Progress in Baby Steps

Little Prince had a mid morning appointment at a local hospital as part of his assessment for a Statement of Special Needs. Coincidently Drama Teen had two free lessons this morning and wanted to go into college later than normal, and wanted a lift there. As her college is in the same town as the hospital I was taking Little Prince to, it worked out really well. We all got up at normal school day time, and Drama Teen used the time to get primped and preened for college. I really should have insisted she help me out with the little two more, as things got wild pretty early, well not "things" but Little Prince! I left him and Princess Lollipop in the lounge while I ran up to finish getting ready to go out. In that few minutes all hell broke loose downstairs, Little Prince was screaming and shouting at Princess Lollipop and by the time I had run back downstairs both of them were sobbing. Apparently Princess Lollipop was grabbing at all sorts of things she shouldn't touch, and that I had forgotten to move out of her way! Little Prince immediately got overly stressed by being unable to stop her and started yelling at her, which upset Princess Lollipop and made her cry (she adores her big brother and hates it when he's upset or angry).

All of this made the rest of the morning almost unbearable :-( Little Prince was raging at everything anyone said or did or asked him to do. He screamed at me so much that I eventually snapped and shouted at him to do as he was told. He then burst into wracking sobs and ran upstairs :-( I got Drama Teen to get Princess Lollipop ready to go out and put her in the car while I tried to calm Little Prince down again. I eventually got him calm enough to get in the car, and we set off to drop off Drama Teen and go to Little Prince's hospital appointment. The car journey was pretty stressful as Little Prince spent the whole time threatening to either blow up the car in front for driving too slow, blow up our car for not overtaking or throw up because we were playing a yukky CD. I turned the music down and he demanded we turn it back up as he couldn't hear it anymore! Nothing we said or did could calm him down.

After dropping Drama Teen off we drove over to the hospital, and luckily found a car parking space straight away. Little Prince almost ran off in the car park, and I had to make him hold onto the buggy for the rest of the short walk to the entrance, I haven't had to do that for a long time now. Once in the hospital he made a run for the toilets, which were luckily very close and he didn't get lost!

The Children's Outpatients Dept was only round the corner, and when we arrived we were the only people there! The nurse knew exactly who Little Prince must be and greeted him by name, he wasn't phased by this at all, he obviously thinks everyone knows who he is :-) We were taken straight into the consulting room, and the Nurse explained that she was only asking questions and taking notes, she didn't need to examine Little Prince at all. He then started to get toys out of the toybox and have them battle on his chair, while I tried to answer the Nurse's questions. The referral notes obviously didn't include the fact that Little Prince was adopted, as she started off by asking about my pregnancy and his birth! I explained we adopted him and gave her the information we had. She then asked a few more questions: were his immunisations up to date; when did we notice he had difficulties; did he have any medical problems; was he diagnosed with anything to explain his difficulties and who was his primary Paediatrician. After answering all this, the Nurse then read back the notes she had made so that I could check them for accuracy. During this time Little Prince had asked if he could go and play with the "pool table that has little men that spin round" (table football!) in reception, as there was no one else in the department I said it was ok. If there had been other families waiting there would have been no way I would have allowed him to be out there unsupervised!! When we had finished the Nurse asked if he/we were getting any support for his suspected ADHD, and was very surprised to hear of the problems we are having trying to get a firm diagnosis (once people have met him they usually agree he needs the diagnosis!!). She said that this hospital (it isn't the one Little Prince has been attending already) has a wonderful ADHD Clinic and the waiting list to be seen is only a few weeks!! I will be making an appointment to see our GP for a referral to them tomorrow!! I am so hoping that this glimmer of hope isn't snuffed out like all the other avenues we have tried, everyone keep your fingers crossed for us!!

When I dropped Little Prince off at school, I was met by the headteacher, who was obviously unaware of where Little Prince had been, even though I had told both his class teacher and the school secretary!! Once we had Little Prince settled back in his classroom, she was chatting to me and saying she wished the Statement Assessment process could be quicker!! I was VERY surprised by this as I have been thinking how quickly the assessment has been going and how responsive and helpful all the professionals have been. The delay if any has been with getting the assessment requested in the first place - which is down to the school!!

Princess Lollipop was very tired when we got home and had a snack and then wanted "Up Mummy" and to be cuddled to sleep. She had been asleep on the sofa for a short while when the phone rang twice in quick succession and after that she would only settle if she was on my knee. Then the builder arrived to sort out the placement of the scaffolding so that he can replace all our guttering this weekend. The builder is a friend of ours and he came in for a chat and play with Princess Lollipop, who had been woken up by his arrival, while we waited for the scaffolders to arrive. They were working away when I had to go and pick Little Prince up from school. He got into the car and immediately started yelling about something, I am so numb to it that I can't even remember what he was angry about this time! We had to nip to the bank to pick up the money to pay the builder, which set him off even more! Luckily the bank was empty when we arrived and we were in and out in no time, we called at the corner shop and I bought the littlies a treat for in the car, which didn't stop them arguing or spilling their drinks!!

Later in the evening the builder, his wife and gorgeous 3 year old little girl called back round to pick up the money. The builder's wife is pregnant and due at the same time as both my sister's babies - Little Prince says he will explode if he hears about any more babies!! So me and her spent ages chatting about babies and cooing over Princess Lollipop. Little Prince took the builder's little girl up to play on his slide bed and they had a great time. Little Prince is definitely a ladies man, all the little girls seem to adore him :-) I always joke that there isn't a girl out there good enough for MY Little Prince and threaten to be the nightmare Mother in Law :-) I am only joking I hope that all my children end up with partners that make them happy and they have wonderful lives :-)

Even though Little Prince enjoyed the visit he was very stressed by it as his reaction once they had left showed. He went to his room and turned his light on and off so many times in quick succession that he broke it! I'm not sure if he has broken the switch, shorted the wires or blown the bulbs, or all of the above!! He does have a dim wall light that I've allowed him to have on overnight, as he is scared of sleeping in the dark. Hopefully Mr Messy will get chance in the next few days to see what the problem is and be able to fix it.

Just as I was telling Little Prince to go and get washed and put his pyjamas on, the representative of Mr Messy's framing company arrived. So instead Little Prince spent twenty minutes throwing himself up and down his slide and crashing to the floor, we know this as the lounge ceiling was shaking!! He then came down still in his clothes and lay on the floor shouting that he was too tired to get ready for bed, I had to leave Mr Messy to conduct his meeting and look after Princess Lollipop while I tried to get Little Prince to bed. Once in bed he lay there saying he was sorry for breaking his light over and over again, he can't control his impulses but he is so remorseful afterwards and says its because he is so stupid. It breaks my heart to hear him talk like that, and all this is so damaging to his self esteem :-( Hopefully we can get to see the consultant at the other local hospital and get some help for him soon.