There is never a dull moment around here! DJ is in ABA now instead of the developmental preschool where we originally had him attending. His progress report was still at baseline. There had been no progress in 5 months.  His speech has gotten much better with therapy though! He is talking more and most words can be understood, although he still calls Andy "Eggy" when he is excited or upset.  DJ will also be attending occupational therapy where he receives ABA services, which he wasn't receiving at the school. The therapist is familiar with ARFID and is willing to work on getting him to try new textures.

The last three months have been a lot! My entire house has been sick with different things - like all 4 kids getting pink eye twice, all 3 littles had ear infections and colds, DJ had a busted ear drum, Sierra getting an infection after her MACE removal surgery... We had 3 emergency room visits during Christmas week, which included Richard having a 6 hour wait in the waiting room because of his blood pressure being high, Richard falling down our basement stairs and getting bursitis in in one of his elbows, and my mom being admitted to the hospital due to pneumonia. Mom came back home New Year's Eve fully reliant on oxygen and needing a lot of help. Everyone is finally feeling much better! But honestly, taking care of everybody has left me pretty drained. 

Kids being sick is a rough time for any parent. Adding special needs on top of that is exhausting! It feels like my kids have been sick since October. However, the newest round has just been the last couple of weeks.

I started this post almost two weeks ago! But life got in the way, and then what I had written didn't save! Talk about wanting to cry!!! Anyway, life goes on.

I don't know about you, but my kids get overstimulated fairly easily. The day after a big outing or a holiday makes for an awful experience, especially with my older two. With last night being Halloween, today has been awful.

I have been trying to figure out how I want to introduce Sierra. She is 15 and is very private when it comes to her medical problems. I asked her what she would like for me to say because I wanted to allow her to have that privacy. However, she has given me permission to discuss all of it.  She agrees that awareness for these disorders are important. I will try to keep it as concise as possible, and maybe expand on them later.

Gracie is the baby. She is a fighter who will go toe-to-toe with her siblings and will not put up with anything that she doesn't like. At barely 15 months old, Gracie thinks she rules the roost. She may not talk, but she gets her point across! We call her pterodactyl because her high-pitched squeal. Her personality is full force at home, but whenever we are out in public she is very quiet and reserved. A nurse once called it "Resting Baby Face" and it has been adopted in this house.

Andy is my 5 year old superhero loving, wisecracking big boy. He loves all superheroes, but favors Power Rangers the most. He has a strong sense of justice and wants to be a chef and a soldier when he is older.

I was originally going to start with introducing oldest to youngest, but since DJ had to have a procedure with urology today, I decided to start with my fearless boy. DJ is 3 and has absolutely no fear. He was a quiet baby who I called "my watcher baby" because he would just watch everything with little interaction. Very few words spoken until age 2. Honestly, I was worried that he would be non-verbal. It's terrifying thinking that your child wouldn't be able to talk to you. As of March of this year, DJ has been officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum disorder with immediate and delayed echolalia. He is an eloper with an attraction to water (which is a whole other type of fear that I have never felt before), so we use Project Lifesaver to give us a little peace of mind.

It's crazy to think that all 4 of my kids have something. It goes: Rare, Very rare, Ultra rare, and so rare less than 20 known people have it............ How is this my life??? How do I keep moving? I am literally developing an issue with my neck (losing its curvature) due to the amount of stress I am under! But back to my kids -

I am a stay at home mom of 4. My husband and I have been married 18 years and our children are 1, 3, 5, and 15 years old. When my oldest was 4, she was diagnosed with Primary Generalized Epilepsy. This began our journey delving into the medical world. I told Sierra that if I wanted to be a doctor or nurse I would have went to school for it. We got her diagnosis the day after I graduated college with an Associates degree in Office Administration. Definitely not a medical field! Since the early days of her diagnosis, we have had multiple specialists and therapists in our lives. We currently have 7 different therapists we work with for the kids. As I work through my blog I will introduce my kids and discuss more of their current diagnoses at length. There are a lot of them!