There is quite a run down of news for our little family. I'll start with the most exciting news. We are expecting baby #4! We are so excited. Our little bundle will arrive near the middle of September. As is par for the course in our world, this new one will be about 16.5 to 17 months younger than Leah. That's just fine with me. As soon as I get going back to church, Leah will be close to going into nursery. Good timing, eh? We will find out what we will be having in a couple of weeks. Who wants to bet it'll be another girl. When we got married, I said, "we better have boys, because I don't think I like girls!" Ha ha, HF said. Now, of course I love our little girls, and wonder what in the world I would do with a little boy!
Next is some, oh, I hate to day BAD news, because it is what it is, and it's not the end of the world. Curious, yet? Well, for the last year we've been taking Libby (now 2.5 yrs) to developmental pediatricians, speech therapists, and having lots of other consultations. Well, the other day we had official confirmation that she is autistic, and is somewhere on the autism spectrum. As we are new to this we are starting lots of therapies, and are lined up for all sorts of evaluations and programs. We are going to be busy!! We are glad to finally have an official diagnosis (no matter how painful) because now we can get down to the business of getting her help. Libby is the sweetest girl ever, and loves to play and sing, and be held my her parents, and we love to love on her and hug and hold and play with her. After a few rough days (for me. anyway) I have felt the comfort of the spirit, and just feel that everything will be OK with her. Whatever "ok" means, we don't know, but it helps me feel that, well, we'll be ok no matter what How grateful I am for the gospel and the love of our Heavenly Father.
As to Libby, we are going to try and do a milk free diet for her. And since I don't want to make two separate meals for her and us everyday all day long, we will all go on the milk free roller coaster and see if it helps her out. I feel pretty good about it, so we will, see. If you have any advice on the topic or hints, any and all would be appreciated.
Love to you all! (that is if anyone reads this anymore :)
6 comments:
Yes, Karen dear, I do read you blog. I wait patiently for you to post something. Eli's mom helped with an autistic child by doing some sort of attention thing where you held the child's attention all of his waking hours and didn't let their minds wander. She thought it helped a lot. Do you want me to find out more about it?
I still read it :D (a Google Reader account.) I wondered when you found out about Libby. It must be a bittersweet thing - to finally know, but wish it weren't so. If there's anything more than prayers we can do, let us know. Developmental disabilities run in my family - I have a special place in my heart for those of HF's children. She'll bring joys that only she can because of it.
I wondered if I should keep this blog up - I have been so lax at keeping it up. :) Annie - the one big therapy we are waiting to start is similar to the one you mentioned. It is very very very time intensive and very, sort of, "in your face" for Lib. We'll have someone come in 20 hours a week and work with her. Then we currently have a speech therapist that comes twice a month and hopefully will come in once a week. Lots of time will be invested in this little girl! She certainly is worth it!
Wel, I hope you keep posting! Gareth and I love reading about your family! I am glad you know about Libby. She is the sweetest girl! I have a book that the Therapist gave me when they were telling me about Caleb's SPD. It is called, "Tool Chest" I wondered if you would be interested in the activities in it. I could make copies at your mom's house and send them along to you. Just let me know. Chris
Thanks Christina - We our speech therapist (she's amazing) offered me two books on SPD called the Out-of-Sync child and the follow up book to that one. I am reading them now, and trying to get a handle on what exactly I need to do for Lib in that arena. How many arenas are there, you ask? A LOT!!! I've been amazed at the aspects of her life that are affected, and the ways we need to be proactive in. Overwhelming, I must say :)
Karen,
Hi, it has been forever since i have talked to you guys but I do hop on over here every once in a while to see what the latest is! Life kind of drags us away from things like blogging though, so when you can keep it up - great! When you can't - you're normal. :)
Congrats on the new baby! It can be a huge whirlwind having them close together, yes? But I think it has perks too...though, of course i can say this because mine are playing relatively well right now. Ask me again in five minutes. :) But, really, congratulations!!!
As for Libby's diagnoses...I would love to talk more with you about this. I will try to keep it short here so I don't leave the world's longest comment but the long and short of it is - We noticed some tendencies in James starting a couple years back (He just turned four). We thought there was a resemblance in some of his mannerisms, personality traits, ways of coping, etc. to those of mild autism. Through lots of research and consulting with our family doctor, we took sugar and dairy out of his diet. I, like you, wasn't interested in the rest of us eating something he wasn't eating, so the whole bunch of us have been mostly off dairy and sugar (um...this one's mostly just the kids...haha) for the past year and a half or so. Besides, once you start looking into it and thinking about it, neither of those things are very good for any of us anyway...it is nearly impossible to find good quality dairy and even when you do, any nutrients we get from it, we can easily get in a purer form from fruits and vegetables.
Um...sorry...soapbox?
So, anyway, I have noticed a huge difference in James. (the other kids too, just in general..and myself as well) When he does get some dairy or sugar, or white flour (oh yeah, that too), i can totally see those tendencies emerge again. Food dye is a big deal for him too.
We have never gotten him diagnosed or anything but I really believe that if we were to not pay close attention to his diet, especially once he got in school, it would become an issue.
It's not easy, but it really sounds like you guys are on a fantastic track. I have only been doing this same kind of thing with our diet for the last year or so but I would love to talk anytime. Also to get ideas from you...it's nearly impossible to find non-dairy recipes out there that are...normal. Haha but I have managed to get a whole three weeks rotating menu plan (far from perfect but it works well enough!)
Okay, I really wrote more than i wanted to but i could talk forever about this.
Email me sometime, my dear, I could use the chit chat about this topic.
jcandmandy@gmail.com
Love you guys,
Mandy
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