shuggett's blog

Today we had our first appointment with the new Occupational Therapist which we have been waiting for for at least six months. I was really pleased to see her. She is a very nice lady, and she worked really well with Daniel, and she was very much into partnership working with myself, asking what I feel needs work on most and listening to my concerns and she acknowledge that I am Daniel's mum and I know him best. Which is a first as many professionals seem to think they know best, and dictate how I should be a parent. So this refreshing approach was most welcome.

Well this has been a rough week as far as sleep is concerned!! I think some of the issues do stem from the fact that poor Daniel’s bedroom has at times been 30 degrees!! Which is ridiculous. But that is with the window wide open and a fan on. There is nothing more we can do to bring the temperature down. So I have resorted to the boys going to bed in just a thin T-shirt and a nappy these last few nights. It does seem to have done the trick. I have also reverted to using the Melatonin for Daniel. He has just been going to bed almost ‘wired’ recently.

Well my little Daniel has had a fun and busy week. He has been very chirpy during the day, with lots of running up and down the living room smiling and cuddling his teddy bear. He has also continued to enjoy going out in the garden quite a bit. But his sleep is terrible at the moment! We have resorted to breaking out the Melatonin again to try and maintain some sanity in the household. Daniel was sleeping so little that he was waking up in the morning with what looked like two black eyes where he was so tired, bless him. And he will never sleep during the day. No matter how tired he may be.

Well it has been another busy week here! I guess I should start with the visit from the Speech and Language Therapist. She came out on Monday to see how Daniel is getting on and find out how he has progressed over the last six weeks as we have had her assistant coming out once a week to do a session of therapy at home with Daniel. We did a play session of therapy as normal, with the SALT just observing. Daniel was really in good form this week and was enjoying the games. He and Matthew played really nicely doing turn taking games such as playing with the ball run and playing with Flashcards.

Well this has been one extremely busty week!! I feel as though my feet did not touch the ground! Daniel started the week off with a really good session with his Speech and Language Therapist on Monday. And Matthew joined in and repeated some of the words and was really good at taking things in turns so that both boys got some therapy!! It was lovely to watch them happily play together, particularly as the previous week Daniel had been totally turned off to the SALT and did not want to join in any therapy at all.

Well the weather down here in the South East was absolutely gorgeous today so we decided to go out for the day as my husband has this week off from work as annual leave. We thought it would be nice to take the boys out for the day so they can have a play in the sun and it gets us all out of the house for some fresh air and exercise. So we packed a load of Daniel’s special drinks and some food for Matty and some sun block lotion for the boys and off we went. It was lovely and warm out. The boys had great fun. They are always so well behaved. No matter where we take them.

Firstly I would like to begin this post by saying, Gosh, where has the time gone over the last fortnight? I am so lax in my delivery of my next BLOG entry! I knew it had been a few days, but not this many! So I do apologise. But lots of exciting things have been happening. The most exciting things really are to do with some more wonderful developments in the world of Daniel. Firstly, it has to do with his chronic constipation. Bless him. I had to take him to the doctors as it was so bad. He has had constipation all of his little life. Nothing seems to work.

Dear All. I am sooooo excited!!! I spent an hour on the telephone last night with the rather wonderful Ian Jordan, the leading clinician in the field of Orthoscopics, based in Ayr near Glasgow, Scotland. We discussed Daniel in great depth. I only found out about Ian and his work because he contacted me to ask if he could be a regular contributor to The LIME Magazine. Of course I jumped at the chance and said yes, and the first article authored by Ian is in the June Issue of The LIME http://www.limemag.co.uk The article is so interesting.

I had been getting a bit twitchy about preparing for this morning, because it is always difficult taking poor little Daniel to have his hair cut as he hates it so much. But I shouldn't have worried so much this time. He coped much better this time than he ever has before. I guess maybe he is getting a little used to it. And Matthew went first too, so that may have helped. Matthew was as good as gold. He just sat on my lap with the cape wrapped around him and looked around with his big brown eyes. He didn't flinch or try and wriggle away. He was excellent. Then it was Daniel's turn.

Welcome to my very first post - the first of many I hope. Here I plan to chat with you all about the trials and tribulations, highs and lows, bringing up two beautiful little boys, one of which has been diagnosed on the Autistic Spectrum since he was 15months old. He is now nearly 2 and a half. His little bro is going to be a year old next week!! Scarry! I would love to share with you the good times and bad and hopefully allow you to learn through my experiences, and prevent you from hitting the many pitfalls along the way that I have met so far.