On July 31st, 2009 my husband Julianno and I welcomed our first son Armanno into the world! He had a rough entry with a forcept delivery after a failed vaccume, due to his heart rate dropping so low. The doctor's immediately wisked him away to the other side of the room to be looked over, a couple of black eyes but the doctor's deemed him healthy, he was a beautiful 8lb 11oz baby boy! We were over the moon with joy, which made the following 30 hrs of no sleep worth it ;p We spent 7 days in the hospital lots of blood work and U.V. lights for his Jaundice and off we went back home to start our new life!
The next 6 months would prove to be one of the most difficult and rewarding jobs I had experienced up until that point. Armanno was only happy if he was being held or entertained, I did not put him down for the first 5 months of his life. Laundry was piling up house work was not getting done and I found my self crying with exhaustion! Finally at 6 months I let Armanno "cry it out" something I was so dead set against. On the advice of my doctor I did it although I cried during the process and felt horrible, it was the best thing I did for both Armanno and me:) Armanno starting taking regular naps and sleeping through the night with only one feeding! Life was looking up, Armanno seemed happier which made me happy!
I started going to baby groups and meeting new mom's, while the baby's lay on the floor cooing and drooling the other mom's and I would talk about our drastic life change into motherhood. Lot's of great stories and good conversations not to mention some great laughs. I would continue these play groups all throughout Armanno's first few years and I still have him in other's to this day. It was through these playgroups, watching how all the other kids interacted which made me realize at a very young age that Armanno was a bit different. I wasn't quite sure why Armanno acted different than all the other children. I spent the next 2 yrs with that taunting question in the back of my head until I finally was done with the questioning and took it upon myself to find the answers which lead to his diagnosis.
