6 YEARS OF JACK
Birthday pancakes and presents
Someone turned 6 yesterday!! It was a fun, low-key day for Jack and you better believe we celebrated with a car wash before the day was over.
Birthday time = Reminiscing time!
When I first knew I was pregnant with Jack, I was very, very concerned. But it was not regarding anything about his health, I was just totally convinced that I was having twins. Luckily, it was all in my head; just a result of having too many friends with twins themselves. But I distinctly remember hearing the phrase “Get your house in order” in my mind and I assumed it had to do with having multiple babies or something. (Still chipping away daily on getting my my house in order, by the way.) It wouldn’t be for years that I would realize that I needed to be prepared for a different sort of kid.
There was nothing out of the ordinary with my pregnancy with Jack. However, he did perform one amazing feat for me before entering the world: he flipped from a mandatory c-section breech position to a head-down, awesome delivery position 3 days before my scheduled c-section date. So I had him sans-surgery, and he entered the world on August 30th, 2010; weighing in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces.
Happy Jack Baby at 2 months.
He was beautiful and wonderful and as far as I can possibly remember after wracking my brain over and over, just as amazing as my other babies. There was never any moment that I felt he was progressing and then stopped, and never a time that I perceived that he backtracked on his development. The journey with little Jack was all just a slow realization that he acted a bit differently than his siblings and peers as he grew.
Life with Jack and his autism is always a rollercoaster. He continally sends me on a ride consisting of confusion about his demeanor, uncertainty about his future, obsession about how to help him, frustration with his expression of emotions, elation with any progress he shows, boredom with his lack of flexibility, worry about lurking issues that haven’t yet surfaced, guilt about not doing every therapy and medical procedure possible, and flowing affection for his adorable, innocent and cuddly self (minus the cuddles when he pushes me away).
So here’s to the next year of Jack’s life. It’s looking to be an amazing one!
I can’t resist sharing my favorite picture of Baby Jack to close. We called him “Mr. Cheeks” for a reason…
Baby Jack at 4 months. This guy was all cheeks!
P.S. The “honeymoon phase” of happy back to school days ended on school morning #4. It is now a gigantic feat to get him out the door and on to class. Any suggestions?