the couch. Daughter was sitting in front of the side door, plugging the portable charger into the tablet. He ran to my room, I stayed by the front door. Daughter took the tablet in to him and after a minute I went to go sit with him, trying to project calm and peaceful thoughts/energy his way.

We had stripped him down to the long sleeve nightgown while we had him restrained. He was overheated in just the nightgown from struggling against us. Anyway, he wanted to put all the stuff back on. I slyly grabbed the package containing the white, button down dress shirt from the closet stash and offered that to him instead of the nightgown. He was happy to agree. I stripped the nightgown off of him and helped him with the shirt. Then I helped with the tie. He got the vest, jacket, socks and long pants (I tried to talk him into shorts but no dice) by himself. He asked me to get his shoes.

He settled down a little and watched the tablet. Daughter cooked some bacon for him and brought it to him. She’d cooked half the package and that was quickly devoured, so she cooked the other half. He pretty much inhaled that too. He had his 10:30 meds while he was eating his second helping of bacon.

After he finished eating he started pacing and scripting something. I didn’t recognize it but he was obviously having a conversation with himself. He’d use his regular voice out loud and kinda grunt-whisper a reply to whatever he’d said in his regular voice. He still seemed agitated, but trying to control it.

On a different topic, everyone’s favorite Grumpy Dragon, Sven, was in his house when I turned off his lights and covered him last night. That is exactly where he was when Daughter uncovered him and turned the lights on this morning. I was sleeping, so thankfully, she remembered. Not that it really matters if he’s doing the whole brumation thing and hiding in his house.

I’ll bring him out of his house in a few days and throw him in the shower. See if I can wake him up enough to get him to poop at least. I don’t like the idea of food sitting in his GI tract while he basically hibernates. Sorry folks, I know Sven is a favorite resident of Casa Cuckoo and I’ll keep you updated, but it looks like he’s taking a break. It could be a few days, it could be weeks, it could even be months.

Around 11:00 or 11:30 I took over living room duty from Daughter. Her back was hurting from the couch, plus Ben had gotten in a few kicks before we got his shoes off. She’s probably going to have a bruise. Ben and I settled on the couch and Daughter went to her room, only to discover that Diesel Cat had peed in the middle of her bed. The litter box is still in her room, even though he mostly uses the great outdoors now. Bad Kitty! Luckily it’s a bright day with a good breeze. She washed he bedding and hung it on the awning thingy.

Ben and I just hung out in the living room. He watched the tablet or stabbed cardboard boxes or drummed… he was getting sweaty so I turned on the AC at noon when I gave him his half Adderall.

As time went by, I was able to relax a little. I had been on High Alert since the wakeup meltdown, no… since the 2:30 living room command and seeing him fully dressed at that hour. He was still kinda edgy, still pacing a lot, but I think the meltdown released some of the tension. I guess I’ve been absorbing it for a few days now, but I went back to sleep today and his Mama gives out more than she absorbs. Hopefully that’s IT… for a little while at least.

Meds were given at 2:00. He was pacing, stabbing boxes… fidgety. He was sweaty and I kept trying to get him to sit down and watch his tablet, or do the chalk thang or play with his letters… anything, just sit and relax for a bit. It wasn’t happening. I was almost to the point of offering to write words just to stop the pacing when he ran down to Daughter’s room, ran back to get the tablet, then ran away again. I asked if he was gonna hang out with Mommy and got ignored. I got my stuff, filled my coffee cup and made a new pot. Since he hadn’t been back during that time I went to get Horizontal, it was around 2:45 at that point.

Ben stayed with Daughter and I was wondering if they fell asleep. Daughter came out to use the bathroom around 4:15 and I asked how it was going. She said he was on crack. I told her that surprised me since it was so quiet. Ah… she’d been keeping the door closed by Royal Decree. She asked me to make him some “Orange Chicken” (chicken nuggets, TGIFriday’s brand, no sauce) for his dinner. No worries. I can safely operate a toaster oven. At least, I think I can.

So now it’s time for our sing along and our long goodbyes… I heard this song (not this version, obviously) last night in the grocery store.

Thanks for hanging out. We had some problems this morning, didnt we? Things got better. That’s a good thing to remember… things DO get better. Sometimes they get a lot worse before they get better or they go bad again, but it’s rarely ALL bad, ALL the time.

Come on by tomorrow, I think we’re doing laundry… that’s always fun, right? We’ll be doing something, that’s for sure!

HUGS!