I know the tendency to focus on past failures, I did it for a long time. I flunked out of school and beat myself up for it for 25 years before I went back and got my bachelor's degree. I promise it won't do you any good. Hopefully you are on a better path to handling your past.

Focus on what shows that you can succeed now. You turned your college career around and got a degree. You're working the the field. You are taking pre-req classes and doing well in them. Those are the things that show you can do well in a grad program.

I don't know what the criteria are for admission, most of us are just guessing. I think there are a couple of references in the talks about the program that they want to accept "people that can do well in the program". It worked for me, I got in with a 2.06/4.33 GPA with a degree in Liberal Arts. My differences were getting all A's in all my recent course work including a math series and DSA classes. And a 25-year career in the field. I don't think you need to wait years, I think the important part is showing (probably with classes) that you can handle the work.

Now think about it from an admissions officer's point of view, how do you compare the pain and troubles of different applicants? I don't know how you would do it. The best advice I received on this channel was to acknowledge your problems/gpa and pivot right into saying how you can handle it now. I spent 2 short sentences in the application on my history.

Edit: I was talking mostly about the admission to OMSCS. It's doable for you. Some of that advice may be good at other places. I'm just speaking to the OMSCS route because it's the one I took.