About

*waves* Hello!

I am a mid-twenty single mummy of the beautiful Wriggles, so named for her bundles of energy and fidgeting as seen from birth. Wriggles was born prematurely, just a smidge under 28 weeks at 27+6. She was born in fairly traumatic circumstances as home, which if you fancy, you can read about under my Birth Story before spending ten weeks in neonatal and coming home on oxygen which she kicked at just shy of seven months. We then had a difficult stay in Paediatric Intensive Care where she was critically ill and fought for her life and a growing list of repeated admissions thanks to her feeding problems and chronic lung disease. She is now 2 and a half and full of beans constantly and has a smile for everyone. She laughs manically if you throw paper aeroplanes.

Wriggles has a few delays relating to her prematurity, mostly affecting her gross motor skills. Our main 'battle' though has been establishing feeding as she has terrible reflux and an oral aversion, which essentially is for her, a fear of eating. After yet another emergency admission at 23 months old, it was concluded that she intermittently aspirates liquids into her lungs meaning that oral drinking was too dangerous. An PEG (gastronomy tube) was placed which provides the entirety of her nutrition. She has recently been diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy which affects her walking, or lack of, and the muscles needed to control her sitting and other gross motor skills. She has some degree of delay in most areas but has a personality anyone would be proud of and determination to boot.
 

One of my own biggest hurdles has been overcoming both post natal depression and a form of post traumatic stress. The depression and anxiety have been crippling at times and still are not quite as much of a distant memory as I would like. Things however are far improved from what they have been, and little by little I am rebuilding my confidence as a mama and as a person, with a lot of help from a certain special Wriggly one along the way!