The Beginning
I know when I tell Cooper’s story I need to start from the very beginning. When I am frantically searching for blogs that have to do with Apraxia, Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, ect, I always go to the beginning of the blog roll. I want to know if the child is like mine. Do they share traits? Are there similarities?
I had a completely normal pregnancy with Cooper (besides gaining A LOT of weight…ugh). Nine pound Cooper came into this world not breathing. I will never, in all of my life, forget laying on the table, exhausted, waiting for his cry. And nothing. I looked at the doctors and nurses faces for a reaction. Nothing…calm as can be. So I didn’t panic. They took Cooper over the bassinet and started cleaning him up. I remember it felt like an eternity. I kept waiting. And still, no panic from anybody. I swear it took forever to hear the best noise in the world. My little peanut was here.
My husband and I lived in a little town quite a distance away from our families so after the first initital visits, I was pretty much home alone with Coop. Within days of being home I knew something was off. Cooper never slept. Now, I know that most people won’t believe me but in a 24 hour period, Cooper slept 8-9 hours…tops. I almost lost my mind. I was nursing constantly and this baby never slept. When my mom did come to visit she was shocked. He was ALWAYS awake. The car didn’t work, the swing didn’t work, nothing worked. And it wasn’t like he was crying…he was just demanding. (And even now, the best way to describe Cooper is demanding.)
Cooper met all of his milestones right on time. He rolled over, sat up, crawled and walked all at the ‘normal’ times. And looking back, I think that probably shadowed over the lack of language. When you looked at Cooper he looked so healthy and strong. Heck, the kid weighed 25 pounds at 6 months. Yes, you read that right!
Around 12 months Cooper started having major pooping issues. He was always severely constipated. To the point where I would have to dig the poop out of his butt. Now I know there has to be a mom or two out there that have done this before…there is nothing more traumatic then looking at your babies butt and not knowing how you are going to get the poop out. And so started our GI journey. I tried everything. More fruit, more water, more fiber, less sugar, no dairy, almond milk, etc. I brought Cooper to the dr. and demanded an x-ray. I knew something wasn’t right. My pediatrican told me that x-ray’s weren’t a common thing for constipation but my mommy gut told me something was wrong. The Pedi actually said, ‘don’t expect a call because I am sure all is fine.’ Well, I had call from him within 24 hours telling me that Cooper’s whole intestine was full of rock hard balls of poop and that the poop. And so started the regimin of Miralax. I would give anything for Cooper to not need it but for whatever reason, his little body needs help.
Another thing I want to add is that Cooper didn’t sleep through the night until he was 15 months. Honestly, I think a lot of it had to do with his stomach pains but I will never know. And even to this day, cooper is still a horrible sleeper. He goes to bed amazing but will usually wake up once or twice crying.
At Cooper’s 12 month well child visit, his dr. recommended that we have the school district, (Help Me Grow Program), come evaluate cooper because of his lack of language. I am going to be really, really honest here….I wasn’t ok with this. I didn’t feel right about it. But I did it anyways. If I can stress one thing in this blog, please trust yourself as parents. It is so important. You know your child best.
