I am starting to dread Brayden's doctors appointments. Each one shakes up our world just a little more than the last one. Let me start from the beginning....
After a rough (for me) but fairly normal pregnancy, Brayden Michael was born on March 10, 2009 at 5:58am. What a wonderful day it was, meeting my sweet boy for the first time! He has since been a laid back, loving baby who loves to smile. Every dr's appt was routine and he has only been sick maybe twice in his 15 month life. His 9 month appt. was the first rough one. Brayden hadn't really learned to sit up on his own yet. He could sit with the aid of his boppy but that's it. I never thought much of it since every baby is different. However, the dr. was concerned. I think she actually asked a bunch of questions about his development but they escape me now. She said she was going to refer him to a Child Development Specialist which surprised me but I said ok. Fast forward to a few weeks later....a lady calls me to set up a speech and physical therapy evaluation for the first of the year. These therapists came and it was later decided that he would receive physical therapy for now and wait on the speech. Brayden started PT in late January and immediately began to benefit from it. (he eventually learned to sit up on his own by this time) His therapist is wonderful! Another concern was that he was not crawling (army crawl or on hands and knees, though he would occasionally scoot backwards on his tummy). At 11 months Brayden was FINALLY on the move and quite proud of his new independence!
Fast forward again to his 12 month check up.....Brayden is refusing to use a sippy cup and is quite picky about the finger foods that he will eat. He still does not weigh enough to face forward in the car although he is insanely tall for his age!) There are lots of developmetal delays as well but I will mention those later. One biggie- he will not say a word, not even babble. The dr. checks him for lead poisoning (which can result in these delays) and says we will talk more in 3 months at his next visit.
That visit happened yesterday afternoon. After discussing Brayden's lack of development in greater detail, she diagnoses him with Pervasive Developmental Disorder or PDD. This disorder is a term used for 5 other disorders. The most common....autism. Yes, that's right, the dreaded "A" word. I was by myself at this appt. and had to try and take in everything the dr. was saying while crying my eyes out. She wanted to do some bloodwork to try and get a more specific idea of what kind of PDD that he may have. The nurse couldn't hit his little vein so after getting his 3 vaccines that were due, we were sent to the hospital to have the bloodwork drawn. Poor Brayden screamed and cried and buried his face in my chest. They got what they needed (from the vein in the back of his hand) and we were finally able to go home! What an exhausting day....My husband and I talked alot about this diagnoses and I think he spent most of the night researching online. Today I went to the library and got 2 books on autism in infants and toddlers. So much of B's behavior makes sense now after reading about the early symptoms! I want to share what I have learned so far but I have a cold and am very tired. I will share my findings tomorrow...
