babyblog

I fucked up

I'm still nursing Tabitha because of her dairy issue (the milk and soy protein intolerance) but keen for it to come to an end in the not too distant future. In the meantime I've introduced small amounts of both dairy and soy into her diet without too many negative side effects. I am scared to introduce cows milk at bed times though.

She can handle some yogurt, some cheese, some ice cream. She can handle oatmeal made with regular baby formula. She can't handle too much of it, and she can't do it too often. I notice her get extra gassy if we increase the dairy uptake and although her constipation issue seems to have improved dramatically so that we're not having to use much laxative anymore we do have to watch it and make sure she gets a LOT of apple juice to drink every day.

Anyway - on Friday night G and I went out together for the first time in roughly forever. We made it to the cinema and I sat down to save seats while G went out for popcorn. The phone rang and the babysitter informed me that Tab was awake and screaming and wouldn't settle. G went back to try to settle her leaving me at the movie - and didn't make it back. She screamed for 2 hours straight. Finally, in desperation, he made up a bottle of the formula we use to mix for breakfast.

I was really surprised when I got home that she had drunk it all down and gone to sleep quite happily. No holding. No rocking. No cuddling. Just lay down , drank it, slept. Later that night she was up constantly feeding from me but I didn't think much of it.

Saturday night came around and we decided to try to give her Formula again. A start in weaning, right? She took it happily and went to sleep. We High 5'd each other. I went to bed around 2am after being drunk and playing "Rockband" with some friends. Tab fed around every 30 mins and was gassy. I didn't pay much attention, I was tired. Yesterday she burped all day and farted constantly which I thought was a bit weird.

Last night, Sunday night, we gave her the formula. She went to sleep. I was thrilled. She then fed from me every 20 mins all night long and as it was the 3rd sleepless night in a row for me I began to pay more attention than my usual half-awake roll over and lob the boob out........I noticed that she was in pain, writhing with gas, farting constantly. I suddenly realised this was exactly how she was in the early days - the bloody milk protein intolerance. The formula. It's milk innit. IDIOT.

Today she has had explosive nasty poo about 4 times - just like it used to be.

Conclusion: While she is obviously outgrowing the MSPI, she has not completely outgrown it. She can tolerate *some* processed dairy in her diet but not much, and she certainly can't tolerate straight unprocessed milk products.

I'm a twat. She's in pain.

Boat & General Camping News

I haven't been updating as often as I'd like so time for some news on the camping trips we've made recently.

We have been to campsites within a couple of hours from home 3 times with some friends over the last few weeks and had the most amazing time. Our first trip with friends was to a site up in Bellingham (just below the Canadian border) with 2 other families. It was alot of fun including drunken wood stealing from other campers when we'd run out late at night.

For my birthday we went to Orcas Island, one of the San Juan islands. We had to take the caravan on a ferry which was interesting.. (and expensive!). The site was fantastic - right on the water, and we went for 5 days and our friends joined us for 3 of them. While there, we drove up a mountain to see the view from the top (it was cloudy, no view) and we drove the length and breadth of the small island and stopped at the little harbour towns. We also rented a motor boat and managed to run out of gas have to mayday to shore for rescue. And of course, the now traditional wood stealing late at night.

Despite the gas incident we caught the boat bug and with our friends decided to go halves on a boat. It's very old and knackered but goes fast and holds 9 of us! We took it, last weekend, up to Deception Pass - a gorgeous state park on Puget Sound. We managed to - thanks to having no idea what the buoys meant - ground it in a sandbank at one point, but otherwise it was a lot of fun. We also managed to accidentally blow up the camp site by putting a bottle of Smirnoff Ice on the fire to see what would happen. It made a BOMB. Thankfully all are OK!

Anyway - we took the boat out yesterday on Lake Sammamish too (10 mins from home), So fun! I wish the summer weren't over! :(

G & friend are going to work on the boat over the winter to make it a bit more presentable and look forward to loads of fabulous boating / camping weekends next year.

Rough

There's only one thing worse than G singing while we play a drunken game of "Rockband" on the XBOX.

SINGING IN HIS SLEEP ALL NIGHT LONG. WHILE ACTUALLY ASLEEP. SINGING.

Revenge

Dylan has decided to start playing the Violin.

I am truly sorry for putting my parents through it when I was a kid. I did try to encourage him into a wind or brass instrument but he's determined that he wants to play the Violin. Bugger.

Naturopath

It was an interesting visit to the Naturopath. Unlike the GP she sat with me for an hour talking about all my major and minor concerns. The upshot of the visit is that she's sending me for a bunch of blood work to rule out thyroid problems, etc but in the meantime for my migraines - which are monthly - she's given me something called Phytogn which is a natural estrogen alternative which should stop the dips and swings in my estrogen levels thus stopping the migraines. In theory.

For my sugar addiction she's given me something called L Glutamine which is known to stop cravings for sugars and carbs!

More Medical Updates

Dylan was fitted with a 'spacer' by his Orthodontist a few weeks ago. It's kind of a reverse brace. It fits into the upper part of his mouth and it's function is to push the jaw bones apart and make space for teeth which are overcrowded. In my non expert opinion his teeth were fine but this is America and America likes teeth to be 100% perfect!

We had a series of appointments to fit the spacer and then he had to get used to it for a couple of weeks before beginning the process of winding it twice a day to stretch the jaw out. This has to be done for 2 weeks and then the thing stays in for another 2 or 3 months to ensure the spacing is permanent. He's borne it well, bless him, not much complaint at all.

Today I was really shocked when I picked Dylan up from school though, he suddenly has a huge gap between his two front teeth! I guess it is working? It's really weird to see his smile permanently and suddenly changed like that though! We go back next week after the winding process finishes so I'll chat with the Orthodontist then.

Meanwhile Harry still has evidence of this nasty fall on his face. It now has a dent type thing in and the remnants of the bruise. I took him to the Pediatrician to get it checked again and he said it's something called 'subcutaneous fat necrosis'. It may or may not go back to normal over the next few months. If not, we will end up at a Plastic Surgeon :-(

G's health remains stable - thankfully.

Me - I've been prescribed Amitriptyline for migraine prevention. Right now it is kicking my ass, I'm exhausted and headachey (somewhat defeating the purpose of taking it) all of the time. Tomorrow, however, I'm going to see a Naturopath. In WA a Naturopath is trained and qualified in the same way as a regular DR and has prescribing capabilities with the exception of some narcotic type stuff. The difference though is that she will sit with me for an hour, talk to me about all my various issues (migraines, etc) and do a massive blood workup to check for all kinds of deficiencies in certain vitamins, etc, thyroid, you name it..... then try to work towards balancing my system so that it works without having to take things like Amitriptyline. More on that after I've seen her!

Oops

It's been so long since I wrote a blog entry that the blog forgot who I was and I had to input my password again.

Must. Do. Better.

So the biggest thing that happened to us in the last, erm, while, is that Tabby had her ear tube surgery last week on Monday.

We had instructions to give her no milk after 3.30am and she could have ‘clear fluids’ (which inexplicably included apple juice) until 5.30am, then to be at the hospital for 8.30am.

I filled her full of as much stodgy oatmeal cereal last night at 8pm as she would eat, hoping that it would keep her full for as long as possible.

I then woke her at 11pm for a feed, she woke at 2am for a feed anyway as her ears were bothering her, then I woke her again at 3.30am for a feed so by the time we got up she was pretty full still! We woke at 5.30am and gave her some apple juice.

We dropped Dylan off at his friends house for breakfast and a lift to school then we went to the hospital – arriving early at 8am as the traffic wasn’t too bad.

We checked in and Tabitha was given a bracelet to wear, and her teddy that she was allowed to take into the OR was given one too, which she thought was extremely amazing and kept pointing to!

They quickly called us through to her room and she got to wear a mini hospital gown. They did a few pre-op checks and various people came in asking questions. The DR (amusingly called Dr Ow) came in to reassure us that it would be very quick and easy. They would give her gas to put her to sleep, no needles, and a paracetamol suppository for post-op pain.

They took her at 8.57am, two anesthesiologists came for her, one to carry her and one to carry her charts!

I waited (sobbing!) in the room and Gareth took Harry for a drink.

Amazingly, at 9.08 the DR returned with the news that it was all finished and that she was in recovery, slowly coming to! Apparently there had been quite a clog of fluid behind her ear drums and that now it is all gone she should have a vast difference in her hearing, not to mention lack of discomfort in future. We had to put antibiotic drops into her ears 3 times a day for the next 3 days and expect some liquid / blood to drain out of them.

Gareth & Harry returned and 10 mins later they brought her back. She looked very confused, a bit pissed off, and came into my arms and I nursed her…… she fell back to sleep almost immediately. The DR said that she would be sleepy for potentially the rest of the day. We sat in the room for another 30 mins or so and they said we could go home! We carried her out, still asleep, to the car…… she woke up and cried a bit when we put her in….. fell back to sleep…. slept for quite a while then woke seemingly right as rain!

Since the surgery she has been very well tempered although her sleeping hasn't improved much!

I will update more another time - this is enough for one day ;-)

Tabitha - 14 months

Darling Miss T - you are 14 months old!

This is absolutely my most favourite time with babies, certainly with you right now -- you are SO much fun and your vocal skills are improving in leaps and bounds on a daily basis and you're beginning to make yourself understood! Your current list of words includes

Mama, Daddy, Didun, Yaya (becoming Haaarry), Gink (drink), Num Nums (food), Gicky (Vicky, a friend), Nooo, Hair, Pippy (pretty), Teddytuddies (teletubbies), Disy (dipsy), tee (teeth) and my favourite, when a camera points at you, CHEESE!

It's wonderful that you're beginning to make yourself understood! Today you were grumpy about something and I asked you, what would you like? and you said 'GINK!" 30 seconds and some apple juice later and you were happy :-)

Youv'e become extremely sociable this month - you love to be held by other people and "chat" to them - it's all part of your love to be part of what 's going on! I am pleased that you're not super clingy! You will hold out your arms for people to hold you and you really love one of my friends, Vicky, who you call "Gicky".... it's so sweet, and if you see a blonde woman and think it's her you will point and say "Gicky?".

Sleep is still not much improved. You lack it. I lack it. You sleep with us, you like that. Tomorrow you have your appointment with the ENT clinic at Childrens Hospital and you will be scheduled for tubes for your ears. I'm nervous but hopeful that this will aid your sleep in terms of discomfort!

We are still nursing - we both like it and it's only at night now, and sometimes before an afternoon nap. I don't know when that will change, maybe if I get you to sleep through the night at some point!

Little girl you are so charming and sweet and you are adored by everyone around you. You giggle and smile all of the time ... you love hugs and kisses and 'loves', you LOVE to look "pretty" and have your hair brushed!! If I give you a brush you try to do it yourself, or to me. You love having bows in your hair! I am doing my best to ensure you're a girly girl :)

I love you sweetheart. I will never let you doubt that.

Mummy xxxx

Back to School

I think I am the only parent on the planet sad that school has started. So much for dreading the endless weeks of summer!!

We have had such a wonderful time this summer, it's been relaxing, fun, busy, sociable, etc etc. Every day has been filled with something fun to do and we've been on so many trips away..... Moses Lake, Dash Point, Lake Chelan, the big 'California Adventure', stops in Oregon, then later Bellingham and Orcas Island last weekend. We do have one more trip away next weekend at least. In between trips we had a great visit from Andrew, days out with friends, help from our babysitter enabling me to get a lot of things done around the house, and Tabitha finally settling into a lovely routine having a long fabulous nap in the middle of each day.

And now it's all come to an end (sob). The boys are back to school so my life has now instantly become an early rising lunch making snack packing papework dominated taxi service. Dylan has gone into 4th Grade - hard to believe! He is upstairs at school now (4th 5th and 6th are upstairs) so he feels very important. He likes his new teacher a lot and seems to be happy to be back. Harry has gone back to Montessori with a smile, settled straight back into it. We're also doing an extra morning activity at "Great Play", his favourite place to be in the world, and plan on expanding the amount of those that we do (finances permitting) so that his days get ever fuller.

Poor Tab is suffering with the new routine. Because I have to drop Harry off at noon she now can't have her nap when she needs to, so she is grumpy as hell and less than well rested. Tomorrow she has her appointment with the ENT at Childrens Hospital about getting her ear tubes.

I am blah with the whole school thing - I enjoyed having the monsters around and I miss them. I also enjoyed having things to do to fill the day other than drive between points A B & C.

PS I actually had a good birthday this year! We were camping and our friends surprised us by joining us first thing in the morning (instead of later that day) making the whole day really fun and special. G bought me the gift of all gifts - an Amazon Kindle which I am LOVING. We spent the day browsing the island, going out for dinner, being embarassed by waiters singing Happy Birthday to me, then getting very drunk and stealing firewood from other campers in the middle of the night. The next day we rented a motor boat and ran out of petrol and had to MAYDAY for rescue, LOL.