Sorry if this is a late reply to the thread. My son is autistic and has severe speech delays (he doesn't really say anything yet). He is getting a lot more sociable and interactive as he gets older and is starting to make really good eye contact. He still doesn't really interact with strangers (ignores them if they talk to him), but with people he knows he is really smiley, happy and interactive. He understands a lot and is beginning to be really responsive when you ask him to do things. He's also starting to use PECS to communicate. We take him to speech therapy sessions and he's starting with an OT next week (he has sensory issues).
We never questioned whether or not to have Isla (my three-month-old baby girl). Perhaps we should have thought about it more, but my dream had been to haves big family (3 or 4 kids) and I didn't want us all to lose out on that. Selfishly I wanted the children I'd always dreamed of and also for my son, I thought he would really benefit from having peers to interact with. Also, I love my brothers and I wouldn't want to deprive him of that sibling bond.
So we had Isla on the same schedule we always planned 2.5 years after my son was born. Her arrival has transformed my son. He adores her and always wants to stroke her or play with her - I find it such a blessing, but it causes me a little stress too as due to his hypo sensitivity issues, his stroking is to push really hard or to kiss he pushes his head really hard into you, so with an adult that's fine, but with a baby not so much. The amazing thing is that since Isla arrived, my son has finally started paying attention to other babies and toddlers. Before he would ignore them, but now at nursery he tries to play with the other children and he likes to stroke and laugh with friends' babies (before he always ignored them!). I cannot wait for Isla to get a little older so that I feel less concerned about his physical play and also so she can really interact with him, I think it will boost his development even more.
Having Isla has had such a positive outcome for our family. I have another beautiful child to cherish and adore and my son is happy as a big brother and she's really boosting his socialisation.
We plan to have at least one more and very maybe another down the line. I do genuinely think another child will add to our family, but once more, I have some ulterior motive. I worry about what my son's future holds. I don't know how he will develop as he grows up; I don't know how independent he will be when he is a teenager and adult. I don't know how much he is going to need to rely on us, his family. I want him to have as big and as loving and supportive a family as he can because should anything ever happen to us, I want him to be loved, I want my children to have each other and to support each other. That May sounds awful, but I can't help that I think like that sometimes.
. She's an online friend, but I love her girls, I wish I could meet them. Aaliyah seems severely disabled, I think having lissencephaly combined with the microcephaly causes more of a disability? Her HC is about that of a newborn at age 2 from what I recall.
