When William was 18 months old he was a chubby happy baby and doing everything on time and we thought he was going to talk early but around 2 - 2/12 he stopped developing and then started regressing and we couldn't understand why. He was in early intervention and was getting services such as speech, SEIT, and OT and then it was suggested to us that we bring him into a neurologist office to find out about the significant delays that he was experiencing, which froze my heart and chilled me to the bone. I asked his therapist what we were dealing with and she said Autism. The word rang out like a booming cannon.
Going into the neurologist office we somewhat expected what we were going to get but to see my child cowar on the floor from fright from the doctor was heartbreaking to myself and his father. He screamed, cried, and threw one of the worst tantrums I had ever seen him do. We filled out a circle the answer type of profile and the doctor looked it over and and then confirmed our worst fears Autism mild - moderate. The Doctor then just sent us on our way, here your sons autistic have a nice day, bye. No further instructions, no little hand out nothing .
We went home with our son and our thoughts and I cried , Billy cried and we questioned why us, why our son? What did we do that he had to suffer in this Autism nightmare?
Autism is more common among boys then girls , 1 in 110 children are autistic, and I think the number is there are 60 new cases a day of Autistic children. This is a mind blowing fact to me and its funny because before William I was one of those mothers who would see a child in the store and if they were throwing a fit , being loud , or any other attention grabing behavior I would cluck to myself oh that mother needs to take charge with that child, now sadly I have other thoughts such as maybe they are having a bad day, the poor parent and what they must be feeling, and that poor child maybe they are over stimulated and this is the only way they know to react.
I have seen william locked in this Autistic world where something would be wrong a belly ache, a headache, something small and because of his lack of verbal skills he couldn't express this. Something simple such as giving him a bath will result in him yelling screaming, and throwing a fit that would include him hitting himself in the head , running at walls and violently attacking my husband. I have seen him siblings suffer as a result of his Autism the twins with learning delay's , the teens not getting as much attention as they need, and my husband and myself putting ourselves last to service all these children's therapist, appointments, service needs, and IEP meetings it is a never ending thankless cycle of work to keep onto of everything for them. Something that no one who doesnt have a child on the ASD spectrum or a learning delayed child in their family would understand.
I have also seen so much love come from this little boy, his smile melts my heart and lights up the room. I have seen him bring a 200+ lb man to his knees with love and devotion for this child and this family and without my husband I do not think I could do this. He is an excellent father, husband and man. The rate of divorced parents with an Autistic child are 85% and that scares me to death but I can understand why as the stress alone is terrible.
My older sons are the best big brothers to their siblings I could ask for and I am so proud of them and they make the burden easier as well and I am eternally grateful that I am their mother and they are my children.
They say god doesnt give you what you cant handel and he must think I have very broad shoulders as he gave me alot in this life to bear. People say how do you do it? I do it because I must, it is my job , I am a mother and that is part of having children is to be there for all of them no matter what.
I love my family and I love my husband and I hope this blog will make someone who is in a situation like ours feel like they are not alone and they have a friend out here
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