tell us about your self

[redbull]

i just carried away sometimes and when i have a prob and post like to include all details incase no one knows who i am!!!!!!!

im redbull (nicky) im 25 and i have a Ds who is 5 who is Autistic and goes to a SN school,my dp is 29 and does traffic management on the roads VERY LONG HOURS (get incase anyone thinks as we r not married hes not ds dad)
in jan this year ds got his boke at school wich reulted in 16 weeks off school, the school have been shite about everything and i end up in alot of rows with them in my spare time i like to read,card making and go to angel work shops.

Im learning to drive through the family fund.

ds probs are constapated,little speach,no understanding of the world,no sense of danger,poor apitite and BAD sleep problems, the GOOD ponits are he is soooooooooooooooooo loving,good imagination,loves me his mommy to bits, he cant speack much but can work out instructions,he knows very good sense of direction as if he has a map in his head, he loves robots, cars and scooby doo

we live in brum and my family are FAB loads of support, i suffer from depression and dp also has mental health problems (we are not crazy, PROMISE ) tell me about you

Lucyep hope all goes well and your dd gets the OP soon!.

And myself... well I'm Emma, living in sin for 8 years with steven and mother of our 2 wonderful boys, william 5 yrs 8months NT and Elijah 3 years 10 months who's Autistic.

Life in our house is a challenge, most days seem to be a non stop whirlwind of school runs, housework and of course having ot split myself in 2 so both boys get all they need from me...

hobbies... well cross stitch, reading, and gardening I have share an allotemnt with my father in law and its teh best therapy ever.

Hi, I'm Clare, I live in Chester with dh (married for 4 years, together for 12!), and ds who has Spina Bifida. Ds is 2 on Sunday, is trying hard to walk, but finds it all a bit difficult! He's one of the lucky ones, because he just has very weak ankles, and his feet try to point up all the time (so he's strapped into AFOs all day!). He will have continence issues, and we catheterise him twice a day. He was very fortunate not to get Hydrocephalus, which usually comes with SB, but we won't count our chickens just yet! He's very lively, inquisitive, and is really getting the hang of this talking malarky! (still single words at the moment!).
When I get some free time, I love going swimming, cycling and walking, like nothing better than a good book, and I also do a bit of cross stitch and card making. Not that I get much free time, and now I seem to be pregnant with no.2! I'm waiting for a hospital appointment to do a dating scan, so's they can do all the SB tests on time this time (not that it'd make a huge amount of difference, I think). This is a great idea!

This is a great thread. It's nice to see so many new people on SN too. :)

Lucyep good luck with hospital vist.
earthtomummy i live in notts too.
i am Jo 41 married and have three kids i used to be a social worker, i worked with lots of kids with additional needs. we have three kids, twin girls twelve years old today, they have autism and learning difficulties they go to a special school which is fab fab fab. we have one son 9 years old he has autism he's more autisic than his sisters things like food, sleep, routine are all hard work. he is more able than his sisters and is at mainstream school year 4, thou we are in the process of trying to get a place at special school for year 7. i do lots of stuff spend a lot of time at girls school as parent gov'ner/helper also do lots of autism stuff locally, a parents group and training for nursery nurse students, we have an allotment which is fab, i have a few health problems, had 2 discs out of my back and still in constant pain which prevents me doing lots of stuff also have serious allergies which cause problems of the ambulance kind

yawning monster - another from the southern hemisphere....

Hi all. I'm 40, live in London (Wimbledon) and have DS who is 6 and profoundly deaf and DD who is 15 months and hearing. We had another son 2.5 years ago, he was stillborn.

DS wears hearing aids and we've been trying to get him a cochlear implant for years. He goes to m/s school and has v good language, mainly due to his excellent reading rather than his hearing. He loves computer games and PlayStation. He also likes reading Horrid Henry, Calvin & Hobbes, the Beano, and watching Dr Who.

I like reading, lots of parenting books lately (latest favourite is Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn). We had a cat but gave it to SIL. We also have an allotment. DH is a plumber/heating engineer (retrained from IT) and I'm a medical researcher (medical dr working in research ATM).

Lucyep and Mum2seb - good wishes for the hospital appointments.

Hi I am Sharon, 33yrs, living in Hampshire (moving house shortly but still staying in Hants). SAHM to Caspar (4) and Constanze (known as Tanzie, 17mths, has Down Syndrome).

Tanzie is doing really well and does not have any major health concerns, fortunately.

I dont post on this board often, but do try to read as much as I can and try to check posts every couple of days or so

Sharon x

I'm 42, born, bred and stuck in Stoke. Married, work part-time and have 3 children. Ds1 17, ds2 14 and dd whose 12. Dd has significant congenital heart disease and a leg length discrepancy. She also currently seems to have permanent PMT! She's in mainstream school although her attendance is pretty poor at the moment due to ongoing health problems - thank the lord for an understanding boss.

I enjoy running for fitness, for my sanity and for my waistline as I'm far too partial to a glass of red and a bar of choccie

Lucyep - think about your dd loads and hope she gets her new engine very soon.

Bethron - that's great that your son could get into the nursery you chose for him. Big, big relief at this stage. DS is now 6 but I remember those early days and the hours spent over choosing what's best education-wise from what's available around here. He's now in year 1 and we are relaxed about his schooling till it's time for secondary (or rather a year or two before then we'll probably start looking around).

It's good reading about other people - I have a better picture from this thread than from bits and bobs spread in other threads.

thankyou everyone for contributing so far didnt know how it would go down, i just get a bit confused sometimes about whos who and people do know about me, love reading about everyone so nice to get to know more about you all

I have three DSs. DS1 is almost seven and has a diagnosis of HFA. He is doing really really well, to the extent that I often feel like a bit of a fraud saying that he has "special needs" - but every so often he kind of goes off the rails and that reminds me why I still need you guys so much!

DS2 is as nt as they come and lovely with it, and he and DS1 are very very good friends - having DS2 was the best thing we could ever have done for DS1.

Now I'm getting quite concerned about my DS3 who is almost two, not talking or pointing and displaying a few red flags for autism. Hey ho, I think I'll be needing you lot for a little while yet.

Just realised I haven't posted anything about myself!

I'm 41, live in Hackney, London. My DH is a SAHD and I work for a firm of lawyers in the City of London.

hello all. I'm 30 and live in N. Yorks. my my dh and our three children (dd1 is 6, dd2 is 5 and ds is 2). Dd2 was born with Down's syndrome and serious heart defects. Her heart was repaired when she was a little baby and is all fine now.
She also has a moderate hearing loss due to middle ear dysfunction and had a bone-anchored hearing aid implant put in 3 months ago (it's a little screw sticking out of the skin behind her ear). It'll be usable by the end of this month, I can't wait!!!:)
She doesn't really have much speech - a few single words - because of her hearing loss. That's the hardest thing for me really. :( She does use Makaton though.
Other than that she is fine, she goes to mainstream primary school and has a full-time TA.
I work from home as a translator - it's the only thing that fits in with all the appointments and sick days really.

Hi I am 35 live in suffolk married for 14 years have 2 ds's age 6 & 3.
DS2 was born at 28 wks, has mild spastic diplega (cp), low muscle tone, global delay & showing some funny behaviours & anxieties so waiting for an autism assessment, all sounds much worse than it is he is doing great at ms nursery, walking unaided & very cheeky so sometimes feel like a fraud saying he has sn.
ds1 is nt football mad & a great big brother when they are not fighting.
I work part time at a power station. I also eat far too much & drink too much red wine while reading mn.

Only just seen this. Doh! [slapsforeheadsmiley]

OK, I'm 40 & live in Surrey.

I have 2 DDs; DD1 is 2 years old & we're not entirely sure of her full list of conditions yet. She has a genetic disorder (galactosaemia) which in simple terms means that dairy gives her brain damage. So lots of home cooking which is a bit of a 'mare given my total lack of interest in such things! She also has a bunch of unrelated stuff: Hemimegalencephaly (overgrowth of one side of the brain) Mesiotemporal sclerosis, Epilepsy, GDD, ASD, assorted visual problems, motor probs on left side.

No language, couple of erratic signs, strong compulsion to chew the furniture/laptops/her sister but a very smiley little lady and a total trooper. DH and I were saying yesterday that the whole NHS circus would be impossible if she were a typical whingey toddler.

She likes swings and bubbles and stuff that lights up though combined with the oral compulsion this often means we have a light-up child.

DD2 is NT (so far), approaching 6 months and compared with DD1 a right little madam.

We have a SN nanny for DD1, who is also just starting a couple of sessions at a fabulous SN nursery where they give her 1 to 1. Due to the oral compulsion & the fact most food is poisonous she needs someone within 2 feet of her most of the time. I will be glad when DD2 grows out of her reflux and stops barfing milk on DD1's toys.

I'm on mat leave with DD2 at the moment but work in IT for a large bank. I mostly work from home. DH works for a financial software house in the City so our home is Nerd Central.

I'm 35 and live in Brighton and have two children, DD, who is 5 and has autism and sld and DS who is 3 and is 'NT' (we think, so far). DS is amazing with DD, who is a total sweetheart. Her 'challenging' behaviour is her 'spinniness' and lack of awareness and she is starting to get some understanding (she protests now, for instance, if we park outside the house but don't go in). She is non-verbal but is starting to use PECS and is incredibly affectionate at the moment which we are all amazed by. I love mumsnet and the people in our SN gang but haven't been on recently due to real life stuff (DH's redundancy, school problems etc...). I work part-time as a journalist (about 1 day a week!). I also run a playgroup for children with special needs and I've just trained to be a Portage worker which I'm really excited about. DH is fab but still grieving over DD I think. My mum is absolutely brilliant with DD, they are kindred spirits. The in-laws... let's not go there...

JakB - is your playgroup the one in Brighton with the name of a flower? I ask because I'm a member of a group that's trying to set up a SN playgroup in Lewes and was intending to contact the woman who runs the Brighton one to ask for advice. If it's you, could I CAT you? Or even if your playgroup is a different one! (Although please say if you've got enough on your plate atm - it sounds like this might be the case...)

I'm 34, live in Middx area, have a DP and 2 girls.

DD1 is 4.5 and has Down's syndrome and DD2 is 6 months old.

I have just gone back to work 3 days a week. I'm an account manager in a PR agency and we promote mainly films.
I like cooking, going out and dancing with mates, enjoy going out for days with the girls, white wine, reading, just did my first try-dive and hope to get qualified this September.

DD1 currently attends preschool all day and is off to a mainsteam school this Sept. She has an ok vocab, lots of words just got to get the hang of joining them all up and pronouncing them so someone other than me can understand! Can't walk but improving with help of a frame. She's strong willed, naughty, funny, cute, stubborn and has to have the last word, basically a right little madam and we adore her. She is lovely with her little sis, sometimes a little over enthusiastic but lovely all the same.

DD2 is a sweetie. Very detemined to be on her tummy and is a proper escape artist. She has a serious little face which takes it all in and then breaks into a smile. She's delightful and her face lights up when she sees her big sis.

Sphil, yes, it's me! Be great to get in contact.

I am 40 with ds1 aged 6, 7 next month who has autism, dd aged 4 and ds2 aged 10 months. Have been on Mumsnet for 6 years and jimjams helped me to diagnose ds1 before he got his formal assessment.

We live in a small country village near Aberdeen and dh is renovating our house at the weekends. We bought it before we knew about ds and its a long term project and takes up all of dh's spare time so life is quite tough for me with 3 kids every day. Have had a recent social work assessment and we do get a few hours help at the weekends.

ds1 goes to mainstream school (very small village school) and has extra support and is doing OK there. He also goes to an after school club twice a week as although he wants friends he cannot have them except under supervision.

I used to do educational research before I had the kids.... seems like a long time ago now... I currently do a bit of work with the school board.

Hello, I am 45 have 3 children and the oldest who is 8 has AS and ADHD, the others are NT. He goes to a mainstream school with 1:1. We have ups and downs but he's doing pretty well at the moment tho I'm worrying about secondary transfer already.

We live in London and I work in the City. I don't really have much spare time but like reading and surfing the net.

Im 37, live in West Sussex, with dh, together for8 years married for 1.5. We have ds1 aged6, ds2 aged5, ds3 aged nearly 3 and ds4 nearly 1.
DS4 so far has recently been dx with hypotonia and gdd, it's early days, we're not sure where he's heading yet. He is able to lie on his tummy and support himself with his arms and he is beginning to grasp and play. He is the smiliest baby in the world and his big bros keep him entertained - all so loving. He has feeding probs and is often constipated. He has his first review at the cdc next week so we're hoping for some answers.
Life is full with 4 boys, we love outdoor life, walking, camping and can usually be found in the garden where we grow tonnes of veg.

Am SAHM who loves gardening, cooking and reading (page a day at the mo - fall asleep at drop of hat!)
Love MN - esp Sn threads - so much support and good advice and so many strong mums/families for inspiration! Made myself cry now!