The Beginning-Part 3
At this point Cooper was 2. It was really apparent that Cooper wasn’t babbling. He communicated but in his own way. If he wanted something he would grab our hand and bring us to it or just point. And this is also when the whining started. The whining is the hardest part for my husband and I. We get so exhausted. To help you understand, imagine a child that can only say vowels and everything is a constant high pitched vowel. It started to get really hard for us to go out to stores because people would stare at Cooper. Also, his naughty behaviors started to really, really come out. He couldn’t tell us what he wanted so he had to use his body.
At Cooper’s 2 year well child visit in December 2012 we were once again referred to the Help Me Grow program. At this point I was 8 months pregnant and I knew that Cooper really needed help. I needed help. He wasn’t talking and honestly showed no interest to talk.
The HMG started visiting once week. Now, I wish I could say it was beneficial for Cooper, but it honestly wasn’t. They just weren’t consistant with him. Most of them time they would want to talk to me and not focus on him. So, imagine a child that is naughty in the first place, having to sit still in his own living while his mommy talked to 2-4 different people. Let’s just say this didnt’ go well. I started to really stress out about the appointments. Cooper, the little stinker that he is, would start out great and then progressively get MORE naughty. He would run around the house and throw and laugh and repeat.
At this point I realized that Cooper needed REAL speech therapy. We started at our local hospital twice a week and let me be honest…it was amazing. Cooper fell in love with his therapist and really enjoyed going there. Finally, something was working.
As I mentioned before, Cooper’s behaviors started to really act up around 2. And so did some other odd things. He got super picky in his eating. He spent most of his meal throwing food on the floor, throwing his plate, feeding the dogs. Every meal ended in a fight, timeout, etc. And also, because Cooper wasnt really eating well, his constiption got worse.
This was a really hard time for me. I think I cried on a daily basis. Why was my son different? Why did I have to have the different son? Was something wrong with him? I couldn’t get a grasp on it. All I knew was that I was about to have a baby and I had a son that was so behind and so challenged. To say I was scared all the time was the understatement of the century.
