Ryan on his first Christmas Day with his Grampa
Ryan did not develop as quickly as other babies.
He did not put on weight like other babies but he smiled a lot and was
happy. We all knew that he would take a long time to
"catch up" from being born so early but we wondered if that was
the only reason for his slow development. We also wondered
about his hearing.
In November on bonfire night we wrapped him up nice and
warm and took him to see the town firework display. He liked
the pretty colours going up in the air but showed no reaction at all to
the loud bangs, not even blinking. I had to tap him and then
point to the fireworks. He would follow my finger with his
eyes then as he saw the pretty lights he would beam a big smile.
I whispered to my husband "He's stone deaf".
Christmas came. Ryan had no idea what was
going on at Christmas and showed no interest in it at all. He
was eight months old and still could not sit unaided.
We knew of course that he was not a normal eight month
old, after all he should not have been born until August so he was bound
to be behind in his development. But there had been a lot of
progress, he could hold his head up for himself and look around.
He seemed to recognize us.
Ryan's first birthday
We celebrated his first birthday as being a big
milestone. Ryan of course was unaware that it was his
birthday. He sat on his mum's lap as she opened his birthday
cards and presents. He could now sit up and wanted to move
around. But he was making no effort to speak. Just made
a lot of very loud noises.
He visited lots of clinics and had lots of specialists
and consultants dealing with his various problems but until he could
communicate no one could actually tell how much brain damage there was,
they said there was no precedent so no way they could know what to expect.
That was hard. We had no way of knowing if he was just slow learning
to do anything or would never be capable of doing it because that part of
his brain was damaged.
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