michael's and kaylee's journey with autism: June 2009

Friday, June 26, 2009

been a long time

Well, it has been way too long since I wrote anything here. I have been very busy with 6 therapy sessions a week for Kaylee and Michael. I will have to add Kaylee to this site because we know she is autistic too and I want to have her info and pics up here as well.

Life is never dull at my house, there is always something going on. We are working hard to get the twins ready for school this fall. Seems so strange to me to be putting three year olds in school, but they need it.

I have been spending time getting back in touch with old friends and making new ones. I love the autism blogger website I joined. The friends there that I have made are my angels, my heroes. That site has saved my life. It helps to go there and connect and get help anytime I need it. Someone always has an idea to try and loving words of support. I am so grateful to have such a great support system in place at last.

a brief story

Michael is a twin. He was baby B, 2nd to come into the world after his sister, Kaylee.

He passed all his infant milestones superbly. He went from soy formula to soy milk. At 15 months we put him on cow's milk. From that point on family would often comment that he was going to be an engineer the way he liked to line up anything he came across, from paper to books and toys. Michael spoke many spanish words from watching Dora and Diego. He was an avid chatterbox and was already putting two and three words together at 20 months. At age 2, right after his 2nd birthday in fact, our fall began with a drastic change for our son. He stopped all of his talking. All speech was lost. The meltdowns lasted longer and longer. He hummed a lot and ran around on his toes all the time. He was already a little bow legged and now he was hopping around like a bunny.

We had him tested, and he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. He has routines and play schemes he does not like being disrupted. He has devasting meltdowns. He has a tremendous need for sensory input to be able to concentrate on small tasks. He rarely sits down. He hardly eats. He laughs a lot and loves to wrestle. He has his good days and he has his bad days.

We use the First Steps program and are loving these people. The therapists come to our home and light up my son's world and teach me what I can do to help him.

We have taken away his milk...we are on the gluten free and dairy free diet as much as possible...he is not a big eater at all so somtimes the gluten free rule does get broken. He has no cows milk now and we are already seeing changes.

He is not running about on his toes. His eye contact is improving. We have actually heard a few words here and there. My son played with blocks, actually stacked a tower for the first time since he was 18 months old.

We are on a journey, my Michael and me to not let autism win.
We are hopeful. We are not afraid to dream of the day we will hear our son speak. Someone told me I should grieve for the loss of the Michael I once knew. Forget that! My son is alive; he still has a light in his eyes that I will not let autism take away.

I am not always so upbeat, though folks, and like anyone else who has autism in their lives, I need support. Sometimes I need to cry. But, the more you and I talk and reach out, the more knowledge we will gain, the better chance we have to fight the fight and win. So....let's talk.

michael's and kaylee's journey with autism

Friday, June 26, 2009

been a long time

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kaylee

kaylee

kaylee

kaylee

michael in his swing

a brief story

gotta love this face

my michael

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