I hate Eczema!!!!

So, I haven't been on here in a while. I've been so freaking busy. My oldest has Autism so I stay pretty active with his appointments, school and working with him on my own. I also have a 4 month old, I think that sums that up right there. My middle child has now decided he needs extra attention too and went eczema crazy on me! Ok, so he didn't choose to have eczema, and it didn't just suddenly happen. He has suffered with it since birth. We FINALLY got into an allergist and his skin was/is just too terrible to test at this time. We did a blood test, IgE. He's allergic to: Peanuts, Soy, Oat, Corn, Tomato, Egg and Dairy. Ok, first off. . we were freaking bathing him in Oatmeal!! In the evenings to help soothe his skin to help him sleep, I would either use the Aveeno products or actual packets of Oatmeal to bathe him in. Mother of the Year, I am not! So, now I find out his peanut allergy is pretty high and we have one of those wonderful Epipens to keep on hand (how scary is that?). But, look at that list, what is my baby to eat?!?! He's 21 months old and probably about 21lbs, he's so small already! So, I set aside my Autism books this week and picked up several Food Allergy and Nutrition books. I seriously never thought I would have to "study" on how to prepare food for my family. I have no problems cooking, I enjoy it really, but this food allergy crap stinks to high heavens. I'm a pretty strong believer that everything happens for a reason though and I think this is one of those circumstances. I have toyed with the GF/CF diet for months now, reading about it, buying like one GF/CF item at the store and just never went whole heartedly into it for my son (I know, I know!) But, now that our precious Sam needs special foods and extra attention put into his meals, I think this is just the push I needed to get everyone on a healthy eating track and get the GF/CF diet going for my oldest. I suppose I'm grateful for that. So, in the mean time I'm trying to heal my baby's skin and keep him from suffering while I study his new diet. . I'm off to look up a product I've heard raves about, Udder Cream? I hope it's udderly amazing, haha!

Marty? Melman? Gloria?

My 4 year old, Carter, absolutely loves the movie Madagascar. I try not to let him watch too much TV or DVD's, but let's face it. . I'm not perfect and there are days where I could careless if he watched TV for 12hrs straight! He gets on these little 'kicks' where he wants to watch the same movie over and over and nothing else. He did that for the longest time with Madagascar and last night he wanted to watch it before going to bed. Carter has very bad dreams--not really night terrors, but close. He doesn't sleep well, it's usually the bad dreams or a tummy issue. So to my story. . last night, he falls asleep watching his movie. After about an hour or two he wakes, crying and holding his tummy as usual and I lay with him rubbing his back and belly until he falls back to sleep. As I start to doze myself, I hear "Marty??? Melmannnnn??? Gloria, is that you??" I thought to myself , "Oh no, here we go" and prepared to be up for several hours calming him. Much to my groggy amusement, I realized he must have been dreaming he was in the movie (I assume) and was yelling for his friends. He repeated his call for his friends for well over 10 minutes and I decided to play along , "Alex? is that you, it's me Gloria" (I know, I've seen the movie way too many times) And wouldn't you know? He babbled something I couldn't make out and stopped crying out for his friends and relaxed and returned to slumber! So, my cute little guy was dreaming he was Alex the Lion from Madagascar. For the first time I was woken up to respond to a good dream, how adorable is that? I wish my boy would sleep through the night, for my sake and his, but I don't think I would mind if I had to play Gloria again at 2a.m.

Ramblings of the sleep deprived

So, I suppose I should give a little introduction before just diving right into things. I'm Carol, I'm a young Mother of 3 and married to the old Father of 3 Tim, ha ha. . OK, he's not old, though he thinks he is. We have Carter who is going to be 4 this Saturday, Sammy who is 19 months and Lily our newest addition, she's 12 weeks :) Carter is our autistic blessing. Though our hands are full and everyday is filled with chaos, I wouldn't change a thing!

We're still "new" to the Autism I suppose. We've known for over 1 year now. We're still working with different interventions and I spend most of my time studying new therapies and approaches. A lot of my time is spent worrying. Sound familiar to anyone else? I constantly worry about Carter and his future. Lately, I've been studying my other two kiddos as well. Sam is 19 months and is progressing just fine, but there is always that fear in the back of my mind. He has severe eczema and is ALWAYS sick it seems. . which is the opposite of Carter. No skin issues for him and the boy has been sick maybe once since he's been born, super immune system he has. Lily. . my little girl, well she's given us issues since before she was born. We went through all kinds of pre-natal testing to rule out issues that would arise after an ultra sound. Thankfully the Doctor's were all wrong and so far she's okay. . other than catching all the nasty germ bugs from her older brothers. At what point will this constant worry over the younger two go away? Past the 2 year mark? I spend all my free time studying the "causes" of Autism, making sure I'm doing the best to protect my younger two. I was a very young, first time Mother with Carter and had never heard of Autism. But, this time, it's different, I know it all too well.

Carter is actually pretty high functioning. He is very verbal. He's always saying something -though it may not always make sense- He's just mostly delayed, but making progress everyday. After reading so much online, books etc., I believe he falls under Aspergers with Sensory Processing Disorder. . He's a sensory seeker, BIG TIME! Anyone else have a child who constantly drums and sings? Carter is a mini musician, absolutely talented. He can sort of play the guitar and he can drum out the beat of any song and it's recognizable. Though, I'm amazed by his talent, I will say I'm beyond sick of the Bob The Builder theme song. I think that's why I decided to blog. A mission to find other Mother's who are fed up, sick and tired of that darn Bobby Builder! Does Bob have a last name? (Should I care?) I actually decided to join the crowd and create a blog to connect with other Mommies out there who go through my daily issues. I live in a terribly small town and have yet to really connect with any other parent of an Autistic child. When I hop on this wonderful thing called the Internet (thank you Al Gore, ha ha) and read other posts from Autism Mom's, I feel hope and a sense of relief, I'm definitely and sadly not the only one. So, I hope maybe I can offer that feeling to someone else. Another Mom or Dad perhaps who reads my rambles and can think "Wow, I've been there" and I certainly won't complain if some tips and advice come flowing my way as well.

So, here it is. . my first set of ramblings, I hope to have more coherent thoughts in the days to come. My sickly children have been keeping me awake more hours than I can count. They finally all go to sleep at the same time and here I am. . blogging!Ha! I'm actually waiting for Hubby to return home. He works full-time and is a full-time college student. I have to wait up for him, otherwise I would NEVER see him. Some days. . I don't even know how we do it. . but we're making it so far and fingers crossed in 50 years, he'll be waiting up for me, while I'm out playing BINGO with the gals, ha ha! Oh well. . until next time though.. . :)