Chasing Butterflies Daily

I had my successful HBAC on Sunday the 7th February 2021 (birth story HERE) - our fourth baby, Juno, was born before midwives made it to us. It was perfect, empowering and completely intervention free. I hope the links below will help others make the best decisions for THEM. This post is mostly going to be a long list of links I recommend to read to help you on the journey towards the birth you want and hope for. I have added the odd quotation from pages but feel most are best read fully so you can assess what course of action is best for your own situation. I want to make something very clear I make NO judgement of where or how a woman choses to birth. I think it is paramount that a woman gets to chose themselves and are appropriately supported in their decision of location and way of birth, whether in hospital (vaginal, induced or cesarean), MLU - midwife led unit or at home.  I have found the acronym BRAIN very helpful while accumulating my research and I intend on ...

Just a brief one as I'll blog properly about it after we meet ENT. Elis had his first hearing test since he got his hearing aids in March & his hearing hasn't changed in the slightest. Good that it's not worse but as he's been refusing his aids lately I was hoping it may have improved a little but it really hasn't while even the audiologist noticed his mouth breathing is more audible. Now that we've got a recent audiogram we can hopefully meet our ENT (ear/nose/throat) consultant soon & see what he thinks about Elis' tonsils & adenoids. I will hopefully get around to writing a little about how the hearing test was performed as it is quite interesting to watch so this post will hopefully be updated in the coming weeks. Having talked through the different options with the audiologists (we've been lucky to work with the same team throughout Elis' care the last 2+ years & I have a lot of trust in them as we've built a go...

One of the most common traits of achondroplasia, apart from the distinctive shorter length of the long limbs and consequently shorter height, is joint hypermobility . Joint hypermobility (also referred to as benign joint hypermobility) means that your joints are looser and more flexible than the average person's. Many may know the term "double jointed" which refers to the same thing.  Joint hypermobility is not exclusive to achondroplastics, I for example have it - most kids have it to a certain degree but outgrow it. Kids with achondroplasia tend to be many times more supple than an average height child is  though. The photo above is from last summer so our son is 18 months old or so, he can still sit like that with ease (he often draws on the soles of his feet by pulling his leg up like this) and he will continue to be able to do that for a long time to come. He can do the splits with ease and he uses his extreme flexibility to his advantage a l...

Very brief audiology appointment this morning as one of his hearing aids has been buzzing a bit. I thought it might be the tubes needing changed or possibly the moulds as they have started to not always sit great. Tubes got changed in any case and we have an appointment in 4 weeks to do a full hearing test and recalibrate his hearing aids for the first time since he got them in March (we'll also cast new moulds just to make sure they sit right as it may be a while till we get seen again).  I had a call from an ENT surgeon (ear/nose/throat) last week as well. His most recent sleep study had been much better than the one we did last January which had been very concerning, but he was also super sick at the time. Problem is he just seems to have a permanent cold, sometimes it's light other time bad - I mean we're grateful we've avoided worse infections so far this year but it's still exhausting for him. Anyway the latest sleep study still shows some abnormal...

Sweden didn't actively participate in either world war so Armistice day, when we reflect on the end of WW1, isn't a day that it marked in the annual calendar like it is in large parts of the world. I spent my whole life abroad & going to international schools however, so my education has been very imprinted with studies on both world wars. In particular during my years in Egypt & Belgium (the latter was filled with visits to battle grounds, graveyards & concentration camps both in Belgium & neighbouring #France).  My most memorable Armistice day I will have been a tween. We lived in Cairo & travelled out to one of the military grave sights, can't remember but I think I went with the choir I was in. An eerily beautiful & peaceful place despite the reality of death being so evident with the endless rows of stones. The day is one that's stuck with me, not just because one of the other students fainted as we stood still for so long. It wa...

Halloween is fast becoming one of the biggest celebrations of the year worldwide. It's enjoyed by little 'uns as well as older and drunker humans as an excuse for revelries, especially of the night for the latter. For many of the rest of us it's the small bastion we hold on to before all the people who'd have Christmas all year round if they could, force us to live with Christmas through November (sorry if you're one of "those" people - I don't hate Christmas I just believe it belongs in December and any excessive celebration ahead of time just makes me enjoy it less).  As a Swede I didn't really grow up with Halloween being much of a thing. We dress up as witches for Easter but that's for another post and for us the 1st of November is a bigger tradition. It is known as "Allhelgona afton" - All Saint's eve - and is a day for remembering our lost loved ones. Lights are lit everywhere in our deep Nordic autumn darkness, ...

Some Halloween spirit for you while also covering some dwarfism awareness. Husband got the kids some Halloween costumes yesterday - every year we discuss ideas to so as a family and then inevitably we end up buying from the supermarket. One year we'll get round to making some fun themed costumes but not this one! He'd brought back a skeleton baby grow for our son. It's a size 12-18m which is pretty much ideal when it comes to torso length (despite being 2.5 years old his disproportionate form of dwarfism - achondroplasia - means his limbs grow slower than his average height peers which means clothes take extra planning) and it is only a little long in the sleeve. The trousers are a no go though as the bottoms he has that fit are either 6-9 or 9-12 months.  Worth noting that just like average height kids all grow differently so do kids with achondroplasia, their height and limb lengths can vary greatly so what fits Elis just now won't necessarily work for ano...