Back to School

It's September and the kids are back to school. We are settling into a regular routine once again. And of course, the first week of school means the whole family gets a cold! Aside from that, my 7th grader is learning to balance schoolwork and soccer... so far so good. As for Tiernan, he is back in his program also and doing well. His speech and language skills have come a long way and are improving every day. If only he could also start walking! We have 9 weeks until we welcome the newest addition to the family so our autumn should be full new and exciting things!

This is going to be a lifelong job

My day starts off with me getting myself ready for the day.Then its time for my son.Lets start with changing his diaper even though he is almost five.After I get this done its time to get hime dressed which is normal enough.once dressed its time to brush his teeth.He has sensory issues so most mornings he squirms and kicks and fusses.Im beginning to think that this is going to be a life long job.O nce I carry him downstairs my wife gets his leg braces and shoes on as I get his wheelchair out and ready for the bus.only time will tel if this will ever change.

Maybe he's just been hungry?

Once in a while, Tiernan might tell us "I hungy" but most of the time it's a guessing game on our part. If it's been a while since his last meal, we'll just figure it's time for the next one. But he still isn't able to tell us if he is full or if he hasn't had enough yet... I just feed him until his dish is empty. So about a week ago, I started questioning whether his meal sizes are enough for him. Now that we have been giving him bigger meals, he seems to be sleeping better at night. Maybe he's just been hungry?

I needed a good laugh

I heard my son fussing this morning so I got up to get him out of bed.I took off his diaper to change him and when I looked I saw that there were were no more left.I commented to myself outloud "there's no more friggin diapers".I went down stairs and found one in the diaper bag.When I returned to put it on him he looked at me and said "Da Da's puttin the friggin diaper on".I needed a good laugh this morning.

~Dad

My own worst enemy?

Is Tiernan his own worst enemy? I'm having a hard time dealing with his self-inflicted injuries... mostly because I can't understand why he does it. What does he get out of banging his head on the floor or biting his hands or hitting himself in the head? And more importantly, how do I get him to stop? It's one thing when we are home and I can distract him or physically restrain him, but when we are in the car and I can't reach him there is nothing I can do. We have resorted to wrapping his hands in a gauzy material so at least he has some padding on his hands and can't do as much damage. But isn't there a better way???

~Mom

This is our first attempt at blogging, so we figured we would start from the beginning and give a little background into our story as a family and how we started our business. So here it goes...

Our son Tiernan was born in January 2006. He was born with a syndrome called Dandy-Walker Variant (DWV) and a cleft palate. While the cleft palate was surgically repaired the day before Tiernan's 1st birthday, the DWV has left him with many developmental delays.


Now 4 and half years old, Tiernan is just learning to speak. He is still not walking, potty-trained or eating solid food but his therapists work very hard with him and we are hopeful that he will eventually gain some independence.


As parents of a special needs child, we have learned a lot about developmental delays and techniques to help Tiernan reach his milestones. We do quite a bit of online research to try to learn more about other families in similar situations and hope that we can learn from them some new "tricks" that might help Tiernan. We also hope to help other families by sharing our experiences and by offering products we have learned about. You can check them out through our online store www.DandyLionKids.com.

Our most popular item is something we developed based on our own needs. While Tiernan is in his wheelchair, his shirts/jackets often ride up his back and expose him to the cold air during the winter months. We searched all over for larger sized onesies with no success. So we decided to have onesies custom-made in sizes 3T -5T. We realize now that many families also share this same need and we have received inquiries for other versions and styles. We are now working on developing onesies with special access to accommodate children with g-tubes. We are also working on long-sleeve onesies in larger sizes. If anyone has any other suggestions, PLEASE let us know at info@dolangiftco.com so we can meet as many needs as possible!

There are so many challenges that we face as Tiernan's parents. The more difficult issues that we deal with are his self-injurious behaviors and his sleeping problems. Tiernan has a tendency to bite his hands and hit his head when he is bored, tired or upset. Certain sounds (like a siren or a loud motor) set him off most frequently. We have resorted to wrapping his hands in bandages to protect him from hurting himself while we are in the car and can't really reach him. As for sleep, Tiernan takes a combination of 2 different medications every night to help him get to sleep and stay asleep. Without the help of medication, he wakes as often as every hour. And because of his tendency to hurt himself, we can't just let him cry and try to sooth himself back to sleep. We are still searching for solutions to these problems but so far, it has just be trial and error. Any suggestions???

Another big challenge for us is parenting our other children. Tiernan has a 12-year-old sister and baby sister due to arrive in November of this year. Balancing the normal activities of children is hard enough, what with homework, sports, and social events. But add in a sibling who requires more time and attention just to complete everyday activities such as eating and bathing and you have a real balancing act! We are looking forward to the new addition to our family but we are also worried about having enough time and energy to make everyone happy... and healthy!

Being a parent is a life-long journey of growth and learning. This is especially true for parents of "special" children as there is so much more involved than the standard child care. As we continue to learn from Tiernan and from other families with special needs, we hope to be able to share and help as much as possible. We will try to keep up with posts on this blog and look forward to telling stories about Tiernan's successes as well as the struggles we face as a family.