Dylan's First 3 Years in a nutshell!

Dylan was born on a Wednesday in December of 2011.  He was induced just like my other children and everything went smoothly like the others.  Once I was at a 5, I dilated super quick and was ready to have him within an hour.  I remember thinking I can't do this much longer because for some reason the epidural didn't work as well as the others and I could feel tons of pressure.  He was our third child.  The nurse came and checked me and said we were ready.  I was so relieved!  We did not know what his gender was until he was born, so out came our handsome little Dylan at 7 lbs 7 oz and we were so excited to have him here!  He was the 7th grandchild on my side of the family, so my Dad deemed him the "lucky" child, because the three "7's"!
I did have Gestational Diabetes when I was pregnant with him, but other than that everything went as smooth pregnancy wise as it did with the others.  I do remember though there was a couple times when he was being held later in his first year that we noticed his feet and legs would look blue as if the circulation was cut off.  I am only writing this now because I just remembered and maybe that has something to do with what we are going through now, the reason I am starting this blog, AUTISM!

Our first two years went great with Dylan, and everything developmentally was progressing right on track.  He was our earliest walker around 10 1/2 months, he loved to play with his siblings, he would smile when I came home and be excited to see me, he was talking like anyone his age.  He was always "that child" that was going to keep us on our toes and the one I thought was going to be our most social child. He was also our BIG boy.  Brandon and I say that we don't really remember him as a baby, because he really didn't have a "baby" stage because he grew so quick.  He outweighs his brother that is a little over 2 years older than him, as of now 3/2015.  He is built quite husky and always has been.

Dylan turned 2 in December 2013 and was your typical little guy:

Then in March of 2014 he pulled over a really heavy barstool on his forehead.  It left a pretty good goose bump and even now 1 year later you can still see a little bump on his forehead where it was.  I just blew it off thinking "boys will be boys," consoled him and went on our way.  My Grandma passed away a week or so later and then in early April after her funeral, one day Brandon and I both noticed that he hadn't been talking as much lately.  When Brandon told me that, I mentioned I had actually called Early Intervention to have him assessed and in my mind thinking he was having hearing problems.  Brandon had tubes in his ears like 7 times when he was younger and it wasn't until he was older that he really could hear.  They said one day he was really surprised by the sound of the heater and that was when he was like 7? or something.  I had tubes once, so I really thought maybe his ears are bad.  The next day, I went to get him out of the crib and noticed the eye contact was very hard to obtain.  He had also been disappearing off on his own and we would find him watching shows on the Ipad.  Watching shows had just started in the last few months, which I am guilty and enjoyed that I was able to distract him with shows for a bit so I could get stuff done around the house for a little while.  After putting that together in my head and when Brandon came home from work that day, he started to play with Dylan.  This time he also mentioned the eye contact.  I told him I noticed it to and that maybe he was along the lines of Autism, but at the same time, I didn't really think that was the road we would be going down.  I really thought it was something to do with his hearing.

Right after pulling the barstool over

That weekend we went Easter camping and reality started to sink in. We were emotional to think we may be heading down the road of Autism and then to watch him around his cousins, one being a couple months younger, and see the difference in them was hard.  That was not our Dylan just a few months prior, he was now a completely different little guy.  He was playing on his Grandpa's razor(side by side), it was parked, and he tumbled out landing on his head again.  So now I stressed out and thought maybe there was really some damage done by the barstool and so we ran him into the ER to be safe.  The Dr just looked him over and said there was no signs of a concussion and didn't want to sedate him to do a scan.  He also said give him a year and he would be a completely different guy because we were also wondering if he was regressing due to the fact of having a new baby in the house.  We left feeling good, but still I was a little concerned.  I contacted our pediatrician and he ordered an MRI to put our minds at ease.  The MRI came back showing no damage so that was good, right?  The chiropractor later told me that and MRI of a living vs. deceased person would look the same, so now I don't know that I trust that finding.

For the past year now we have had speech therapy, occupational therapy and a play group through early intervention.  We have had him treated with a Chiropractor that has done ASA Balance(balance his body to accept things it wasn't at the time), adjustments, metal detox treatments.  Now he is enrolled in the school districts preschool program that is Autism based.  He started that in January of this year (2015), once he turned 3 and was done with Early Intervention. We started the home program with Brain Balance, but that just stressed me out with the nutrition.  They want you to go Soy, Nut, Gluten and Dairy free.  I am sure that helps, but it was too hard for the time being.  We have seen some changes in him for the better but they are not coming and staying all the time.  He was constantly getting naked at times and was a flight risk at others( one time within a five-seven minute time frame he was a block and a half a way) but luckily he has been better with these two things for the past several months.  But you always have to be prepared!  He constantly eats and we have to tie the fridge shut!  He sleeps in his crib with 2 mattresses on top to keep him in there.  He will use words occasionally but then you won't hear that word or any words for that matter for who knows when, but oh how I love when I hear a word!  I know the knowledge is in there, we just need to figure out how to help him get it out and keep it flowing!

He is such a sweet little boy and will at least give kisses on occasion.  I wonder sometimes if he may try and kiss his teachers because I usually ask for a kiss when I give him something and so sometimes he immediately is waiting with the kiss when I get him things, ha ha.  His second home is his Grandparents house!  They take him once a week or two and spend some time with him and gives us some time to focus on the other 3 as well.  He loves going with his grandparents and probably has more fun there and gets more attention then we are able to give him, so it is great for him and for us.  We each get a little time to recharge and prepare for what will come next!  And lets face it, without these grandparents we don't know how we would be able to handle this trying time.  It is a hard road to go down and takes lots of patience, which I have learned I do not have!  I am very thankful for these two because I don't know where we would be without them!

Here is a few videos taken throughout the year:

We have decided, with the help of his grandparents, both by finding the treatment and financing the treatment, to take Dylan to Panama to receive stem cells!    We also found a group on Facebook that has given me much hope that this is the road we need to be on!  They are a very uplifting and supporting group and have seen a lot of changes in their children that have gone there.  So here's to our new road we will go down in a couple of weeks from now!