My journey continues with the diagnosis of Yaya, who is actually our 4th born child. This shows how different autism presents in people. We had been cruising along thinking everything was fabulous... Yaya was the perfect baby. She slept over 12 hours a night starting at 5 weeks, she never cried. As a toddler she was sweet and kind. She started talking in full sentences ( like an adult ) at 18 months. She had some quirky stuff that we just thought was funny. Like her obsession with pillow fuzz. She would work to make a hole and pull the stuffing out and rub it on her nose. Things like that....
So one day one of Captian's support team people were over the house. Yaya was lining up her books on the floor. He noticed and asked when she was diagnosed. I was floored! I asked him " what are you talking about " in my most irritated Mom voice. He waited until she walked back into her room for more books and then slightly moved one she had already laid out... She came back out and FREAKED.. I had not realized how much of a OCD issue she had until this moment. We thought she was just tidy and organized... yes at 3.. lol
So I set up an appointment with our developmental pediatrician , who sent us to a child psychologist , she then diagnosed her with Aspergers Syndrome...
This is the part where I should mention that in-between these two getting diagnosed, my husband was also diagnosed on the spectrum. This happened because as we are reading about autism he keeps saying " well thats not odd, I do that " many , many times. He had been misdiagnosed his entire life. From ADHD, to OCD. He finally now has an answer. It didn't change who he is. But it was an HUGE help in helping him ( and me ) understand why he does some of the things that he does.
So now we are two for two... Life is rolling along, we have a excellent support team and service in place... Then we find out that hippy kid will be joining our family.
My pregnancy is cruising along well... and by well I mean I have morning sickness ( WHY do they call it that... It lasted all freaking day! ) anyhoo... I am so sick 24 hours a day. We are looking forward to her due date of Nov 14th... June 25th is hubbys birthday so we go out for breakfast and I come home to nap... I am woken up by hubby to tell me something that will devastate me in ways I am still dealing with.... My Mom died....
She was only 52. She had a heart arrhythmia they told us and she just died... Woke up, walked across her bedroom and died... We lived in another state, so we packed the car and drove as fast as we could to be with my little sister ( who was 16 at the time ) and to take care of everything. We didn't plan on staying long, but a series of events lead us to decide to move to help care for my sister who was starting her senior year of high school. Exactly one month after my Moms funeral, we took the kids to the Utah county fair to get our minds off everything. We walked in, and purchased tickets for some rides... We ended up on the hay wagon ride first... to make a very long story short, something happened with the ride and we were forced to jump off at about 35 MPH. I ended up landing on my butt in the middle of the road while I held Captain who was 4 at the time. After being checked out at the hospital, I seemed pretty okay considering... Little did we realize
So time continues to click by. Hubby comments how I am not very big with this pregnancy. I have of course noticed that also. I am thinking, well thats actually awesome! I go in for my 32 week check up... something is wrong.. very wrong... My blood pressure is 183/110... They admit me immediately. They start doing some tests and we wait... While I am sitting there, a crew of people come in and start rushing around.. The Dr explains that they cannot find a heartbeat and they believe hippy kid will be born asleep and need to do an emergency c section immediately as my BP is out of control... I don't even have time to process it. As they are rushing me into surgery, I apparently started to have seizures and have no memory of anything...
I wake up and think I am dead.. I am confused because heaven doesnt look like I expected. Then I am super confused to see my husband and children there... Hubby explains that I am not dead, but I am on a whole lot of pain meds... He also tells me how they were able to revive hippy kid...
Hippy kid was born totally blue and listless... almost 12 years later its still very hard to read her paperwork and the description of all of this... After a team of angels worked on her, she went from a 1 on the apgar to an 8 in fie minutes... She is truly our miracle baby... She was a whopping 2lbs 6oz at birth. She only did 6 weeks in the NICU and came home right at 4lbs... She is a fighter.. she is still a fighter....
Its been a long road but each year gets better. The ER trips are less frequent, and the hospital stays are becoming a fuzzy memory... Hippy kids current diagnosis are ASD ( notice a trend. We are 3 for 3 ) , Epilepsy, and Hypertonia. Her past diagnosis are many.. Like I said.. She is a fighter!
The next part of this story... " Foster care, PICA, attachment disorders , oh my!"
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