babyblog

Poorly Tabby

This morning Tabby woke up crying and screaming and generally in a very grotty miserable state. She wanted to be held... I held her. When I put her down she'd scream, so I didn't put her down.

But then she wanted to go down, and when she got down she started to scream, so I picked her up again. This continued a few times until I realized and noticed that she was in serious pain every time she put pressure on her right knee / leg. She couldn't crawl, would start screaming in pain!

Convinced she'd somehow mysteriously broken her leg I rushed down to the Ped's office who kindly saw us immediately, but it turns out it is not broken thankfully, although she does have something I'd not heard of before called

TRANSIENT SYNOVITIS

http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/parents/special/bone/181.html

It's an inflammation of the hip joint which can occur in young kids, and can be a result of a viral infection (which she has been battling for a week).

It should feel better in a few days but in the meantime she can't bear weight on it!! WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?!

I also have to watch her for the more serious Septic Arthritis which presents similarly but she isn't feverish nor is it swollen so we hope it's not that.

Gym

Since we joined our new gym I've been going every day during the week. Until today I was doing cardio stuff, hopefully burning some fat bits.

It's been nice to put the kids in the daycare...... just to get an hour to myself! We've been every day for an hour or so and it's Tab's first experience of being away from me. She has coped extremely well with it so far although is starting to understand that Mummy will be leaving her and getting a little bit fussy, but the ladies in the daycare say that if they pick her up or play with her she cheers up immediately. I guess she needs to go through this bit of separation anxiety, poor lamb. Harry of course just runs off quite happily! Dylan is doing the kids fitness programme twice a week which he's enjoying.

Today I had my first personal training session (of 12) and she worked me really hard..... muscles are aching already! I had forgotten that once you overcome that 'I don't really feel like doing it' hurdle, followed by the 'I've been doing this for 10 mins, is it time to stop?' hurdle, you actually start to feel very good indeed.

2lb lighter already. Here's to another 25.

Definitely Done

The last time I nursed Tabby was Friday while she was feeling poorly..... she wasn't that interested. I guess we're done! I'm sad, in a way, because it'll be the last time I ever do it and I've really enjoyed the closeness with her...... but also it'll be nice to get my body back to myself.

I'm glad that we took it slowly & allowed her to gradually phase it out at her own pace. Much like the introduction of solid food she was the one dictating whether she was ready & it's really worked well for us. There has been no drama or trauma for either of us.

Meanwhile, she's taking a bottle of Alimentum (hypoallergenic formula) at bed time which she seems fine with in lieu of cows milk which still makes her poorly, and she is sleeping in her own room, and she is sleeping through the night! Hurrah for that - and it just proves to me that I didn't need to rush her into anything, that when she was ready, she would be ready and do it - and sho''nuff, she has!

New world order

We decided that as Tab has been sleeping with us for the last 16 months, that there is no point whatsoever in trying to move her into a crib now. She wakes too often, you can't get in with her to snuggle her back to sleep, she still needs cuddling to sleep, etc.

As her night wakings have become less frequent, we figured that it might be a good idea to buy her 'big girl bed' so that we can cuddle her to sleep in her own room, then sneak out (much the same as we've been doing in our room), then if she does wake at night we can go in & settle her by getting in with her. Makes sense...... and we get our bed back.

Anyway - I wanted something beautiful and girly, and that's what she got!

We put a rail on to keep her in at night

She likes it :o)

Anyway, we put her to bed in there last night. She woke very briefly at 3.30 but G went in to her and re-settled her! So I slept ALL NIGHT in MY BED with NOBODY KICKING ME or feeding!! Wooooooohooooooooo!!!

Of course now I'm thinking maybe I have nursed her for the last time - as the only time she was feeding was during the night? I don't know how I feel about that!

At the drugstore..

We were queuing up to pay and a rather unpleasant odour began emanating from the direction of Tabitha's bottom.

I mentioned, quietly, that we needed to change her.

Harry overheard, and grabbed a bag of Christmas scented pine cones from the stand near him and shouted, at the top of his voice

MAYBE WE COULD SHOVE THESE PINE CONES UP HER ARSE?

G & I about died of embarassment, meanwhile everyone around us cracked up!

Boys

So Harry has always been my easy going loving little boy, full of energy & fun, smiles and laughter. Recently, though, he's become a 'Daddy's boy' to the point where he doesn't want me, he wants dad, he says daddy is his best friend and not mummy, and he will wipe off any kisses I give him! I know it's just a silly phase but I am SO SAD by this! It's crazy how hurt I feel! I hope this phase passes soon? I am the one with him all day.... maybe that's why, I'm the one doing any disciplining? He's never really required disciplining until quite recently - he's always been so good - but he's doing a lot of feet stamping and refusing things right now. I can usually count him down from 5 to get him to behave (I have no idea what he thinks will happen if we get to 1?) but he gets really overwrought. I guess it's just the 'fucking fours'.

Dylan has been off sick with a virus for the last few days. He threw up, then had a fever for a couple of days, then a really sore throat. He slept in Tabitha's new bed so that I could keep him close. Unfortunately he now wants to sleep upstairs again! Poor guy, I HATE that he is downstairs all alone. HATE IT. He likes the TV and freedom down there but I know he wishes he was close to us. Bah.

Tabitha - 15 months

Dear Tabby Tots - you're now 15 months old. Infact you're about 15 and a half months old but I'm late writing this update!

This month was all about watching your emotions develop and mature. You are so much more emotional than the boys were as babies. When something was taken from them, or they were told 'no', they might cry because they were fed up about it. With you, you cry because we have hurt your feelings! It is so adorably sad to watch your little face crumple and as a result we are finding we have to be so much more careful how we deal with things!

You are still not walking as I write this but you are inching your way around furniture and love to do so. You will walk with hands held on to me or take a few steps pushing a toy around so I don't think it will be long now!

We've been spending a lot of time on our boat this month and you LOVE it. You absolutely adore the wind in your hair and the movement along the water. You snuggle up to me and smile or close your eyes and take a nap. So cute!

You are obsessed with looking 'pretty' and you love your hair to be brushed! You finally have enough hair to scrape into little tiny pig tails, 'piggies' as Harry calls them, and while they don't stay in long they are soooooooooooo cute!

Since the ear tubes were put in, your sleeping has improved. We have started to give you a bottle at night so that you're not tied to my boobs any longer. It's a bottle of Alimentum which you don't love and play with, but don't seem to mind not being breastfed to sleep. You still require cuddling! The only feed you really have now is sometime in the middle of the night when you wake if something inevitably disturbs you - Daddy coming to bed late or Harry going to the bathroom or similar. And you only feed for a few seconds before turning over & going back to sleep. So it's not too bad really. We have just bought your 'big girl furniture' and plan on starting you in your 'big girl bed' shortly..... I hope that you will sleep longer as you will not be disturbed, but I will still be able to climb in with you if necessary :-)

Love you my little princess, you are adorable, funny, sweet and loving & loved so very much by us all.

Mummy xxx

An 'eventful' weekend!

We set out on Friday lunchtime to go to Lake Chelan for the weekend to take the boat down the 50 mile lake to Stehekin, a tiny village only accessible by boat or small plane.

We got as far as Monroe, about 15 miles away, and our friend radioed from his car behind us and casually asked "Dude what's that smoke coming out of your car?"

We looked around and sure enough, saw smoke. We immediately pulled over & discovered transmission fluid all over the road. Obviously this was not good. Being us, our first reaction was 'lets call a tow truck and meanwhile go and fetch Gs crappy pickup truck to pull the caravan and continue on our vacation'. Never mind the fact that Gs truck had never pulled the caravan.

Our friend took me back to fetch the truck while G waited for the tow truck. It arrived & G sent the car to Pete, the owner of the garage down the hill from our house that we're very familiar with, and we attached the pickup to the caravan, put Harry into our friends car, settled Dylan & Tabitha into the back of the truck, and continued on our way having only lost an hour.

We made it over Stevens Pass, scary mountain road, and discovered that the truck actually feels a lot more capable than the GMC does, you can pull it without really knowing it's there instead of feeling like you're hauling bricks.

Over the other side of the pass we stopped for gas. G started filling up the truck and our friend wandered over and casually said "Dude, what are those flames coming out of your truck?". G ran back and discovered all the lights were on fire and the electrics completely shot and melted. WHILE we were filling up with gas! G disconnected the lights.

Being us, we decide to continue on the journey without lights or brake lights or indicators with our friends behind to shelter any innocent vehicles from running into the back of us, and hope that we got there before dusk. We then discover that G has sent his wallet back with the Denali and has no license with him - it's illegal to drive in WA without a license in your possession and given the zillions of other laws we were breaking we decide it's not a good idea for him to be behind the wheel - so I have to drive. Great. While driving through the next town we get a radio message from our friend "be right with you, someone just ran into the back of the boat". Thankfully there was no damage.

We make it to the camp site minutes before dusk and set up camp. Despite the warning signs we are determined to have a great weekend. The next morning we wake up to a cold but sunny & crisp day and being us, decide that it is a good idea to take our unreliable boat 50 miles down an uninhabited lake. We bundle up warm and set off, the wind freezing our faces off despite multiple layers of clothing. It is fun if arctic, and the lake and scenery are stunning. We took the Sat Nav with us to know how we were progressing and we were very relieved after 2 hours, to find ourselves half a mile from Stehekin - we had made it! We decide to ease off on the gas and approach more slowly and more relaxed, and the boat conks out.

We decide we've run out of gas & we fill from the emergency jerry can. But the boat will not start. At all. We try and try and after 45 mins we finally get it going and limp into the Stehekin dock. Friend & I suggest that maybe we find a boat person to look at the engine but the men say "it'll be fine, we'll just fill up & give it a break". They drive the boat to the gas pump and fill up, meanwhile my friends daughter drops her teddy in the water and it floats off to much hysteria. After getting gas the boat will not start again. Dylan helps our friend push the boat off from the dock to try to start it and he has quite an audience of people wondering what kind of idiots we are using this rubbish boat to come this far. After pushing off he comes within inches of crashing into the passenger ferry which is waiting there, earning himself some major abuse from the ferrymen. They pull the boat in to moor and we go for lunch.

We come back from lunch and manage to get the boat started so we load in and thankfully it runs, so we set off for another 50 mile run back to the campsite. We freeze to death again but it runs so we're happy. We overtake the ferry on the way back and wave merrily to the ferrymen who we can imagine cursing us under their breath.

Half a mile from the campsite dock, the boat inevitably conks out again. We row to shore.

Next day, I have to drive home with no lights or indicators. Stress. We put the kids in our friends car so that it's less stressful, I was particularly scared of Stevens Pass. We use the radio to signal that we're braking to them behind. We drive, tense, and stop at the same gas station to fill up before going up Stevens Pass. Dylan and Harry both get out of their car and throw up. They both want mummy. They end up coming into the truck so we now have two sick boys on our hands as well!

We get up to the summit of Stevens Pass and I nervously attempt the descent, cliff edge to the right, SNOW & ICE on the road. I am going very slowly with brakes at all times as the trucks brake controller giving braking to the caravan doesn't work. As I hit a hairpin with a CLIFF DROP beside me, and apply the brakes gently, the truck locks up and the caravan kicks out behind me, dangerously close to the edge. I become hysterical. G shouts at me to pull over but there is nowhere to stop so I must keep going, frightened to death. Thankfully the boys are both asleep.

I make it down through tears. We then finally and thankfully make it home.

The car needs an entire new transmission but apparently it's covered by warranty. The truck needs $1000 worth of repairs. We now have a rental car and omg, what a weekend!

Migraine news

For the first time in living memory, I didn't get a migraine this month.

My migraines are cycle related. I've always had them every month. Always. And they have knocked me flat for at least 2 days. On top of that, since Tabitha was born, I've had mega PMS symptoms of feeling odd, strange, not right, wired somehow, tense, etc.

Anyway - I have rather stupidly gone at fixing them in 2 different ways and I now don't know which way worked!

Step 1 was to start taking Amitryptiline which has really made me feel AWFUL for the last month. Tired. Exhausted. No energy to even do the grocery shopping. It has, however, cured me of all back pain.

Step 2 was to start the natural estrogen alternative that the Naturopath gave me called Phytogen. I took it twice a day for a week prior to my period. It tasted like absolute ARSE, vomit inducing even (why oh why didn't I opt for the casules?).

Anyway - period came and went with no headache, no PMS, no nothing.

Which one cured it?

I am hoping it was the estrogen replacement. Arse tasting or not, it didn't make me feel like a zombie, and it's not medicine.

I see the new GP tomorrow so I'm going to tell him I don't want to take this amitriptyline anymore and we'll see how that works next month.