15 months old - in the spectrum?

Hello everybody!

Glad to have found you :) I'm writing this primarily to put my thoughts in some order, but also to share my concerns and, perhaps, hear from other parents...

Normally we would have an appointment with a specialist this Wednesday but it was canceled to to the COVID-19 situation, so it'd be great if I could converse with someone who might know a bit more than I do.

I'm the father of a little boy who's 15 months old. We adore him to bits! Even though I never felt any particular attraction to babies, and I always said I wanted a daughter, ever since he was born I fell in love with him... For the last year, the most precious moment of the day, every day, is when I bring him to the bathtub with me to give him his bedtime bath :)

My son is an unbelievably sweet little boy. Smiling from the moment he wakes up (literally) until he falls asleep, mischievous (when his mom changes his diaper he plays it aloof until he 'attacks' her in a way that makes us laugh out loud), tender (mostly with his mom and mostly when he's tired - when it comes to me he mostly jumps me so that I pick him up to throw him in the air), curious, emotional (joy, but also sadness, especially with some tunes or songs), but...

So, he's 15 months old, but:

• he doesn't talk. He does make some sounds now and then, a few "ba-oo-ab" or "mam" and a few others irregularly, does some motorboating and when he runs around the house he lets out little screams of happiness, but that's as far as he goes. Oh, also some times, especially when he wants something or is a bit distressed he'll let some "mmmmm!" sounds out.
• he doesn't walk. He started crawling quite late because (as we found out) on un-carpeted floors he would slip, but once we put some carpeting he started crawling at once. He does stand up and cruise furniture or (lately) against the wall, and sometimes he stands upright for a second, but he only makes some (not very willing) steps if we hold both his hands or under his armpits. He does climb onto furniture or his activity table.
• he doesn't point. Not that we have used pointing a lot, I have to say. But when we do, especially if the motion is followed by "Look!" he will turn and look where we point at, most of the times. When he wants something he'll go get it or try and reach it (for instance, his sippy cup when he's strapped into his highchair)
• he doesn't wave goodbye - but equally, we haven't done it a lot of times towards him neither.
• he doesn't share; he plays with his toys very happily, but he has never given us anything.
• he doesn't have much contact with other babies because we don't know many people around us with babies his age and of course lately we don't come into contact with anyone much. But the last time his nanny took him to the playground he hugged another toddler; he also shows tons of interest in baby photos.
• he doesn't always turn when we call him, and mostly does so when his name is accompanied by "come here" or "look". He does turn towards sudden noise (for instance, if something falls or if a motorcycle passes by)
• although I don't have a measure of comparison to be honest, I don't think he stays in our arms long. In general he's very active so if you try and hold him he usually pushes you with arms and knees to be let down on the floor to continue playing (no back arching, I think). Then again there are times where he'll stay in our arms for quite some time - when we're out and about, when I'm giving him his bath or while I am having my bath and his mom holds him in wait. Sometimes he'll push himself into his mom's arms when we're sitting on the floor. He also likes sleeping with us - and usually he'll stick on me or even sleep with his head on my chest if I let him.
• again, I don't have a measure to really compare, but I think that he does have good eye contact; when we play with him, when we hold him, when we do funny stuff for him, but even when he's playing alone (some times he'll turn and look at us), he looks us in the eye and will smile readily. Until a couple of weeks back when in the bathtub I'd lie him on his back and he'd stare into my eyes (precious!) but now he's more active during his bath time.

Perhaps irrelevant, but I must say he's very low on his weight charts. He was born light and although he gained weight steadily he was always hovering around the 3rd percentile. Unfortunately, just as he started going up in the charts our doctor gave us some nutrition advice that proved very bad as he lost weight, so now we're struggling again. But, even though he's now at 4%, his height is at around 90% (so you can imagine how thin he looks!).

Let me say that, I understand that even if our son is in the spectrum, it's not the end of the world - anything but. A good friend of mine is in the spectrum and I wouldn't have known if he hadn't told me - he's a genius, literally, very successful and with a happy family, so... In any even, we love him, we'll do what we must, we'll adapt, we'll grow.

But I just wanted to share my thoughts first in order to put them in some semblance of order, but also to share and see if anyone could shed some light until we manage to meet the specialist...

Hope everyone and your families are safe,

L.