Another week

Another week has gone by. The kids were up half the night so I didn't send my son to school today. He was a grumpy, weepy mess earlier and I know it's because he's tired. My daughter has a gooey waxy ear and an infected ear. She's also got this running nose and cough so she's been having breathing treatments.
Another busy week in the whole learning to be an autism mom. Met with the school board and her early intervention case worker and we should be all set to have her testing and IEP written so that DD will start school the end of September after she turns three and ages out of EI. Hopefully that way she will have no break in her services which at this point are weekly OT and ST and bi-weekly PT. She might not need PT come the fall we'll see. She's doing incredibly well. Considering how bad her low tone was when she was 10 months [couldn't sit up or roll over] she's come a long way with lots of work on her part. She usually crashes when her PT leaves because she's so tired. 
I am doing some massive spring cleaning. So far I've spent six HOURS on my room alone and I'm a little over half way done now.Three bags ready to take to the thrift shop, several bags out to trash. I am hoping to do my kids room next but I will have to do toy purging on days my son is at school and my husband can drive the toys to donate right away. Otherwise he'll cry for toys I hid months ago and he doesn't miss. We simply have too much stuff for the size of our home so something has to give. 

Autism

I've had about a week to digest everything I was told. I knew it was coming, I saw what the doctors, therapists etc saw. I asked for the referral. I filled out the 300 question questionairre and waited months to get an appointment 6 months after that.
Yet the night before the appointment I barely slept. I dreaded it. We needed to go. I still dreaded it. Someone was going to tell me something for sure that would change our whole lives. You would think I would be used to it considering I'd gotten "the news" so many times including the fact that my child had seizure activity and could possibly have a tumor in her brain. Thankfully the MRI news was great. We do have so much to be thankful for.

My daughter has an Autism spectrum disorder.

It's so hurtful to hear. I spent a day crying. I would just be overcome with huge sobs and could barely breath and then be okay for a while and then it would happen again.

Now I'm to the point of needing to pull myself up by my boot straps and get on with it. I am her mother and her voice to the world. I will get her the help she needs to have the best chances of leading a happy\productive life. I refuse to put limits on what kind of amazing person she will become because none of us know and I have big dreams for her.

I've only been officially the mother of an autistic child for a week and already I am faced with the issues. Everyone agrees she needs a lot of help yet everywhere gives me reasons why she can't get that help. The run around is exactly what the seasoned moms said it would be and I've only been at this a week!

We will figure this out. Thankfully I have about six months until she ages out of the zero to three services to find a plan to continue speech, occupational and physical therapy. I am hoping to get her into preschool where she will get everything in one place but IDK what will happen. Take it one day at a time I suppose.