Autism Mom

My name is Whitney. I have three beautiful children. My youngest is three years old and has been diagnosed as autistic. Life has been so hard and challenging to say the least.

I hope to reach out to one person and let them know you are not alone.

Paxton was born on August 15th, 2021, weighing 10 pounds. He was perfect when he was born. After we were released from the hospital, we returned home. My other two children were so happy to meet their new baby brother. Our family was finally whole.

Paxton was the happiest and most loving baby. He was also so smart, and he took his first step in August 2022, 11 days before his first birthday. My husband and I were busy that month planning his first birthday. He was saying “mama” “dada” and “ball” before his first birthday.

Within a few days Paxton started getting a cold and was not feeling well, so we held off getting his one-year-old vaccines.

On August 28th, 2022, we went to the doctor’s office for his one-year-old checkup. He was perfect in every way. Little did we know that in just a few weeks our life would change.

On September 5th, 2022, Paxton was very fussy and couldn’t be comforted. We had made an appointment to return to the doctor’s office. For the next six weeks, Paxton was so sick. He stopped walking and talking and started making repetitive movements with his hands and mouth. He would only watch the same movies on TV. If we changed them, he would become very upset.

Paxton only played with blocks and wheels. He would line his blocks up evenly. When Paxton started walking again, he would walk on his tippy toes. He hated wearing shoes.

He would smile and make sounds, but that was it.

When I first mentioned to my husband and his family that I thought Paxton was autistic. They looked at me like I was crazy. As the days went on, my husband started doing his own research on autism and the signs.

Paxton would go for hours without sleep. If you called his name, he wouldn’t respond. He wouldn’t even notice you said his name.

We began documenting everything we noticed, as well as the things he couldn’t achieve for his age.

I had no idea at the time how hard live would become for us.