New Here

Hi Everyone,
I am the mom to Tommy (8 yrs, 9 in March) and Delaney (5 yrs, 6 in April). Not to sound biased here, but I have some of the greatest kids ever! LoL I just recently remarried in November 2011 and my kids love the hubby more than me sometimes, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I have been enrolled in online college courses for about 3 years now and I also work full time with AT&T. I decided to take this semester off as my son was diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, and anxiety in September of 2011. I am going to be honest the news of his diagnosis really bothered me, as he has never done well in school and we pushed it off as pure laziness.

A short background on my son, he was born prematurely at 33 weeks. He spent a week in the NICU as he developed pnuemonia(sp?) at 1 day old. At 4 months he had his first of many ear infections and at 9 months had his first set of ear tubes inserted. By age 2 he was still not speaking, any words at all. His pediatrician wanted to get his hearing checked b/c he could tell Tommy wanted to talk but didn't know how. Tommy failed the pressure test at the ENT and had another set of tubes put in. He was then enrolled with Babies Can't Wait and was in speech therapy for 6 months. By the time his sister was born, he could say about 20 words and was able to communicate with sign that the therapists had taught him. Once his sister was born, he seemed to really thrive and I thought he would develop fine from that point on. At 5 he went to Kindergarten and unfortunately his teacher and I felt he was not ready to move on to 1st grade. He repeated Kindergarten and passed 1st grade a year later. The school system psychologist sent home a letter at the end of last year recommending that Tommy be sent for a psych eval. We went through all of the testing and Dr visits in about 4 months and received his final diagnosis in September. We are still struggling with meds and he goes to his first psychiatrist app't tomorrow after school. At home, is a struggle as well, especially with homework. What takes some kids 20 minutes to do takes us nearly an hour. He is in an EIP program at school, that allows his teachers to spend 10 minutes per day in each subject giving him one on one instruction. I feel this isn't enough, but know they have to follow a step plan.

I really came here to meet people who know what life can be like, enjoyable or not. I find myself breaking down at times after the kids go to bed, I am truly exhausted from Dr app'ts to running to the school b/c my son has had a breakdown and nothing they do will calm him. It's hard to talk to other parents who do not have an ASD child. Sorry this was so long.