The ball is rolling….

Meeting two for Violet’s statementing done and dusted. All boxes sufficiently ticked, all relevant peoples notifed. I feel a bit odd about the whole thing now.

We’ve been left with a load of booklets, there are so many there is even a booklet to explain what all the others are for. Seriously. There’s a folder, with all the important details in it, like a giant, more detailed version of the red book everyone brings home with their newborn babies. It’s where we get to write down the myriad of people we have to deal with now, so hopefully we’ll at least remember their names. It has helpful sections we can filled in named things like ‘stuff you don’t want to have to repeat at every meeting’ and ‘things your child likes and things they don’t’ and most impressively ‘when you’re visiting us please….. and please do not….’
Fingers crossed that will save us some of the repetition we’ve dealt with in the last 3 years with all the various departments in hospital. I mean I’ve never blamed them for not wanting to read Violet’s whole medical notes, they’re huge! (Though not as big as Ivy’s, hers have been split into two folders that I swear weigh more than she does even now!) But even so I do feel like a stuck record, I can recite a potted medical history for each of my kids in less than a minute, just from the amount of practice.

Anyway. On the one hand I’m really chuffed that we’ve got people on our side, that we’ve got people on Violet’s side. That we’ve done all we can do to try and ensure that she won’t get totally frustrated and school hating before reception year is over. She has enough battles to fight already.

But yet still there’s this little voice inside that is so sad. I’m sad for her, that she’s not going to get the same normal primary school experience I remember, or that most of her friends will have. Yeah I know she wont know differently, and that it may not be forever, but still. And I am sad for me too, that every part of my parenting experience so far has involved booklets and permission forms, has involved lots of professionals and websites, has involved so many of our choices being taken away.

That is the ball rolling though. Now for the waiting.