Autism Awareness every day

I was wringing my hands after a dish washing marathon, tears welling up, trying to decide how to break the news to my husband.

He came up behind me, one hand on my hip, and chin on my shoulder. 

"What'cha thinking about?"

It came out in a rush. 

I had watched an interview on Oprah about a mother who's son had Autism. 

One of the first changes she noticed in him, was that, while he used to enjoy singing, he had all the sudden stopped.
He was 3, and had stopped singing. 

From there his regression became a steep slope, but this of course started me thinking..... 

Trey-trey had stopped singing the alphabet with me a few weeks before. 

He still asked for me to sing it to him, but he had stopped joining in. 

With tears falling, I confided my fears for our sweet, first born, and David, lovingly said, "Babe, maybe he's just tired of that song?"

Sure enough a few weeks later he was on to another song and my fears were forgotten.

For about 10yrs.

When Isaiah came into our lives, we knew within the first few months that he was not developing according to typical standards.

He didn't sleep more than 30min until he was almost 6months old.

He started sitting up on his own, just before his 1st birthday.

He didn't babble or make baby coo-ing sounds until he was almost 2.

At 8yrs old he is still in diapers and has the understanding of the avg 3yr old.

He has Autism Spectrum Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder. 

As you have probably heard,

April 2nd is International Autism Awareness Day.

It's great that there is a day set aside to understand better our special babes, and to put our arms around other families that have "the spectrum" in their lives and support each other.

A few things that characterize Autism are blaringly obvious with "Our Prince", some of the other hallmarks are less so, some we don't have at all.

 *Unusually intense or focused interests.*

*Repetitive use of everyday objects.*
(slamming doors or turning lights off and on)

*Insistence on following a routine.*

*Delayed language development.*

*Repetitive use of language.*
(repeating phrases from movies)

*Difficulties initiating conversations.*

These are all symptoms we deal with on a moment to moment basis.

Like many Autism babies he has sensory issues.
Difficulty falling and staying asleep.
Gorging himself on any and all food he can get his hands on.
An inability to self-soothe.
Difficulty understanding or realizing pain signals.

I was reading a different perspective this morning, from a woman who thinks that we as Special Needs Parents are "abusive" when we say that we need support, and
"ableist" to even identify ourselves as Special Needs Parents.

Please let me be clear! 
We are not looking for sympathy as special needs parents.
We are only hoping to help educate ourselves, our friends and families and support all our children the best that we can.

Throughout the next week I'll be blogging about some of the things that we do to help him to sleep, things that help soothe him, and things that you might be able to implement to help your own children or other special kids you care about. 

Thank you for caring enough to learn more about our special boy! 
We are so blessed to be his parents.