Team Newman / Ferme

You wouldn’t believe it! Our fourth nanny was resigned today after her son injured himself over the weekend. I don’t know how we do it, but if they don’t have issues when we hire them then they soon get them.

However, our luck changed this evening when I won a share in the $106 million lotto draw. Except I won division six or something and will be lucky to get back the cost of the ticket!

In the last week Daniel has had a couple more tests – both of which he’s passed. He had a hearing test last Thursday and they found no problems. It wasn’t a particularly easy day for us, but all in all it didn’t go too badly. Richard’s father and I took him to the hospital (because I still can’t drive), while Richard stayed at home with Lachlan. Dan was given the sedative at about 9:45 am and it took about 20 minutes to take effect. Apparently he was quite good in going under, but I thought he fought tooth and nail at the end. They had warned me this would happen, but it was still an experience to try and stop Daniel from getting up and walking around the room when he’s nearly unconscious from the anaesthetic. He’s getting quite big now and is definitely quite strong. Once he was under, he took the test which tested his brain activity in response to sound, and they didn’t find any problems at all. He was then woken at around 11:30 and we were taken to recovery where he was able to have something to eat. We were in recovery for about an hour before we were able to take him home. He was still quite ‘drunk’ from the sedative for the rest of the day and he refused any more sleep, so we had to struggle to keep an inebriated and tired child from hurting himself. Having said that, it was quite amusing watch him stumble around the place and we managed to get through the afternoon.

Today we took him for his second autism assessment, and he passed that one too. So once the report gets written and sent to Autism SA we’ll officially be in the system and eligible for some assistance. Hopefully they’ll be able to offer more assistance than just financial.

In other news, we have a new nanny. She’s a bit older too, so hopefully she’ll be a bit more settled. Anyway, we’re all still getting used to her (and her to us) so we’ll have to see how it goes. Lachlan seems to be okay with her, but Daniel is still a bit cranky about there being somebody new to deal with.

Finally, we went to Ikea the other day and picked up a few treats. Here’s some pictures of my favourite purchase…

Lachlan the Mexican

Daniel the Jawa

There are more pickies in the gallery too.

You wouldn’t believe it! Our nanny has just quit, effective immediately! Once again, we’re up shit creek without a paddle. The reason she’s quit is stress. I’ve no idea what we’re going to do. Obviously I’m not going to be able to work again until we get this sorted out. It’s so frustrating. I’m honestly thinking that it’s not worth looking for another nanny, considering how unreliable they are. Plus it’ll cost us another $600. We do have our name down at the local child care centre for later this year, so we might have to chase them up to see if we can get in a bit earlier. Unfortunately, we’d then have to face a winter of colds and flu, and have to do all the work to get special care for Daniel, and maybe Lachlan (in the childcare centre). What a nightmare.

On another note, I finally got round to cutting Lachlan’s hair last night. The silly baby screamed the whole time like I was pulling teeth without an anaesthetic! He now has a bit of a bald spot and a bit of a mullet at the back, but the front and top looks good.

I gave Dan his second haircut today. I don’t think I did too bad a job, though his curls are gone for the moment. (I botched a little bit at the back, but hopefully it won’t look too bad in a week!)

Today Lachlan also played his first video game. He was playing with the mouse on the computer this morning, so I decided to turn on the playstation to see what he thought of that. He picked it up fairly well, just pressing random buttons, but he certainly knew that he was controlling the figure on the screen. He got the giggles a couple of times which was really cute.

Here’s a few pickies of the boys. Dan was pre-haircut pretending to be a fashion model, while Lachlan refused to stand still…

Daniel

Daniel

Lachlan

Lachlan

There are more new pickies in the gallery.

I’m back on my feet! Sort of. I now have permission from my doctor to start putting weight back on my foot, but it’s easier said than done. I’ll still use a crutch for a week or so until my foot gets used to the pressure, but after that I should be okay. I still have to wear the boot when walking, but in a couple of weeks I’ll get an insert for my shoes. Hopefully then I might be able to get rid of the boot. I’m not sure yet though. I see the surgeon again in about 7 weeks for a final check up and after that I’ll be on my own until they take out the pins.

So this week, I’ll work on developing a bad attitude, a snarky tongue and a three day growth, and you can all call me House!

Yesterday I found out a colleague from work had died from cancer, and then half an hour later I found out a friend who said she’d never have kids is pregnant. That’s one way to keep things in perspective.

I uploaded some new photos to the gallery the other day. Click here to take a look.

We had another private paediatrician appointment today for both the boys. It was Lachlan’s first private appointment and a follow up for Daniel after his autism result. We were expecting that the doc would sign off on the autism diagnosis and we would get on with all the paperwork that we need to file in order to get the assistance we need. But the doc hadn’t received the report from the psychologist, and apparently we need a longer appointment so he can run all the same tests that the psychologist ran. Here’s a summary of the appointment…

Daniel:

• The doc is happy Dan is on the waiting list for speech therapy.  We should be included in the next term.
• We still need to get Dan’s hearing tested. This is happening during the next two weeks.
• We’re going to start ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) with some post-graduate students who work for the psychologist who did the autism assessment. We’re a bit concerned about this as we’ve read that ABA is very intensive therapy (which is often a bit distressing for the children at first) and may require 30 hours of therapy per week. Who knows when we’re going to find time for this! However, we’ve also heard that it’s one of the most effective therapies for autism, and hopefully, it’s fully covered by medicare since it’s being conducted by students.
• In three weeks we’ll do the second autism test and start applying for the government assistance. We’ll then be contacted by an Autism Advisor who is supposed to help us figure out what we’re doing.

Lachlan

• Lachlan is one fit, well built boy. To quote the doc, “He’s going to be 6′ 1 and built like a brick shithouse!”. The doc is very impressed with how fit both boys are considering their prematurity, and how neither boys have any problems with their lungs.
• News to us (and a bit scary at the time) – Lachlan has a small heart murmur called a Still’s Murmur , which is apparently quite common and nothing to worry about. We’re surprised that nobody’s picked it up before.
• The doc ran a preliminary test for autism and said that while Lachlan has an obvious language delay and isn’t terribly mature with his play and socialisation, he doesn’t think it’s likely that he’s autistic, so we shouldn’t worry about going for a formal (and more expensive) assessment just yet. He’s going to review this in six months.
• We’re to book Lachlan into speech therapy and occupational therapy. He needs a different type of OT than Daniel has (which is sensory integration at the moment) which focusses on socialisation and play skills, but we’re hoping that the people we’re seeing with Dan will still be able to help. We’re also going to book him in with the same speech therapist Dan is waiting to see and hopefully Lachlan will be able to see her next term as well. The doc told us that the language delay was a significant problem and that we’re likely to be in therapy for the next three years or more.

Apart from that, things are settling down a bit at home, but we’ve still got a number of weeks of major difficulty ahead of us. My mother has gone home after she spent the last four weeks cooking and cleaning and pushing swings and carrying cups of tea. She was a great help to us, and I don’t know what we would have done without her. It’s sad to see her go. However, I’m able to move around a lot more, and have been able to help out with the bath and bedtime for the last couple of weeks. This has made life a lot easier too, because the boys have gone back to a more settled sleep pattern since I’ve been back in the room. For the two weeks I wasn’t able to help, the boys did not go to sleep well at all. Now, the only things I can’t really do are drive a car, cook a meal and clean the house. It’s really tough… for Richard anyway.