Journal Entry from March 13, 2008

Things have been kind of crazy lately. We're starting to get into a rythem (sp?) now. Sam was finally able to switch to days so that's been great. It's nice actually spending time with him. We took a class on the ABA(applied behavior analysis) therapy style we we've been trying that approach. We're really more of a laid back family though, so we're doing it our own way. We've started out just trying to introduce the PECS's pictures. I sit behind him and hand-over-hand help him to trade the picture for the object. It seems to be making a huge difference just in a couple days. The speech therapist yesterday seemed really impressed at how quickly he's caught on in the past week. It was actually a lot of work. And it's difficult to do with a two year old. He's always on the go, so being asked to sit a work is a big deal. We try just doing it for a couple minutes, let him run around, do it a couple more minutes...etc. His speech and signing and even the pictures has really been great in the past week or two. We also started the GFCF diet about a week ago. He just keeps getting the runs all the time, so I figured it's time to try this and see if it helps. We finally got all the blood work back and everything was negative. There were a couple vitamin levels that were on the low side, but nothing that really stood out. I wasn't really expecting there to be, but I wanted to know where we were starting before we start changing his diet and starting new vitamins. In a couple days we'll be starting the new Omega 3 supplement, since the other one just ran out. The new one has a ton of omega-3's so hopefully it will help. Then we have two more weeks before we run out of the multivitamin so we'll be starting the new vitamin with extra vitamin C, B6, ,B12 and magnesium. They are both rather expensive at $20 and $50 per bottle, but they should each last 6 months, so it's really not that bad.

I just started on a new anxiety med last week. I've been super irritable and nervous lately, so I decided that I needed to do something about it. It makes me feel a little bit out of it, but not too bad and I am getting used to it now. I hope that it just gets me out of this rut. I just need energy to do what I need to for my son. I never would have thought that it would be this emotionally draining to get this diagnosis. I guess that it's the same as they always say, it only happens to someone else...until it happens to you. And it's really not that bad. I just want my son to be happy and they keep telling me that he's the happiest kid at daycare. He always has a smile on his face. And he loves to snuggle. I love that...