Now you are five: milestone moments

Five years ago today, Jessica had the second part of the hybrid procedure. Back then we lived from moment to moment, riding the rollercoaster that is life in PICU, not knowing if we would get to take our beautiful girl home. Today I sat in the garden, enjoying the sunshine and listening to the squeals of delight from Jessica and Sophie as they slid down their slide into the paddling pool. A world away from those early days - being able to just relax and enjoy the moment, to be able to look a little ahead and experience the wonderful blessing that is normal family life. What an amazing thing that is.

It's been an eventful few weeks with a couple of big milestones being celebrated. We had a lovely summer with lots of days out here and there. This year we set ourselves a challenge to travel from Land's End to John O'Groats by public transport in aid of Little Hearts Matter and were very impressed by how well Jessica and Sophie coped with the long train journeys over the four days we spent travelling.

Jessica started school for the first time last week. Her infant school starts children on full days from their first day. We did have the option to start Jessica more gradually but have agreed with the school to see how she gets on and if she is exhausted we can pick her up early. So far she has coped well with the long school days, and hasn't been any more tired than we would have expected her to be. The school seem to be good so far at keeping an eye on Jessica especially in this current hot weather and we have a healthcare plan in place which we are happy with. Jessica seems to be enjoying school so far and we were especially proud to see that she was awarded a WOW of the Week last Friday for trying hard at everything.

We also celebrated Jessica's 5th birthday last week and had a birthday party at Grandma and Grandad's house which Jessica declared "the best birthday party ever!" even before all her guests arrived! She was late into school on the morning of her birthday as she had a check-up with the paediatrician which was very positive especially as Jessica is now gaining weight again. Jessica was very excited at having her birthday at school and it made me laugh when her teacher told me that Jessica curtseyed when all the children sang Happy Birthday to her. We also managed to get a birthday card shown on CBeebies and capture Jessica's reaction when she first saw it.

We are due to have another hearing test next month to check whether Jessica still has glue ear and our next cardiac check-up is due around the end of November. Hopefully the next few weeks will just be all about settling into our new routine with school.