Family Forever- H.S. (Teen Pregnancy)

Auggie's Stutter (January 2016)

What really convinced them about his advanced intelligence is when they were helping Darcy learn how to read basic words. Auggie was 1 year old and he would sit by Harry and repeat the words after Darcy. They thought he was just repeating Darcy until Harry found him one day sitting alone on the couch and reading one of her tiny story books to himself. He about peed his pants and looked at his son like he was an alien. There's no way a 1 year old child should be able to read like that. They took him into a doctor and found out that Auggie's brain retains knowledge 4 times faster than the average human and that his brain at 1 year old was as advanced as a normal 4 year old.

He doesn't talk much because he gets frustrated with his stutter, but Harry and Camryn assumed he would grow out of it. Over the past couple of months Camryn's gut had been telling her that she needed to get him checked out, but she never listened to it because that would mean that the stutter was real and most likely not going away. And the idea that her baby boy would have to deal with something that frustrates him so much for the rest of her life makes her mumma heart ache incredibly.

"You want help with your mouth?"Camryn asks and kisses the tip of his nose. "Okay, bud. Mumma and Daddy will take you into the doctor and see what they can figure out, okay? Does that sound good?"

*******

"Baby, can we talk about something?" It's later that night and the kids finally went to sleep leaving Harry and Camryn to have the rest of the night to themselves.

"Yeah,"Harry nods, looking up from his laptop, sitting up on the bed and looking over at Camryn who's standing beside the bed and holding her bump with her hands. "What's up?"

"I think we need to take Auggie to a speech therapist or something." Camryn looks up warily at Harry to see his reaction. It's not good. He narrows his eyes at Camryn and furrows his brow.

"Why? It's just a little stutter, he'll grow out of it. Its just like how you had trouble with your "R"s growing up."

Camryn sighs and bites on her bottom lip, rubbing her hands up and down her swell of a bump. "I mean maybe, but I dunno. It's been going on for so long now. None of the other kids did this. It just seems odd to me."

Harry shakes his head and opens back up his computer, "he's fine, Cam. He'll grow out of it." He's completely shutting down and he knows it. He doesn't want to talk about this because his baby is fine. He doesn't want anyone to tell him otherwise.

"I dunno, Harry, he's had the stutter since he started talking. And he does it a ton. And he's stuttered from the very beginning,"Camryn continues to explain causing Harry to look up from his laptop again to meet her eyes again, "we just thought it was because he was learning but it never got better. I just feel like we should get him checked out."

Harry shakes his head again. "He doesn't need to be."

"Why can't we just bring him to a doctor?" Camryn can feel her blood beginning to boil. Why isn't he listening to her? Why can't they just get their son checked out to make sure he's okay. Her hands curl into fists as her eyes pierce into Harry's, "I don't see what's wrong with that-"

"BECAUSE HE DOESN'T HAVE A STUTTER, BABE."

Camryn freezes. Harry never yells, especially at her. She feels tears well up in her eyes as she fights with herself to keep eye contact with him. "Harry..."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry,"he immediately relents and puts his face in his hands, "I shouldn't have yelled, I'm sorry, Cam." He raises his head from his hands and looks up at Camryn. It's only then that he realizes he has tears welling up in his eyes.

"Baby..."

"I just..."Harry wipes at a few tears and chokes on a sob, "I don't know...you just never want to know that your kid has something that's gonna make their life harder, you know? And I know if he has a stutter...school...kids can be so mean, Cam, and I...Cam, he's already gonna be different. We know that. He's so freakishly smart, and that's already gonna make him stand out and now this...It's just been stressing me out for so long and I lost it, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have taken that out on you. I'm just so stressed about it."