Proud and relieved mummy!

[Dingle]

We had a brief appointment with the Senco at mainstream nursery yesterday, in general, they are extrememly happy with the way that Amelia has settled in. They have said that over the last few weeks they have really noticed a change in her, and that she is much happier mixing with the other children rather than staying with the adults all the time.
They also have offered to chase up an OT appointment by asking for some input from them!
In the afternoon, we had a hospital visit for her hearing check. This should be done every 6 months but she hadn't been seen since Nov 2003!
As they were about to start the test,the audiologist asked for the other toys to be made available, and I explained that it might be a good idea as Amelia doesn't always co-operate and her attention level isn't always great!

Well to my delight, she proved me wrong. Every time she heard the noise (a soft sort of warbling noise) she beamed from ear to ear and said "BIRD" and very smug, placed a little wooden man in the boat!
She completed the test beautifully. She does has some fluid in one ear, but this should improve as she gets over her sniffles!
She wasn't so co-operative when I tried to get her back in the buggy though!

[MandM]

Ahhhh! Sounds like being at nursery is really suiting her. How old is she now Dingle?
Lol at the appointment! You must have been so relieved and pleased that she behaved so well. I always go into appointments with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, just knowing that my little angel is going to turn into the child from hell as soon as we get into the consulting room!

[Dingle]

She's 3.4 MandM. She has DS and had a moderate hearing loss until roughly her 1st birthday.

We have her routine eye check coming up soon, I hope that all goes as well too.

Weird really, I was more stress about her behaving well, getting back to the school to collect ds...and so on...rather than the actual hearing test result! That makes me feel like a really bad mum!!

[MandM]

You're more than definitely not a bad mum. You had obviously realised that she is doing OK with her hearing and I think a lot of the time most of us worry more about the other stuff like bad behaviour, juggling all of our commitments, rather than concentrating on the more 'routine' appointments.
She sounds like a gorgeous little girl. My dd is 4 in 3 weeks time. I can't believe my baby is going to be 4...agghhhh! She's going to school in September (mainstream with full-time 1:1 SSA) but I really wish that she could have just one more year at nursery. She's coming on really well and as with Amelia, Marley is thriving in the nursery school environment, but in many ways she's still very young and I think an extra 12 months would have made all the difference but we'll just have to see how it goes.
Good luck with the eye test!!!

[Dingle]

I haven't thought about this in depth yet MandM as we have a year in September before Amelia is due to start school. I had read about holding children with DS back a year in the early years, and I thought if anything doing an extra year at nursery would be the best way to go. Others have said the Reception is more than likely the best year to repeat as the structure is so different.

It just seems such a shame that friendships will be built up and then they would have to start all over again.

Amelia still attends SN nursery twice a week and in a way I would love to reduce this to 1 day and eventually the possibility of full time mainstream. The only drawback is that it is a large session with 28 children and Amelia only gets minimal support ATM.
We will just have to wait and see!

[MandM]

They were our thoughts as well really Dingle. We could have chosen for her to start school in Jan 06 or after she turns 5, but that would mean her being the 'new girl' and I'm already extremely conscious of her not feeling 'different' without having that as well. However, the option of her 'repeating' her reception year, as you mentioned, seemed like the best one to take as she might cope really well and not need to, but at least the choice is still there.
I am looking forward to seeing her in her little uniform though!!!

[Dingle]

Oh ..Amelia wears a uniform for nursery..she looks so adorable...even if I do say so myself! They look so tiny but so grown up!

[Cadbury]

Glad to hear you had a positive day Dingle. And that your little ray of sunshine did so well.

[eidsvold]

glad to see all went well

we have a hearing test next week to see if there is any improvement - dd1 had a lot of fluid last time and the ENT is very keen to give her grommets - me - I am not so sure. If all goes well at this appt - no grommets.