Cullen Lane Penn is the youngest of my three boys, as the easiest pregnancy and the easiest baby. Whenever people tell there birth horror stories to pregnant ladies I like to tell them my dream birth story with Cullen. I got to the hospital I was already dilated enough to put the epudural before I felt much pain and when it was time to push I was barely one song into my birthing playlist I had prepared before the doctor was handing me my baby. He came into this world so easy and sweet. Cullen was doing things way before his older brothers he slept through the night he was the perfect baby.
When Cullen was one and a half I was going through a lot with his older brother Cody. At three Cody was just not where he should be developmentally. He only said a few words and phrases and he was throwing horrible tantrums all the time. We got him tested and he was placed into the devlopmentaly delayed category and was enrolled in a state funded preschool. While in school Cody blossomed before our eyes, he talked, he could count, name all his shapes and while he still got upset sometimes his tantrums slowed down. I would always bring Cullen along with me everyone loved him he was such a smiling happy baby. I remember one of Cody's teachers said " I can not wait to get you in my class!" To Cullen and I thought to myself you will never get him in your class he is already doing more than his brothers!
Around his two year old birthday he was not talking as much as most two year olds. But when he went for His check-up I could check if most of the developmental milestones except the verbal ones. His Doctor asked if I was concerned and I said no, I mean I was an expert now wasn't I? I had panicked with Cody and look at him he was practically a genius.
So I waited and by the time his third birthday was rolling around he seemed to be losing skills instead of gaining them. I could count the number of words he said on my fingers. There was no denying it anymore something was wrong with my perfect baby. The same team that tested Cody tested Cullen and again was shown to be devlopmentaly delayed and placed in the same school. But Cullen did not blossom like Cody did, still not much as changed since he was two years old.
The team tested him again looking for autism signs this time, and the came away with the conclusion of severely devlopmentaly delayed and on the autism spectrum. The diagnosis did not rock me. There is so much room for growth but sometimes it seems like that is all I am doing waiting with baited breath for growth. When you have a child there us so much that you want for them, and want to give them and so much of the road ahead for him is covered in question marks. Even the simple task of enrolling in Kindergarten is scary. So this is why I am started this blog to get feedback, and to share our journey with everyone else.
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