50 days of River

Fifty days of River: Connection, isolation and everything in between.

life

  • Half-Term (Progress, Not Perfection)

    Early Morning Thoughts It’s Saturday morning, 8.30 a.m. and I’m cooking croissants and cutting up strawberries for weekend breakfast. I’m feeling pretty good because it’s Half-Term.Look how far I’ve come. This Autumn Term has been a long eight weeks.I’m not interested in people who complain about teachers and their time off; if it bothers you Read more

  • What a Week

    The Refund Battle What a week, it felt long and heavy. After the phone call about the EHCP being refused by the school, I spent the rest of the week unable to shake off the tiredness. This was not helped by the sporting company being very hard to deal with when it came to getting Read more

  • One Day at a Time

    “Well, that was bleak.” It’s been an emotional day and I thought, well, this is what this space is for. Last night we watched a documentary on BBC1: Panorama: Autism, School and Families on the Edge.It followed around four families all having to home-school as the schools their kids attended couldn’t meet or fund their Read more

  • River’s October Obsession

    So, it’s October 1st and you know what that means.Well, actually, you probably don’t… unless you live in a house with a small autistic boy who has been obsessed with Halloween since July 2024. Today marks the official start of Halloween in our house. And honestly? If you can’t beat them, join them. Halloween: A Read more

  • Day 49: Back to Nursery

    Midnight Cleaning Fantasies So, I didn’t end up going to sleep, obviously. A bit of scrolling turned into browsing cleaning websites. I’ve said for ages I need a cleaner. It’s just another job that needs doing and rarely gets done. We’re not messy but the house never gets a proper deep clean and it’s starting Read more

  • Day 48: The Never-Ending List

    Morning Chaos Another wet start. I’m going to do some research into buying pads to go on the bed. There’s so much stuff these days I’m sure I can find something. Also, something I’ve been putting off, his bedtime bottle. It’s something that has always soothed him and I’ve been so reluctant to take it Read more

  • Day 45: Potty Progress and Finding Myself

    Broken Night River’s night was broken. Twice he wet through his sheets. I’m not sure what caused it. To be clear, River isn’t fully potty trained yet. Last summer we worked so hard on this as he was starting Nursery and I knew what children at that age are supposed to do. At the time, Read more

  • Day 44: Finding Balance

    A Bloody Start My glamorous life began at 7am with dragging rubbish out of the shed for the council pick-up: River’s old mattress, a broken dryer, a sand/water tray past its best and more worn-out shoes than I care to admit. River woke up not long after and something about him looked different. Under the Read more

  • Day 43: First Steps Back to Nursery

    A Rocky Start River had a restless night, waking upset and by 6am I was up changing his soaked clothes and bedding. He lay quietly under his red blanket, clearly shaken, while I tried to balance getting him calm and ready with also preparing Summer for her first day back at school. The mention of Read more

  • Day 41: First Day Back

    My alarm went off at 7am this morning – yep, an alarm. The first day back at work for me was the first day River decided to sleep past 7am! I crept into his room to check and there he was, fast asleep… only for a few minutes though. He must have sensed my presence. Read more