So much of your story mirrored my own. My daughter was born by emergency C section due to reduced heart rate. She was rushed to special care. I spent an hour with my daughter in one ward and my partner in another, whilst they tried to stop her bleeding from the birth.

Within an hour we were all reunited. My daughter is nearly three and still doesn’t talk, she will I know, when she is ready.

This year, we went to see Santa with her sister. I wasn’t ashamed of saying to the helpful elves that she was ASD. We didn’t have to queue and Santa was amazing when she failed to acknowledge him.

Very, very tight hugs work with my little girl as well. I also find when we are out, her hood up can alleviate some of the sensory overload. In worse case scenarios I take my hoody off, drape it over both our heads and we sit on the floor in our tent until we are okay. I wear a hoody everywhere we go. I couldn’t give a shit about the looks we get camped under a hoody in the shopping centre.

Thank you for sharing your story it warmed my heart and reminded me how blessed I am to have such an amazing little girl in my life.