Raising children can be very difficult. You learn something new everyday. Four years ago I had my fourth child. I thought, "OK, how hard can this be I have three others, I can do this." Well, I was so wrong. My son is four years old and I honestly feel as if I am raising an alien on another planet. Let me explain, for the first time in my parenting time I felt completely lost and alone. I gave birth to an amazing little boy. He was 7lb. 12.9 oz. He was perfect in every way as were all my children. However, he lacked connection to me. He did not smile at me and coo. He screamed constantly and I was clueless. After about a year and a half of discussing with the doctors about my son and getting nowhere I started a video diary. This opened the doctor's eyes to what was really going on. I was correct there was a problem.
On Jan. 20th 2010 my son was officially diagnosed with PDD-NOS along with a list of other disorders that he fits into. Life now is about learning how to cope and teaching him how to cope. I cannot even imagine living life lacking the common skills needed to communicate and understand what is going on around you. My son is now verbal but this took 3 years. It actually took almost four years before we could understand what he was saying. His communication skills are still delayed and he is 4 ½ years old. While he can speak and make requests, he fails to do this when he is overwhelmed or injured. He has trouble asking for what he needs and letting me know when he is hurt. Just two weeks ago, Charlie was playing at a park and he jumped 4 feet head first off the playground equipment. Yes, I said he jumped, willingly at that. He cried for 45 minutes, which is very unusual for him. He cut his lip open and his two teeth were bleeding, but I figured he was scared. I put ice on his lip and waited it out, asked him if he hurt anymore he said,” No mommy”. I thought that was the end of it. I was wrong. I tend to say that a lot anymore.
The next day as he was in the tub, I was washing his face to get the face paint from the party off his face and he started flapping his hands screaming,” me no like that me no like that!!” The flapping was normal and I was using a different cloth so I chalked it off as a sensory issue but again, I was wrong. Later that day I noticed that is face near his eye was shiny and swollen. We went to the hospital where they said that he had fractured his nose. Although I know that the hospital staff were only doing their jobs they questioned me about his injuries and the marks that were on my sons neck and arms. I haven’t mentioned that he self-injures. I told them that though. I told them he was autistic, they continued to ask what I felt were stupid questions. It took the doctor pressing on my son’s nose and my son not even flinching for the doctor to realize exactly what was going on. Then he got it, he finally understood. He wrote a note for the school and told me what to watch out for.
There have been many incidents with my son like this and each time they are scary and make me fear for him. One night right before I was going to go to a meeting about children with Autism wandering, I told Charlie we were going to leave in five minutes. I do this often as it gives him transition time. I had never had a problem with him wondering except in the grocery store and him crawling under the register. Well, it got very quiet in the house and I went looking for him. I called his name several times but he did not answer. I was so scared. I was running down the road calling his name and my boyfriend thought to look in the car. Thank god, he was sitting in the car all buckled and ready to go. I have heard about these types of children to wander off but geez..... I had prayed that he did not ever wander off but now I see firsthand and now I know that, I must do something to prevent it from ever happening again.
I hope that you will feel free to share your moments and comment on mine as well. There will be scary moments and wonderful joyous moments but it is wonderful to be able to share them with all of my readers.
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Raising children can be very difficult. You learn something new everyday. Four years ago I had my fourth child. I thought, "OK, how hard can this be I have three others, I can do this." Well, I was so wrong. My son is four years old and I honestly feel as if I am raising an alien on another planet. Let me explain, for the first time in my parenting time I felt completely lost and alone. I gave birth to an amazing little boy. He was 7lb. 12.9 oz. He was perfect in every way as were all my children. However, he lacked connection to me. He did not smile at me and coo. He screamed constantly and I was clueless. After about a year and a half of discussing with the doctors about my son and getting nowhere I started a video diary. This opened the doctor's eyes to what was really going on. I was correct there was a problem.
The next day as he was in the tub, I was washing his face to get the face paint from the party off his face and he started flapping his hands screaming,” me no like that me no like that!!” The flapping was normal and I was using a different cloth so I chalked it off as a sensory issue but again, I was wrong. Later that day I noticed that is face near his eye was shiny and swollen. We went to the hospital where they said that he had fractured his nose. Although I know that the hospital staff were only doing their jobs they questioned me about his injuries and the marks that were on my sons neck and arms. I haven’t mentioned that he self-injures. I told them that though. I told them he was autistic, they continued to ask what I felt were stupid questions. It took the doctor pressing on my son’s nose and my son not even flinching for the doctor to realize exactly what was going on. Then he got it, he finally understood. He wrote a note for the school and told me what to watch out for.There have been many incidents with my son like this and each time they are scary and make me fear for him. One night right before I was going to go to a meeting about children with Autism wandering, I told Charlie we were going to leave in five minutes. I do this often as it gives him transition time. I had never had a problem with him wondering except in the grocery store and him crawling under the register. Well, it got very quiet in the house and I went looking for him. I called his name several times but he did not answer. I was so scared. I was running down the road calling his name and my boyfriend thought to look in the car. Thank god, he was sitting in the car all buckled and ready to go. I have heard about these types of children to wander off but geez..... I had prayed that he did not ever wander off but now I see firsthand and now I know that, I must do something to prevent it from ever happening again.
I hope that you will feel free to share your moments and comment on mine as well. There will be scary moments and wonderful joyous moments but it is wonderful to be able to share them with all of my readers.
