September until now

Our Apt. at the Lily Center: We went back in to this room, with a table and some toys. Sara, the woman who was 'testing' him asked us some questions about his development, why we were thinking Autism and then observed him playing with toys. She told us based on his current age (22 months) he was too young for a diagnosis. She told us that there are a lot of red flags, but she wants us to come back in 6 months. From there we had his hearing tested and started with Early Intervention / Birth to 3.

Andrew eventually passed his hearing test and then we started our testing for Birth to 3.

I need to start this by saying that our Early Intervention team is AMAZING! They are caring, supportive and they LOVE my bug (Let's be honest,  have you seen my child? He is pretty Loveable)

Adorable Child!

To qualify for EI your child has to have a 25% delay and one area or multiple areas. Andrew qualified for speech and OT services. He was testing at 15 months for expressive speech and 17 months for receptive. He receives Speech 1x a week and OT every other week.

In June of 2012 Our speech pathologist Kristin, Service Coordination Lyn, and Occupational Therapist Sue came to us and told us that while Andrew was making a little progress, it is not where they hoped he would be. That with him going to be aging out of Birth to 3, They were /strongly/ ugring us to seek a second opinion because the people at the Lily Center were giving us the run around. Sue said that his SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) was getting worse and Kristin said that he really isn't making progress with his speech despite us working with him.

ANYWAYS! We then made an apt. with Dr. Linda Steffen at the Behavior Health Clinic. Per EI's recommendation.

We go to that Apt this Wednesday. Aug. 1st 2012.

I know an official diagnosis is coming. I have know for a long time. But still, to hear the words. "Your child is Autistic"  is going to be like a stab in the heart. I KNOW it's not a death sentence, I KNOW that he can still lead a productive life, I've seen if first hand! I KNOW that is he still going to be the same Andrew that I love, adore and wake up for every day. On Aug.1st he will be the same kid that he was on July 31st. A diagnosis and becoming one of the  1:88 children that are diagnosed with ASD ( 1:54 boys) in this country,  All of that is NOT going to change my son.

He is MORE than a statistic. He is Andrew, and THAT is all I will ever ask him to be.

A little boy, who LOVE animals

A little boy who is beautiful.

A little boy who LOVES Thomas and sleeping in laundry baskets :)

A little boy who loves to swing

A little boy who loves to line toys up

But most importantly, He is a little boy who is LOVED 

All of this is what defines Andrew. Not Autism

How it all started...

I'm not sure how to start this, I've never had a blog before. I guess an introduction in to who we are and why we are here. I am Shauna, and this is going to be my family's story about our journey in Autism.

To get to where we are now, I guess you will need a little back story. Erik and I were high school sweet hearts <3 we started dating my senior year and quickly found our self's getting serious. We have been together since January of 2006  On 11/5/09 we welcomed our baby boy Andrew Marshall in to the world. He was 8lbs 5.6oz of beauty.  On May 19th 2012 Erik and I finally tied the knot, and most importantly, we all finally have the same last name! lol

My pregnancy, labor and delivery of Andrew were NOT easy, but I will talk about that more one day.

He was about 4 hours old in this picture <3

When Andrew was an baby he was advanced in everything. No, I'm not just saying that as his Mom either, I promise. He rolled over at 3 weeks, sat up at 4 months, crawled at 5 months and walked at 9 months. At 10 months he started identifying mama and daddy to Erik and my self, He would call out for my moms cat, Ginger. By the time he was 18 months he was talking in 3 and 4 word sentences and had about 20 signs! He knew his colors, all of his animal sounds and his ABC's.We were told buy our Dr's and by this program that we participated in called Parents as Teachers, to prepare for a gifted child and to NEVER compare any future child to him because this is NOT normal. Lol... Little did we know!

He pulled him self up in his crib at 6 months old.

At 7 months Andrew started having what looked like seizures. Our family Dr. referred us to a pediatric neurologist. Dr. Edgar ordered an EEG and then 2 weeks later we went in to the office for the results. I ended up having to go by me self because Erik got called in to work. It started out with good news. Andrew didn't have seizures, he was NOT epileptic. Dr. Edgar, upon viewing his EEG and a video that I had of Andrew during an episode. He diagnosed him with Benign Infantile Stereotipi Spasms. When a person has a seizure it scrambles their who brain, when a child with this disorder has a spasm it focal points on one part of his brain. LUCKILY for us Dr. Edgar was also an Autism specialist. He went on to tell me that out of the children who has these spasms about 60% go on to develop Autism and that with Erik's family history of it he was thinking that Andrew had about an 80% chance.

He ALWAYS has a smile on his face :)

This was his second EEG, I don't have pictures of his first.

One morning when Andrew was about 20 months old, he woke up and it was like he was a completely different child. (This was the morning after his shots, but I will get in to our beliefs on that in future pots as well) He would not talk or sign, at all. He would not make eye contact with us. It took all of our power and my knowledge as an Autism therapist to get him to engage, he was STUCK on lining things up and spinning wheels. I knew right away that something was wrong. Soon after he quit sleeping, He was going on day four with 20 minuet cat naps about three times a day when I finally gave in and called our Dr. Our normal Dr. was out of town so they had us see a nurse practitioner. When she came in Andrew was in a full melt down. He was screaming, banding his head on the door and stomping his feet. The NP asked me what was *I* though was wrong. I said " I think he is on the Autism spectrum" She told me that he was 2, There is NOTHING wrong with him.

See on the train table right behind him? See all of the various wheeled things in order by size? YES - he did that on his own.

We would find this all over our house

He is also obsessed with Thomas the Train :)

At this point I was crying; I was telling her all of the symptoms he was having. How he had regresses, was seeing visual stim and how he was seeking gross motor pressure. How he would throw tantrums for 45 minuets at a time. Finally, she started taking some notes and told me that she would give this information to Dr. Spencer. about 4 hours later we got a call from his office telling us that Dr. Spencer made us an apt at The Lily Center in Brookfield, WI. We went on September of 2011.

This is just the beginning of our crazy journey. I will post another post about what has take place for us since the Lily Center.