Autism

Lest any of you think I'm kidding about not getting sleep these days, note the time on this post. Yuck. Tonight it's heartburn and stuffed-up sinuses.

I'm feeling a burden to post about my previous message about being most scared of our little guy having autism. This was in no means meant to offend any of my friends whose children have been diagnosed with autism. I think I'm most scared of that because it's the thing I know least about. I don't think I'm alone in that... does anyone know of a cause or a cure? There's a lot of speculation (vaccinations, growth hormones in meat, etc.), but I don't think anyone knows for sure.

The other thing I've learned is that I've probably offended someone in the past by saying, "He's autistic." I've recently developed a much higher level of sensitivity to describing someone by their diagnosis. For example, you wouldn't say, "That's a cancer kid." We should say, "He has autism," or "He's been diagnosed with autism."

The same thing goes for our little guy. He's not a "Down's baby." He's a baby. And yes, he has Down syndrome, but we will not let that define him.

On a separate note... we head to Milwaukee early this morning for an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist for a fetal echocardiogram. I'm still hoping that the perinatologist was wrong and our little guy's heart will be fine. After that appointment, we will tour the NICU and Labor & Delivery. On Tuesday, I have an appointment with my local perinatologist. I'll keep you posted.