I (jokingly) asked my doctor when I was 5 months pregnant if we could go ahead and start Ritalin.
Shari, I love it!
difficult child 3 was such an easy baby. I used to say, "We paid our dues with the first three." But whenever I had to change how I did things, we had battles. I mothered my baby by 'listening' to him and giving him what he anted. I work on the principle that you can't spoil a baby. He was likely to be my last, so if I wanted to cuddle my baby to sleep, I would. At about 3 months old, he seemed to decide at a certain point in the cuddle, that he wanted to be put to bed. So I would take my cue form him and put him to bed when he leaned that way. And he would go right off to sleep. This was such a contrast to the previous two, it was refreshing.
difficult child 3 loved it when I walked among trees. He would really look up at the trees and any fussiness would immediately settle, as his eyes fixed on the afternoon sunlight flickering through the trees... can you say the word, "stimming"? He was doing this from the day I brought him home from hospital (no leafy trees in the hospital).
But he was our genius baby for so long, he seemed to be a problem-solver early on. Then at 6 months old he would watch "Sale of the Century" so obviously, we thought it was a funny coincidence. Other game shows didn't grab his attention and we couldn't work out why this one seemed to, but he would look away or fuss during the ad breaks, but when the show came back on, he would stare at the screen again. Weird.
At about a year old, we realised he wasn't saying much that made sense. I stated to ask questions but was repeatedly told to not worry, he was clearly a bright child. From before a year old he had shown an amazing musical aptitude (like a much-older music prodigy cousin of mine had, in infancy). Finally when he was 2, we were told to organise Speech Therapy. I put his name down at a local clinic and was told there was a long wait. Six months later someone at his day care called the welfare authorities on us, because of the increasingly-obvious language delay. At first the welfare mob gave me heaps because when I said we had his name down for speech Therapy, his name was not on the waiting list. We'd dropped off at some point and I hadn't known. so it made me look like a liar, only someone quickly put his name back on the list and pushed it up higher.
It took time and a lot of accusations in my direction, before he got a diagnosis of language delay. However, by this stage he was reading aloud (although not with comprehension) and reading triple-digit numbers as well as some simple words. Obsessively reading - we'd go to see a doctor and difficult child 3 would walk around the room reading aloud every letter and number he could see. Any keyboard, he'd go over and start playing. Not bashing at it, but playing chords and simple tunes.
The autism diagnosis came about a year later. He started stimulants at 3 and it was like magic, with accelerating his language.
difficult child 1 - my first boy. He seemed very slow compared to his quicksilver eldest sister. The doctor kept saying, "boys are different, they do seem slower than girls. He's fine.
But he wasn't. At 6, a school counsellor and class teacher hauled me in and tore strips off me for not paying attention to my son's needs. They did eventually begin to help a little, and a pediatrician we saw diagnosed ADHD. However, it was never the right answer and it took another ten years to get a more valid diagnosis.
Looking back I can see the problems difficult child 1 had, before he was a year old. He fixated on one carer in the long day care centre, despite that carer's efforts to not let him bond so tightly. We now understand that Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) kids can and will form habits incredibly fast.
easy child 2/difficult child 2 was our genius child also. She seemed perfectly capable and together, but we realise now, we had misread the "little professor" side of her. She was about 8 years old when the school reported her being obstinate and difficult, as well as doing some very odd things (such as lying on the floor with her head to the floor during dance class - she told us she was listening to the vibrations). And still we didn't cotton on.
She doesn't have a formal diagnosis except ADD, but we're all convinced she's Aspie.
easy child - probably also partly Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) but she functions well so we don't ask for more problems!
Marg
