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ASWe started autism therapy a long time ago, and although many years have passed, I will never forget our first 3-4 years. I often refer to that time as “survival mode.”
My husband and I didn’t get any sleep for nearly four years after Andrew was born. He needed to be fed 3-5 times a night, and he would wake up crying for food every two hours.
As Andrew grew, traveling also became a significant challenge. I remember one particular instance vividly. As soon as we boarded the plane, Andrew had a tantrum and refused to fasten his seatbelt. After 20 minutes of warnings, the crew informed us that we would be removed from the plane if we couldn’t secure him. My husband held him while I struggled to fasten the seatbelt, and we took off with our son screaming. He only calmed down once the belt was removed.
After that experience, Andrew refused to wear a seatbelt in the car, and we often drove without him being buckled in until we underwent extensive training to teach him how to ride safely with a seatbelt.
Despite these challenges, all of this hard work was worth it! Now, Andrew is very well adapted to our life, and many things come easily to us. However, there are still some areas where we continue to work for improvement.
I’ll share more about those later.
@asdhelps
