I swear if he could stick two fingers up he would have done

Today Zack went for another check up on his eyes. We first visited the eye lady who holds black and white paddles in front of Zack. She had a student with her and told him how fantastic Zack was doing and how he really responds at playgroup etc. 


Zack took it upon himself to completely ignore her and the black and white paddles, in fact, he even did a couple of yawns to show how bored he was, not very impressive. She put the drops in his eyes that enlarge his pupils, he really didn't like that. 




We went back into the waiting room to wait for the eye doctor who actually looks behind his eyes. This time when we went back in he purposely tried to avoid looking anywhere but her shiny light. In fact they thought he was very clever at all his avoidance techniques. 


She said that it's difficult to say what he can see but his visual impairment is cortical meaning that there is nothing wrong with his eyes it's just that the messages are not getting to the right place via his brain. She asked if I wanted Zack to be on the visual impairment register. They explained that it means it will help to ensure that he gets all the support he needs, especially with regards to school. Paddle waving lady also mentioned she thinks that you can get your TV license half price. Well where do I sign up then?


That wasn't really why I signed up, I did it because if it means it makes it easier for us to get him the help he needs or into the right school then that's great.


So now Zack is registered blind. However, he was taking the mick that day, as soon as we had finished I picked him up and over my shoulder he opened his eyes wide and looked at them all. They all stood there and said oh well look at him now he can do it when he wants to. And with that he left the room and smiled at them. I swear if he could stick two fingers up he would have done.


What's more when his dad came home he went over to say hello to him and didn't say anything just looked at Zack and smiled. Zack recognised him and smiled back. So much for the register!

He did his tongue out smile

Zack and I went to play school on Monday. It's the one run by the vision specialist team so includes lots of toys for visual stimulation. I took Zack into the room and sat on the floor with him, he was fascinated by the whole room and his eyes went really wide, soaking in all the good stuff.


One of the teachers brought over a long orange tube, which was quite heavy but is good for children to use for body awareness. When you turn it on it vibrates. Zack had his hands on it and the teacher switched it on, well, he loved it. He did his tongue out smile (that means oh I really like this), big eyes, the whole shabang. 


This is what we mean:


Vibrating Snake


Oooh only £12.99 might get him one of them. He'll probably be board of it by Thursday.


Overall conclusion of the day was how amazed everyone was that his posture has improved, his head control is much better and his vision is even better than the last time. 


Well done Pants a successful play group. However at the end I did catch him giving the Skunk eye to a little boy of about the same age, hmmm, maybe he thought it was too much competition for the ladies, the flirt.

Zack was so peeved he started crying

Zack and I went to school the other day to a lovely little primary in Winsford.

I have been wanting to take Zack to some conductive education classes for some time now. Pause for brief interlude to explain:

It is a form of education that works toward rehabilitating children with motor problems to help overcome some of their difficulties and to lead more independent lives. More can be read about this at http://www.conductive-ed.org.uk/

Scope run something called school for parents which utilises a form of conductive education in the classroom. The idea is that you and your child go along to classes and both join in the activities, so I found one in Winsford and we went to take a look.

The teachers showed us the early years classrooms and the conductive education class. There are four children in the class and Zack will be the only baby. I say will be as we start school for one morning a week in January. They do stretching to music, sing songs and basically have a nice fun time. I think I was more excited than Zack who seemed to dribble a lot and stare at a glass box that had some creature in it. I am not sure what it was, I didn't fancy looking any closer in case it was some large spider thing.

As we were leaving we went in through another class and there was a group of children gathered around the teacher. Some of them saw Zack which was a signal for lots of ahhhing and ooohing followed by a little girl who wanted to know his name. His name then got repeated by everyone and we all waved at each other. The children were so lovely. some were in wheelchairs, some were not, some were more able-bodied than others, some were more vocal, but what came across was how happy they were. How much fun they were having and if for me that is a glimpse of Zack's future than I am a very happy mummy. I think he will like school....as long as he doesn't try to make everyone his bitch.

Today we went to a fabulous place in Bolton called Vision Aid, (link on the left). This is a charity originally set up by a parent who had a visually impaired baby. Its aim is to support and help parents of visually impaired children. The charities home is a large Victorian House and they offer information and advice as well as loaning out equipment.

We went along and were taken into a large room full to the brim of colourful, noisy toys. Zack didn't stop staring at the shelves, he particularly liked the rainmaker toy. It made him smile....then he went back to serious mode.

The best part of the visit was being taken into a room full of home-made instruments to encourage visual stimulation. There was a huge box on the floor covered in space blankets (the tin foil things that marathon runners get wrapped up in) we popped Zack in the box and then went for a cup of tea.....only kidding. We put him there and then switched on a projector that spun round a bright colourful wheel that made the box sparkle. Zack absolutely loved it. He went really quiet, moved his head to look in different places where the lights fell, it was fantastic. We switched it off to go and look at something else and Zack was so peeved he started crying. I picked him up for a cuddle and we put the projector on a sparkly piece of material, he immediately stopped crying. Hmmmmm, first time he has reacted by crying in order for something to continue.

The charity have loaned me our very own projector. So now project A is to find a huge, gigantic box and cover it in space blankets, then lie the Pants in the box, switch on the projector and have a nice cup of tea.

I have to say, I think we are very fortunate to have access to such a wonderful charity, I hope that many more local children can benefit from it's existence.

Steroid Update

Zack is doing okay on the steroids only noticed three little seizures all day to day. But it is definitely making his stomach upset. He is okay for most of the day but was really irritable this afternoon and very grumpy before bed. His Dad was out at a works do so I am being a single parent and looking after him. This means no messing about and I just popped him in bed at 8.45pm crying or no crying. He was soon asleep and I carried on with the thousand other things I have to do with my life.

Looking forward to Christmas and cannot believe this year is nearly over and what a tough and yet wonderful year it has been.

The lady was fantastic. She should have her own tv show.

The vision specialist teacher came to visit Zack on Tuesday. She turned up with two Ikea bags full of creative little ideas for stimulating vision in children. 

It worked so well that Zack fell asleep through the whole session.

 I, on the other hand was amazed at how inventive you can get with a bath scrunchy and an octopus clothes dryer! The lady was fantastic. She should have her own tv show. Out of this bag came one small bottle of water filled with gold glitter, two round bath mats, one black and one white for contrast, stripey socks, paper bags made of holographic paper, it was endless. Most of her finds where purchased from Ikea, including some black and white material....why didn't I think of these things before I went and spent £32.99 on a miracle and milestones mobile from Fisher Price?

In the middle of all this oooohing and ahhhhing at the stuff, Zack decided to have a choking fit and turn blue. He does this every so often when he is dozing. I think he forgets to swallow his saliva and it starts going down the wrong way so he gags and coughs, this is usually over with in a couple of seconds, but this one, he couldn't get his breath, it did get a bit scary. After some slapping of his back he sorted himself out, but he was a bit pooped after it all so went back to sleep again.

When the vision teacher comes back in a couple of weeks she is going to bring the little room (ie. cardboard box) with her. It's based on Lillie Neilson's theory of containing visual stimulation in a small room for babies so that it is amplified for them minus other distractions. Can't wait.

I also couldn't wait for Dan to get home so I could ship out to Ikea for a few visually stimulating tools. I came back with the following items:

1. One black and one white bathmat

2. Two different types of black and white fabric

3. Four black and white prints along with frames to pop them in

4. A set of finger puppets (I took my eye off the ball there, but I really liked them, they reminded me of finger mouse)

5. A packet of red and black bath scrunchies (these now hang on the ceiling of Zack's nursery, if you didn't know us you would think we are very strange parents)

6. A hotdog and a drink (I didn't come back with these, I ate them, you have to, it's the law when you visit Ikea)

I came home with my goodies, I was impressed, Dan was relatively impressed, Zack wasn't arsed at all.

We have booked our place at the Advance Centre and are going there next week for three days. I have also noted that it is meant to be a heatwave next week, so I am not looking forward to the drive down with Zack melting in the back of the car. 

Zack is still having his little episodes of spasms. At the most it is 10 a day, still the same, pursing of lips, neck stretch and arms down to the side. We are both extremely worried about it. We are hoping it isn't some form of infantile spasms, but I guess the only way we will find out is for the doctor to send him for an EEG, I presume that is what they will do when we let them know about it. I think if they get to about 20 a day we are going to contact the hospital. Until then we will hang on until our docs appointment on the 9th July. He still doesn't seem disturbed by them, he just can't control it. 

Zack allowed his mum to go out for dinner the other night. The first time in ages. I really enjoyed it. It was good to talk about other things other than the little man. Not that I mind talking about him but getting away for a few hours was great. I feel quite guilty when I think like that but I suppose you have to be a little selfish at times otherwise you'll end up getting so engrossed in the situation that you lose yourself. Anyway, I have arranged to go out again, this time for a few little cheeky drinkies......I let Dan know my plans. He asked how I am going to manage to get up on Saturday morning to feed the Zacky Pants, I suggested it would be very nice if he could do it and perhaps look after him for the whole day as I am most likely to be not very well with a small headache and a vomiting virus!