BC’s hips are x-rayed every year. I always worry about these x-rays because I know that hips can be a big problem.

If you google  ‘cerebral palsy hips’ there are 782,000 hits. Number one that came up when I  did the search was a research study that states  “Displacement of the hip and equinus are the two most  common deformities in children with cerebral palsy.”

Scary stuff.

The consequence in the long term can be surgery. We don’t want to have to go down that path.

We see a chiropractor regularly in the hope that he can help keep BC’s hips in good shape and his hips on annual x-ray have up til now looked pretty good.

So I was a bit concerned when we got his most recent hip x-ray results (as part of the VicCp child study) and they pointed to some displacement. There were some figures given, but they didn’t mean too much to me. So naturally, I began to worry.

Thank goodness we have a wonderful paediatrician. As soon as I opened the letter I wrote her an email asking for her opinion. Within 24 hours she had replied that she’d looked at the x-ray and the displacement was ‘mild’ and not really something to worry about yet. But we will keep monitoring.

I can’t tell you how grateful I am for BC to have such a great doctor. She’s very passionate and caring and always replies to emails promptly. It’s such a great thing.

But I will remain worried about his hips. Not frantically. But it’s just another thing to add to the list.

We have our appointment for the gait lab just before Christmas. They will be studying the way BC walks and giving us some feedback. I am hoping that this too might help us work on the best ways for him to be kind to his hips.

It’s time to make a confession. In those few weeks that I wasn’t blogging, I wasn’t only overwhelmed by all the things I had on my plate, I was a complete mess.

I was finding it hard to think straight and I was very emotional – teary at the smallest thing and not at all feeling in control. I was also very anxious. Worrying about everything – from the huge mortgage we were taking out, to whether or not I am actually going to be ready to dealwith another new born baby as well as looking after my two demanding boys. And I had no energy. I was flat as a tack, barely able to get through all the things I needed to do in a day – which was not particularly convenient seeing as I suddenly had a MILLION things to do each day. And the fact I wasn’t doing these things was just adding to my anxiety.

Fast forward to this week. On Wednesday I had a complete meltdown. Partly because it was really hot. Bloody hot. Far too hot for November. It was 28 deg C at 5am. And yes, I was up at 5am with a cheeky little boy. Later in the afternoon I had a big row with my husband (well, I ranted and raved and he sat on the couch looking shocked ). I just wanted him to take control of ALL the things I had to do. I couldn’t possible imagine how I was going to get it all done when I couldn’t even get half way through a single task. There were tears (mine of course) and I was at a real low.

Less than an hour later, the hospital rang to tell me the results of my Glucose Tolerance Test that I had done on Monday – I was diagnosed with mild gestational diabetes. Most people would probably be upset, but me, I was relieved. It provided a possible answer to why I’ve been feeling so tired, unable to think particularly clearly and pretty much a fruit loop.

After just two days of a low GI diet, I am feeling so much more in control.  I’ve got most of the things done that I needed to do and I can feel myself thinking much more clearly.

I have an appointment with the Diabetes educator first thing Monday morning, but I’ve already figured a lot of stuff out (love you Google!). For those with permanent diabetes – WOW. I don’t think I’d ever fully appreciated what a lifestyle change it would be to have to carefully restrict and manage your diet.

And bless the Gods, the heatwave we’ve been experiencing here for the last few weeks seems to have broken. The weather dropped from 38 deg C to 24 deg C about 2 hours ago. The windows are all open and I am loving the cool breeze.

I am still a little concerned about the gestational diabetes – mostly because a side effect can be larger babies (check out this 19.2lb/8.7kg whopper born in Indonesia not too long ago!). Given that the complications that we had with BC’s birth were related to his size (4kg) I am naturally very keen to avoid a large baby. So I will be a very good girl over the next 8 weeks – even with Christmas and New Years festivities to get through – and I will follow doctors advice to the tee.

And fingers crossed, now that I know WHY I’ve been so flaky AND now that the cool change has arrived, I really will be cool B-).

He’s my brother

We’ve been fortunate enough to borrow this adapted tricycle from CPEC (BC’s early intervention centre).

It’s very sturdy, provides great back support and holds his feet in place on the pedals with velcro straps  so that he can work on his pedalling skills more easily. Conveniently it also has a basket in the back to carry important things .

I love watching how close my boys have become. Bean will follow his big brother around the house and wants to include him in everything he does. And BC is very protective of his little brother and loves to share his activities with him.

Yes, of course they have their moments – when Bean destroys something that his big brother has made OR when they both want to play with the exact same toy and aren’t willing to share.

BUT they generally really enjoy each other’s company and have a lot of fun being together. It’s special to see. Especially right now as we’ve only got 2 months to go until they will meet their NEW little brother. I hope the three of them will be great mates.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about BC’s horse riding. OK, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted about much at all. But I am BACK in the saddle now (sorry for the pun!).

It’s been a year and a half since BC started riding with ‘Riding for the Disabled’ (who’ve recently changed their name to ‘Rideability’. Not sure what I think about the change…).

He’s so confident on the horse that it amazes me.  His most recent new skill is that he has started using the reins himself to get his horse to turn, or stop. He loves having this extra control.

His horse’s name is Cheeky. Although sometimes I’m not sure whether it’s BC or the horse that is more cheeky!

The benefits of horse riding for BC are many. Not only does it improve his balance, coordination, strength of his trunk, spine and overall body but it’s also a great confident booster and the most fun ‘therapy’ that we do.

Whenever we are out at some sort of public event and there’s a long row of kids waiting for a pony ride, I always point them out to BC – telling him that those children probably get to ride a horse once a year. He’s so lucky he gets to do it every week!

And we’re lucky that they have such great staff and volunteers to work with BC. He adores his riding and I love thinking about him riding more and more confidently as he gets older.

A friend in the UK sent me a link to this great article from the weekend Guardian newspaper.

The mum who wrote the article is also keeping a blog.

Things have settled down in my world. I am looking forward to getting back into my blogging routine

I wish.

Actually, there’s a much more boring reason for my absence from the blogosphere.

Suddenly, there are just less hours in the day.

It started when my husband was in Indonesia for a couple of weeks. I thought when he returned that I’d get the hours back, but turns out that being almost 7 months pregnant, I’m needing to sleep most nights by 7pm so I’m losing my evenings that I usually use for doing all those things that I ran out of time to do during the day. Of which there are many.

And of the hours that I do have, I just seem to be doing everything less efficiently than usual. Everything is taking far, far too long!

It didn’t help that a yukky tummy bug came to visit the house for a week. We’ve all been ill to various degrees – BC worst of all. We lost a lot of sleep (and he lost a lot of weight!).

And there are lot of things on for us right now.

At the moment, I am trying to sort out funding for a Voice Output device for BC, gather documents for visa applications for both my sister-in-law (long term visa) AND my brother-in-law (short term visa),  attend all the usual appointments, therapy sessions and reviews necessary for BC AND……

OMG, we’ve bought a house!!!!

I had NO IDEA how many fiddly little jobs that would involve and with my husband on night shift, most of those jobs are coming down to me.

Feeling like I need to either clone myself or find a clock that stops time for a day or two just so I can catch up .

Promise to be back on the regular blogging mill soon.

VERY VERY excited about the house, but equally terrified. Never been in debt before and with house prices so high here, it’s not a teensy tiny debt either….

Here’s a pic of the front of the house. Will post more ONCE we secure our finance. Fingers crossed that will happen in the next week!!!

As many of you know, we’ve been lucky enough to have the boys Aunty J from Indonesia staying with us for a while. Sadly, she needs to leave in 6 weeks.

I asked BC at dinner this evening if he was sad about Aunty J leaving.

He nodded vigorously.

‘Why’, I asked.

‘Well mum’ , he replied seriously, as he prepared to wolf down another mouthful of delicious Indonesian food prepared by Aunty J, ‘your cooking is really not very good’.

It’s the end of the school year here for year 12 students. That means that over the last week or so we’ve seen quite a few teens dressed up in funny costumes out and about. BC and Bean have enjoyed seeing them from the car and BC has told me he now ‘can’t wait’ to end year 12 so he can dress up. Good motivation .

It’s taken my back TWENTY YEARS (oh my God how could it really be that long????) to my end of year 12 celebrations.

Ending year 12 was a time of very mixed emotions for me. Of course I was excited to be ending school and heading off into the big wide world. But it had also been a very tough year for me. My mum passed away in Jan of that year. My results reflected that it wasn’t really the ideal way to start the year of study! I was however fortunate enough to have some a great family and some wonderful friends who rallied around me during the year.

Despite the difficult year, I will always remember this particular day as a fantastic celebration of not only finishing school but also of me feeling strong and resilient. We had a great day, starting with chicken and champagne breakfast in a park, hanging out with the teachers in the staffroom at lunch and then wandering the streets feeling invincible in the afternoon (yes, I know – me, the invincible milk maid ). Looking back at pics of the day always makes me smile.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a good old moan about something, so strap yourself in. Because I am cross about something today.

BC, Bean and I were at the shops. We wanted to buy something from one of those cheap $2 type shops – you know, the shops with cheap products of all description, often poking out of every corner and overflowing out the front door.

GREAT places to get a bargain, but not particularly good on the access front!

I was pushing Bean in his stroller (navigating my way AROUND all the items not stacked on shelves but on the floor) and BC was in his walker, following me down an aisle when he accidentally knocked something over – I should point out that it was something that was IN the aisle, not on a shelf. I pushed it out of the way and we kept walking.

A few minutes later he knocked something else over – again, an item NOT on a shelf, but in the aisle.

This time, the shop assistant came down the aisle and told me I needed my son to be more careful.

I told her that she needed to arrange her shop more carefully as there should be clear access to all aisles.

“We won’t be responsible if something falls on him” she said gruffly, “and you’ll need to pay for anything that gets broken”.

Now that got my ire up, totally.

I know that as a parent I need to be responsible for my children in a shop and I am. But it got me thinking about what THEIR responsibility is to provide access to everyone.

If it’s hard enough for a little boy in a small walking frame to access a shop set up like this, so I am sure it’s near on impossible for an adult in an adult sized wheelchair. And then there is the risk factor for someone with vision impairment trying to navigate their way around the obstacle course created…

This has got me thinking about just WHAT responsibilities a shop has to provide access.

I’m still learning, and getting my head around what requirements a shop has in this situation and that search has taken me to the “Disability Discrimination Act”.

I also found the Australian Human Rights Commission website which provides excellent easy to read summaries and info regarding this issue and many others. Here, it states:

Every area and facility open to the public should be open and available to people with a disability. They should expect to enter and make use of places used by the public if people without a disability can do so.

For example:

• Places used by the public should be accessible at the entrance and inside

It earlier lists ‘places use by the public’ to include ‘shops and department stores‘, so I am on the right track.

However, after a few other phone calls, I still haven’t been able to find out if there are any specific standards related to this issue or if it’s all just a matter of ‘guidelines’ – which aren’t of much use if a business doesn’t care to comply…

As I’ve said, I am still just gathering information, but I am realising that THIS ISSUE is going to be a CORE issue for BC as he gets older and needs to be able to navigate the world independently, so I am keen to find out more. I’d like to do what I can to allow for easier access for BC and to find out just whether I have any way of getting a store like that to at least ‘reconsider’ they way they display their products and make it accessible for everyone.

I am waiting for local council to call me back to find out what they have to say and will be speaking with a Disability discrimination consultant from a free legal service on Friday.

Anyone know more?

I will be back with more on this topic later…

There – moan over. I feel much better already

If I were to recommend one Australian author to a person of any age, Tim Winton would be right at the top of the list.

His adult novels are wonderful. His books for teenagers are fab (in my previous life as a secondary school teacher, the ‘Lockie Leonard’ books were always a winner).

Here I’d like to highlight 2 of his books for younger readers.

Firstly, good for school aged kids, is ‘The Bugalugs Bum Thief’. A brilliantly hilarious book about a town where all the bums are stolen. Causing great difficulty for people to keep their pants up.

A synopsis from the back cover:

Skeeta Anderson wakes up one summer morning to find that part of him is gone, something he thought he’d never miss – his bum. He discovers that almost every single backside in the town of Bugalugs has been stolen – and 496 bums is a lot of bums to go missing without a trace.

I could read the book over and over again. It’s great. I have tried it on BC, but he’s not quite up to that many words yet, but I am 100% sure both he and Bean will love it when they are older.

Secondly, BC’s current favourite book, a picture book called ‘The Deep’ about a young girl who loves the beach but is too afraid to go in the deeper water. As with all Tim Winton books, the text is beautiful to read – especially out loud – and the illustrations, by Karen Louise, are perfect.

Every morning, Alice’s family went down to the jetty for a swim. Her mum dived in and scooted along like a torpedo. Her dad made huge bellyflops that wet everyone, even the seagulls in the air.

Happy reading