First Signs

Grayson was born August 14, 2019. He was a due date baby, my pregnancy with him was perfect, and I have no birth complications at all. He came out at 7lbs 15 oz and had the chunkiest little cheeks.

Grayson as a baby hit all of his milestones on time, if not early. He crawled early, walked early, babbled early and was just so happy. He was a very picky eater though and very attached to his Mama. I couldn't even leave the room without him crying for me! He was and still is a huge Mama's boy.

It wasn't until around 1.5 that I started suspecting something was off. Grayson still wasn't talking. He hadn't said Mama or Dada yet and he also was not responding to his name. He also wouldn't look up at unfamiliar or loud sounds. In fact, it seemed as if he ignored us or was deaf a lot of the time. I brought this up to the pediatrician and she recommended him to get his hearing checked and to Early Intervention to get a speech evaluation.

Grayson had a Sedated ABR test and his hearing came back perfect. As Grayson was approaching his second birthday, we noticed some other odd behaviors he started picking up. At first I just thought he was quirky, but looking back I can see how his behaviors were attributed to ASD. Grayson would very often:

• Spin in circles for a long amount of time

• Watch spinning objects and bright lights constantly

• Cry anytime I walked away from him

• Side eye different objects

• line toys and objects up

• repeat actions over and over (sitting and then standing up, pick up/ drop objects)

Still, even though his behaviors were odd, I just thought he was being a kid and had some quirks.

Right before 2, we heard Graysons first word: Mama, followed shortly by Dada and then the next few weeks he added dog, cow, up, and milk. We were THRILLED. Our baby was starting to talk! Right before two we had our speech evaluation and were able to start speech therapy through early intervention (another blog on what happens during a speech evaluation).

My heart relaxed because I felt we were on the right path. Grayson was saying several words now, and started responding to his name a bit better, but my relief was very short lived. Right after Grayson's second birthday, he stopped talking again or responding to his name. Our speech therapist told us Grayson had a mixed expressive/receptive language delay. He had trouble understanding words and using them. He was very behind his peers. He actually tested about a year behind all his peers in every category the evaluation had.

Hearing and realizing how behind Grayson was, I started googling, I googled all Graysons symptoms and quirks. Autism kept being brought up... and down the rabbit hole of autism I started reading.

At this point (2 years, 2 months) Grayson also:

• Making a "mmm" noise

• Did not follow one or two step commands

• Only made eye contact when it was an activity he preferred (lacked joint attention)

• Hand lead and bring items to us

• Lacked gestures such as pointing, waving, high-fiving

There is a lot more to his story that I hope to cover. From realizing something was off.... to getting an evaluation. It is quite hard to hit everything in detail in one post, but I hope my other posts will cover the majority!