And so it begins...

Nothing earth-shattering, but just the beginning of the process for Kaelen, making it slightly more real...we were at speech today and of course people were asking how we went with Kaelen's hearing test last Friday, so of course i told them, and we were encouraged to begin the process of enrolling him in the speech centre too. The centre has to make an application to the Dept of Education for funding for a place for Kaelen, but based on his test results they think this won't be a problem, so i signed the permission form today for the centre to make the application. *Sigh*, one step at a time, and each step reminds me that it's real, it's not just a game we've been playing, "let's test the baby's ears", it's serious and needs to be addressed.

Although funding for his place will take a couple of weeks to be approved, Jarrah's teacher is more than happy to begin working with him immediately...which is great, but we'll have to work on the whole staying-awake thing :-) Kaelen tends to have a feed half-way through Jarrah's lesson, and is often extremely sleepy after that feed, doesn't always have any awake-time at all just yet, but hopefully as he gets bigger he will stay awake. Although, i should just apply the universal law of the quickest way to wake a sleeping baby - put them down! :-) Works every time...

And it seems that the boys will both qualify for Health Care cards due to their losses, and i may qualify for a Carers Allowance...not too worried about the allowance, but the card for the boys will be useful...better block out another hour to spend on the phone to Centrelink trying to figure it all out...

I had the dubious honour of making a double-ENT appointment the other day - a follow-up for Jarrah after his grommets, and an initial appointment for Kaelen following the results of his tests. I'm sure our ENT will be thrilled to see all of us...although a kind friend has suggested accompanying us into town with her kids and perhaps having a picnic together afterwards, which sounds like a jolly good idea to me. It'll be nice to do something pleasant in town while we're there, and it'll be very nice to have some company, both for me and the kidlets...you can never quite tell what these ENT appt's are going to turn up, so it'll be nice to have someone to talk to afterwards...

ENT appt's: Tues 9th September 10:15am