What this is for

I need a place to journal, to be able to remember what is happening on a daily basis with my Kayt. It seems that she loses quite a bit of language and gets more confused on days. Maybe I can figure out if it is linked to something that happens or if there is a similarity on those days. Who knows maybe it will all dissapear. I want others to know they are not alone in the confusion of wondering if your child is autistic, or if they will snap out of it, or if you are being overly sensitive to things, and the many other things that run through your head when your baby just isn't right on track. I will now tell you a quick up to date to get you where we are today so that no one feels lost as I go on about the daily happenings.

Kaytlin was born 1-22-07. I was 39w and it was a quick and easy birth. The pregnancy wasn't that easy and my fluid was quite low at one point, but she did great. She scored great and was ready to come out.

I thought she was doing great, she passed all of the papers easily when asked at her well baby checkup. She crawled at 7months walked at 9 months, she has always been a very physical girl. From climbing to jumping she has been advanced. She has no fear of going on the big things at the elementary school to go down the big slide, she just bypasses the little slides.

She is scared of going backwards, water going over her head, and loud noises. The vacuum terrifies her, and I am not over exagerating. If she sees the vacuum she gets a look of sheer terror, maybe compare it to the look in an adults eyes that has a gun being held to their head. Needless to say I only vacuum if she is asleep or daddy is home to take her in her room. The blender, the hairdryer, public restrooms, drills, all of those things terrify her. I just thought she would grow out of it, she is now over 2 yrs old and nothing has changed with those terrors.

Vocabulary started out wonderful, she has the rainforest high chair and there is a butterfly on it so when she was still in her high chair she would turn around and say butterfly and point at it, she knew the word duck, mom, dad, and many others. At some point I must have missed it, she lost many of them and by the time she was 18 months old, she only had about 5 words.

I went to the Indianapolis childrens museum for the citywide babyshower. There is where I met someone from First Steps. Indiana's early intervention. What a lifesaver! I cannot imagine where I would be today if I hadn't had her evaluated. If you are reading this and wondering if you should, do it! It doesn't hurt anyone but your child to not do it. It doesn't matter what anyone says, including daddy, because most of them are against the evaluations for some reason. Mine was and thought I was just stupid for doing it. The thing is that you may hear your child is perfect! Great now you can enjoy and not worry instead of continuing to wonder right. Okay enough lol, so they came to our house and of course confirmed what I knew. She was behind with vocab and alittle of social. We got set up with a developmental therapist 1x a week from 18 months on.

Kaytlin loves her therapist! It seemed as if things were moving right along and she started learning how to do puzzles and many other things she didn't know how to do. Fast forward to her first review...while she was advancing she still was not fast enough, a second therapist was added, this one with a masters in speech. Her first one has a bachelors in speech but is a developmental therapist. So now she sees each one every week.

Kaytlin has unfortunately started to regress quite a bit now. It is really scary I won't lie to you. If not for my God, my husband, my online friends, my in real life friends, my church, and the resources I would be completely lost. We have many on and many off days. You will see what I mean as I blog each day to explain the events of the days. Her past two meetings have shown a huge regression, and it saddens me. Not because I expect perfection, but because I want the best for my baby.

Kayt had her first eval with a psychologist yesterday and will be evaluated by an ocupational therapist to help with her sensory issues. Kaytlin has a very low tolerance for noise and a very high tolerance for pain. Things that would hurt the avg person does not bother her at all. She also has issues with understanding other people's emotions. She does not understand if I cry, get upset, or anything aside from laughter and smiling. This makes it hard for discipline, just a tone change means nothing to her.

I hope this can help at least one other parent feel they are not alone, or another parent feel empowered to get EI for their child.

God Bless you all.