Author: leahbisrael

Last night started out a little rough with the lil man’s sleep…He slept for almost an hour in his crib and woke up SCREAMING.  He co-sleeps usually, but on occasion spends an hour or two in the crib.  We brought him into the bed and I tried soothing him.  However, his wailing would not cease which was making him cough and choke.  I brought him out to the living room hoping he’d fall asleep in a more upright position.  This had worked in the past.  He calmed down a bit and then threw up all over the two of us.  My husband and I did a quick cleaning up and pj changing for the lil man.  I rocked him in our glider and he fell asleep within minutes — this is not characteristic.  Usually once awakened, it takes hours to settle him back down.

With a night like that, today was a pretty mellow day.  I received an e-mail this morning from our new sitter saying she was sick and would not be able to work today.  (I started contemplating which one got the other one sick…)  Although I like my work time/personal space, I was a bit relieved that I did not have to get the lil man fed, dressed and the house straightened up before 8:30.

Instead, we leisurely had breakfast:  for the lil man that is oatmeal.  I have to follow him around and spoon feed him while he is engaged in much more stimulating activities.  For me, it is usually a banana and rice cake that I end up splitting with him as well!  I got around to some activities around the house that I normally don’t have time to do:  organizing drawers, washing reusable bags for the store, posting baby items on craigslist…And we both stayed in our p.j.s til after his naptime.

I figured the lil man would go down for naptime quite easily after last night.  However, he was all jumpy during his bottle and kept wanting to get down off my lap and walk around.  I kept insisting he stay put and when he was done, we went straight into the bedroom.  My son is not too cuddly of a kid.  If I put my arm around him at night, he usually removes it quite quickly.  Today, I was surprised that he wanted my arm around him.  If I took it off to scratch my nose, he would pull it back into place.  I found this the sweetest thing – but also made me certain that he must not be feeling too good today.  I let him sleep for about 10 minutes before I got up to do some work for the day.  I decided to only work for 30-40 minutes because if he woke up, I wanted to be next to him how he, obviously, wanted me to be.

The rest of the day was pretty standard:  walk downtown and to the park, swinging at the park, followed by a quick slide and more swinging, and a nice walk home.  I did, however, notice during his diaper change that he was getting his bottom two incisor teeth.  This could explain his upset stomach.  Once these come in, only his 2 1/2-3 year molars.

Today marks the first day of our son’s Extended Early Intervention Program.

We met his Intervention Specialist and his Program Manager.  The goal of today’s visit was getting the lil man comfortable with his new ‘teacher’, keeping him occupied in a contained area, and making eye contact when playing.

Normally, our son roams from room to room.  He picks up a toy in one room, finds  a new toy 30 seconds later, throws down the old toy, picks up the new, finds a new toy, etc.  Lately, he’s also been doing this with books.  He hands me or my husband a book, we may get one page in, he turns around gets a new book.  He hands us that book, we read a page and the cycle continues.

It was great seeing him happily engaged.  His usual demeanor is very happy.  Each page or so I do get to read to him, he flaps and moves his body up and down (parents usually call this flapping “dancing”).  He was “dancing” to all the toys the interventionist showed him.

The most difficult part of today’s session was his interaction.  He would try to take a toy or a bean (from a sensory bowl) and leave the area and play with it by himself with his back to all of us.  However, they kept wrangling him between them to make him interact and not go into ‘his own world’ which he tends to easily go into and stay in for longer periods of time.

Eye contact, which is also part of interaction, was also a challenge.  The interventionist would make him look her in the eye before she would help him with a toy or show him a new toy or give him a desired object.  Even if the eye contact was fleeting, she would immediately gratify his needs.  He tends to notice objects and not the people attached to them.  He has barreled through little kids for a coveted toy (not even noticing that there was a child attached to the toy).  And that is how he had started out today’s therapy: eyes on the prize and not on the person.  Hopefully that will change over time.

Although it looked like play, it must have been a lot of work for the lil man.  He fell asleep on an early walk downtown.  His nap ended when it usually begins!

Today made me very optimistic (well, cautiously optimistic).  The therapists were very thrilled to work with such a young toddler, since he will be in the program until he is 3.  Many parents start seeking out help after the age of 2 and get their children into the program around 2 1/2.  So, we may have a head start.

I don’t know what my expectations are or what the future holds, but my one goal is to keep my son the happy boy he is today.

It was our son’s 15 month wellness check-up.  My husband had to work, so I took the lil man by myself.  We had a few concerns over some milestones not being met by this age:  mainly pointing and waving.  I had read in Parenting magazine that these could be two early indicators of Autism.  I did not share that information with the pediatrician.  She asked a few more questions and I left the appointment with a questionnaire to fill out.

When reading over the questionnaire, I could see the majority of answers were “Not at all” in regards to skills he has mastered (or at least done once – which you can then select “Sometimes”).  I quickly filled out the ‘exam’ and had it in the mail the following day.  This was the beginning of November.  The 10th I believe.

Due to the holidays, it took a bit of time before my husband and I heard back from Far Northern Regional Center.  We were going to have our son’s first evaluation after Thanksgiving.  The time leading up to the evaluation I wavered between thinking my son is fine to thinking there are some distinct differences between him and other kids his age.  However, talking to my mom, we decided the evaluation would just “ease my mind” and that all would be okay.

Unfortunately, the first evaluation ended with an immediate response of another evaluation being needed and that he had shown some “Reg Flags” for being on the autism spectrum.  Two more evaluations followed with a similar outlook on our son.

Nothing could have readied me for the reading of the reports we received in the mail on Evaluations 2 and 3.  Upon reading Evaluation 2, it spoke of my son in such a depressing tone.  Fortunately, the report for Evaluation 3 included that he is happy and likes music and dancing (the little things, you know).

It is one thing looking at your own child and getting these thoughts stuck in your own head.  However, to have them reaffirmed by professionals.  As the woman who conducted the initial evaluation so bluntly put it, “His scores were fairly behind in most areas which pretty much confirms our suspicions of autism”.  That being said, he cannot be formally diagnosed until the age of 2.

Each day that passes, his “red flags” become glaringly bright for me and his father.  Things we had thought we had found cute for a baby are not seeming so cute for a toddler.  We seem to have to apologize for his quirkiness more and more.  And it seems that people  1. think we cannot control our child  or 2.  have their own suspicions of our child.  Either way, they remain silent for now (although we play their dialogue in our own heads).

The lil man is nearly 18 months (in a few days) and begins his Extended Early Intervention tomorrow morning, February 1st.  He qualified for the most intense program of 50 hours of intervention each month.

Thank you for joining us on this journey….

I thought some of you may wonder why this blog is called “Spinning Wheels”.

Spinning wheels is the one activity our son has been lovingly doing since a wee lad!  And, this is one of the “red flags” that may seem adorable at 11 months, but will be seen as bizarre the older he gets.

His wheel obsession does not apply only to his toys.  Toy cars, no problem. Turning ride-on toys and walkers over to play with the wheels, maybe a little problem due to his frustration if he cannot quickly get the toy turned over….The larger problem concerns strollers.  Every outing to the park, he beelines for stroller wheels and has to start spinning them.  He will do this if the stroller is occupied or not.  He does not seem to notice if any people exist if there are wheels to be spun! As I said earlier, other parents thought it was fine when he was a year old, but they are starting to not find it so adorable (and neither do we, especially if he melts down if he is not allowed to touch them or is moved away from them).

Unfortunately, this obsession does not just stop with stroller wheels.  Wheelchairs, bikes, skates, and strollers are all equally loved.  However, the strollers seem the most accessible to him at the moment!

My blog.com site is up!  I can now copy and paste all my previous posts to my new site.

Please read and enjoy!