When you’re raising a typically-developing child, eventually they stick to their own beds and no longer sneak in to cuddle. There comes a time they don’t want that constant touch. It’s bittersweet. But it’s okay, because you assume that one day they’ll have that need met again when they partner off.

But when you have a child whose developmental age is very likely to remain below five, there’s a good chance that touch need will one day no longer be met. Only it might still be felt. And that’s one of those things that can keep your eyes wide open at 3 a.m.

But to be best prepared for future supported living, we will have to teach him to sleep in his own bed (although that’s still likely more than a decade away).

Then I look at him in the light from the window. At peace in the certainty he is loved and snuggled up to the people he has no understanding will one day die. And that’s why I give in.

Because I want him to soak it up all he can while we’re here. I want him to remember our arms.