These are the most common questions asked of me...I hope this helps!
1. How is Titus doing???
A. Ty is doing great! Developmental wise, he has hit or exceeded every mark and is already calling Kris Dada. His eye contact is spot on, and thinks he world revolves around him, and has a temper already! He is very very different than Elijah at this age. He reminds me the most of Julia at this point. Although i cannot claim we are out of the woods with him at this point because there is such a thing as regressive autism, i am starting to think Titus will not be in fact, autistic. I can already tell a difference!
2. Will this affect your decision to have more kids?
A. Yes and No. I would be lying if i said it at the very least doesn't make me very very nervous. Not that I even have an ounce of regret on having Elijah. But scared if we had another autistic child if i could handle 2 of them! Its allot of hard work! At this point we are gonna wait to see the progress Elijah makes. How functioning he gets. Being pregnant with Ty and caring for Elijah was awful, to put it frankly. I am on bed rest with every pregnancy, and the physical and mental demands put on me with Elijah are physically and mentally draining. At his worse he was punching and kicking my belly, and if could lift him...and that is def required. I can say Kris and i have a desire to have another baby very very far down the road. But that doesn't mean we will have one for sure...allot of ducks have to fall into place first. Besides i am really not in a hurry!
3. What is Autism?
A. Well my answer will be different than another autistic parents. Because we all communicate so differently. and so Autism will be different in each child. But they do have some typical characteristics they share. Like extremely delayed speech. Sensory integration issues. And understanding social cues. I know right now autism for our family means allot of frustration. Elijah is working on single words still. His vocabulary is still very small. I could Handel all aspects of autism, but the whole not being able to communicate with my own son kills me! The best way i have herd it described was by my own hubby, its like Elijah is from a very different culture, the language is different, and so are the customs..its hard to relate to him sometimes.
4. How is Elijah doing?
A. Really Really well! I am more than pleased with how he is progressing! He now says bye bye when someone is leaving. He pretends play. He loves being A super hero. He is saying some animal sounds and starting to learn his shapes and colors. I work that boy all.the.time. and its paying off. He had off last week from therapy and i did some ABA style sessions with him and he made a ton of progress! His therapist noticed when they came back, they were so surprised! and i was so happy....its working! He still gets frustrated strangers are in our home, but he is starting to play longer and longer with them. He isn't in a formal ABA program yet. I cant wait to see the progress when he is!
5. What caused Elijah to have Autism?
A. This is not an easy answer. A short version of what i believe.., genetics, and environmental factors. The long version...I would like to state, Elijah was hardly vaccinated..at all. He is still severely behind. Elijah also had the least amount of ultra sounds of all my kids. My 2 other kids have always been on time and on schedule for their shots. I postponed Elijah's shots because i knew something was different. If you know the nature of Autism any sickness will aggravate the symptoms of Autism. Elijah is a beast when sick. A cold for him takes 2 weeks of aggressive behavior. This is why i think some people think the shots cause autism. Because if an Autistic child isn't feeling well, they let you know! I want to share more about my ideas on this but it will be for another post, to much detail!
6. How do you do it?
A. I don't know. Some things we have put in place to survive. I first of all wake Ty up every 2 hrs at night to nurse, this is called reverse feeding...i do this to keep nursing him. I don't have the time in the day hardly. So i use this method so he can stay nursed. I am now considering though when we go to intensive therapy that i may have to wean him, my goal is to make it to 9 months. Second I stay up til 1 to 2 am in the morning doing my regular chores. A girl only has 24 hrs to work with, so i sleep allot less. Ty is taking longer naps so i do Julia's home school during them. These are just a few of the things we have in place right now to get by.
7. How are the 2 other kiddos handling it?
A. well Ty thinks all the attention is great from the therapist. Julia has a harder time. she would love to do the therapy sessions..but its hard for her not to get jealous. Kris and i try so hard to keep a good balance. We don't want Julia to feel as though she isn't important. So we try to do dates and take moments to make her feel special.
well i hope this helped! Thank You for your questions! It means allot!
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