I am a mother of 2 amazing boys. The oldest is 4 and the youngest is 1 year old. They are amazing kids and one of them has Sensory Processing Disorder.
How did I get here? How did I start writing a blog about our experience with SPD? Well, let's start from the very beginning. I always, ALWAYS wanted to have kids. My magic number was (is?) 3 kids (starting to question that number frequently now, it seems that 2 might be a magic number as well). My husband and I got married in 2011 and in 2012 our first boy was born.
After our wedding I was dying to get pregnant, my biologic clock was ticking like crazy and I couldn't ignore it anymore. The day that I saw two stripes on that stick, it changed my life. I don't know why but I always new that I was expecting a boy and I was over the moon.
Pregnancy wasn't as easy as I thought and it was a bumpy road until the end. I had a normal delivery and 3 days later I was home with my baby boy.
I had no clue about maternity and caring for a newborn but that is another story for another time.
Fast forward 1 year and I started noticing a few different behaviors when comparing my son with other children. We are frequently told not to compare kids so I stopped doing that but the feeling deep down that something was off was always there.
After 6 months we visited several GPs, 1 pediatrician and my concerns were always dismissed. I felt ignored and was actually told that I was overreacting and that there was no reason for concern. Those were lonely dark times for me.
Fast forward 2 years I was expecting my second child and was sitting on the couch watching a movie when my son started acting out and I wanted to put peppa pig on so he could calm down. The remote was far away and being heavily pregnant made it hard for me to get up and down so I asked my son to give me the remote, the only object on the other end of the couch. He looked at me like "what does this grown up want from me ?". I repeated the request and he got even more confused and then frustrated and went crazy Throwing the toys around. That moment was the moment I realized I absolutely had to go with my gut feeling and find a better doctor. something was off and I needed to to something about it. That same day I called people somehow could provide me with some light and by the end of the day I had a doctor name on a piece of paper. I also had two problems, 1) the doctor was in Portugal so we had to get on a plane, 2) I was 8 months pregnant and couldn't fly. This once again made feel frustrated and powerless and guilty for not being able to get the proper help to my child anytime soon. And for the first time I cried out of frustration, out of sadness but also a bit out of relief that I had decided to go with my instinct.
Eventually we met a developmental pediatrician that validated my concerns and made suggestions of course of action plus therapies we should check out.
We scheduled an Occupational Therapy Assessment and that was when I heard for the first time about Sensory Processing Disorder.
This is a blog to share our story, to share our knowledge so it is not as hard for you to find information as it was for me. So you don't fall into despair and frustration.
I hope this helps!
Jo
How did I get here? How did I start writing a blog about our experience with SPD? Well, let's start from the very beginning. I always, ALWAYS wanted to have kids. My magic number was (is?) 3 kids (starting to question that number frequently now, it seems that 2 might be a magic number as well). My husband and I got married in 2011 and in 2012 our first boy was born.
After our wedding I was dying to get pregnant, my biologic clock was ticking like crazy and I couldn't ignore it anymore. The day that I saw two stripes on that stick, it changed my life. I don't know why but I always new that I was expecting a boy and I was over the moon.
Pregnancy wasn't as easy as I thought and it was a bumpy road until the end. I had a normal delivery and 3 days later I was home with my baby boy.
I had no clue about maternity and caring for a newborn but that is another story for another time.
Fast forward 1 year and I started noticing a few different behaviors when comparing my son with other children. We are frequently told not to compare kids so I stopped doing that but the feeling deep down that something was off was always there.
After 6 months we visited several GPs, 1 pediatrician and my concerns were always dismissed. I felt ignored and was actually told that I was overreacting and that there was no reason for concern. Those were lonely dark times for me.
Fast forward 2 years I was expecting my second child and was sitting on the couch watching a movie when my son started acting out and I wanted to put peppa pig on so he could calm down. The remote was far away and being heavily pregnant made it hard for me to get up and down so I asked my son to give me the remote, the only object on the other end of the couch. He looked at me like "what does this grown up want from me ?". I repeated the request and he got even more confused and then frustrated and went crazy Throwing the toys around. That moment was the moment I realized I absolutely had to go with my gut feeling and find a better doctor. something was off and I needed to to something about it. That same day I called people somehow could provide me with some light and by the end of the day I had a doctor name on a piece of paper. I also had two problems, 1) the doctor was in Portugal so we had to get on a plane, 2) I was 8 months pregnant and couldn't fly. This once again made feel frustrated and powerless and guilty for not being able to get the proper help to my child anytime soon. And for the first time I cried out of frustration, out of sadness but also a bit out of relief that I had decided to go with my instinct.
Eventually we met a developmental pediatrician that validated my concerns and made suggestions of course of action plus therapies we should check out.
We scheduled an Occupational Therapy Assessment and that was when I heard for the first time about Sensory Processing Disorder.
This is a blog to share our story, to share our knowledge so it is not as hard for you to find information as it was for me. So you don't fall into despair and frustration.
I hope this helps!
Jo
