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
Saturday, July 31, 2010
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
~Mom
Sunday, July 25, 2010
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.
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.
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