In The Beginning . . .

I was one of those mothers, you know the type.  I worried about everything I ate, got my exercise and sleep, took my vitamins, gained just the right amount of weight, read all the books, and dreamed about my child to come. We couldn't wait to meet her, and she kept us waiting. Labor was induced 8 days after my due date, and after an uncomplicated delivery, she came out topping the scales at almost 9 1/2 pounds. She was truly beautiful, but all was not rosy. She had a small hole in her heart that quickly closed up.  The doctors let us take her home after 2 days and I still remember the shock and feeling of being in way over our heads. A little jaundice, a little (or a lot) of adjustment and we finally got the hang of it.  Things seemed pretty normal.  We continued on our over protective ways and banned artificial colors and flavoring, high fructose corn syrup and every other thing you would hear about. Organic and hormone free were our buzz words. All babyfood was homemade and the breast milk kept flowing for 18 months.  The house was babyproofed and we continued to read all the books, especially the ones on sleep.  To this day, I have still not caught up.

At 8 months, she said her first word, "Hi", which she said to everybody (human or not) within a 10 foot radius.  She was 14 months when she started walking. She was sensitive to sounds, would not cuddle or rock, never bothered to crawl, hated to sleep and loved to eat.  By the age of 2 she was having a lot of speech issues.  We assumed this was her hearing and the frequent number of ear infections. Tubes helped with the infections, but not the speech.  This is where it began, our entry into the public school system, IEP's and the 'specialists'.

Little did we know it would take 5 more years to get an actual diagnosis.