Long weekend

Today it's bankholiday here which meant we had  a long weekend. Still no sign of the Dude unfortunately. We won't give up hope just yet.

Oliver is going to be 10 months tomorrow! He's been now in the crèche for one month and he absolutely loves it. Mike said that in the morning, when he realises he's in the crèche car-park, he can't get out of the car fast enough to start his fun day!

They celebrated Halloween last wednesday and we got Oliver this cute costume

He was a little shark!! You see, his surname is Shark.ey so it was highly appropriate. I can't wait to see the pics they took in the crèche of all the babies.

He has been coughing for quite some time now, a dry annoying cough. We had a few other things we wanted to ask also. So I booked him in with our lovely paedi. Mike brought him to the appointment on friday. Cough is probably now due to reflux (diaphragm was irritated by the initial cough due to the cold and needs to settle back) but chest is clear. He had two red patches near his willy which seemed to be quite itchy for him. It turns out he has a bit of a fungal infection so we got treatment for it and he's already much better. The paedi checked his hearing once again. He flicked his nails and Oliver turned around immediately. He really believes there's no issue at all. Finally he noticed a very light heart murmur, but nothing to worry about (and he's a cardio-paedi! so I'm really relaxed about it).

Finally, yesterday Oliver had his first tumble. He fell from a couch at our friends'...Mike was sitting beside him and I could see it was a potentially dangerous situation as Oliver was standing on his legs and reaching for toys at the side of the couch...I told Mike (who was chatting and not really paying attention) to hold Oliver by a leg as he could fall. I won't rant too much abut his attitude lately when I point something out to him, but let's just say he didn't take my advice.Sure enough within two minutes Oliver plunged head first towards the floor. I grabbed him by a leg and lessen the fall...anyway, a big fright and a few bruises on the head, but thank God nothing serious. I hope Mike will treasure this for the future, you cannot take your eyes off of him one second!

I have downloaded our finished attic pics so I'll do a special post soon!

Finally, I have started a new blog for Ectopic Pregnancy Ireland. I'd love to feature your experience if you have been touched by an ectopic and list your blog if you blogged about it (I know a few of you have and thanks so much for allowing me to list your blog), so have a look at the blog and let me know what you think. Of course the idea is to create a support network for everyone out there...I know when I had my two ectopics, there was hardly anything and news, info and blogs were scattered. 

http://ectopicpregnancyireland.blogspot.com/

One week

It's one week the Dude is missing. No sign of him, though the food I left outside the door was gone when I came home last nigh. Torrential rain my I add. Apparently it was the worse rainfall for the last 100 years. That tells you something. But the food was definitely eaten and not washed away.

Also the Dude doesn't have a collar with a tag, as he's an indoor cat (unless he runs away!) but he is microchipped, so if found they would know it belongs to someone. Now, I also know the Dude is not the type of cat that will go into someone else's house, it's either freedom or back to where he knows he's loved I'm sure.

Big hugs to you all and thanks for the good thoughts and support.

18 Months ago, The Dude...

...run away at the age of almost 6 months trough the back french door that opens on the balcony.

Now, almost to the day, 18 months later he run away again. Through the front door. I really think the wild gene in him never left and I could see him always at the window or on the balcony as soon as I had the door open. But this time he run out when I opened the front door 3 days ago and went down the stairs. I put Oliver down and went after him straight away, I knew he as hiding in the bushes but refused to come out no matter how much bribing I was trying. When Mike came home he went looking for him again and no joy. He's not in the bushes any more. We have not seen him since.
The last time we found him (he didn't come back) 2 weeks later, very skinny and with an abscess on his back. This time I somehow don't think we'll find him unless he decides to come back. We are heading towards winter, it's cold and rainy. I just hope he is not going to get injured or sick. He's now much bigger (he's a huge cat) and stronger, but certainly not used to be outside.
So our original set of kitten is now gone. How very sad is that. We have the "replacement" cat with us, maybe that's the way it was always supposed to be, I don't know.

A book and a documentary

Last Saturday I was shopping in a local shopping centre and in one of the book shops I saw a comedian I really like (he would certainly be part of the Secret Celebrity Boyfriend lot) who was signing his newly published book. I din't think about it twice and got myself a signed copy. Of course in my head I had all these possible things I was going to say...needless to say I barely said my name. Yes, I get starstruck a lot.
The book was written after a documentary which aired at the beginning of the year about his father being diagnosed with terminal cancer and how that changed the family dynamics for the better. I finished the book within a few days (I got the flu for the first time in years!) and today I watched the documentary which the comedian just posted on youtube. I have to say I was so so moved by the whole thing I now like him even more. Of course when all this was happening in real life, I just had Oliver and didn't have much time for the telly, but I do remember Mike saying one evening that Des Bishop had put up a show called "My Dad was nearly James Bond" and that his dad came out on stage at the end of it. I recommend you have a look at it, you won't be disappointed!

Settling (baby) and relaxing (mamma)

We are at the end of the week. First week full time in the crèche and after the initial drama the care there has been fantastic. I got to know Wendy a bit more and she's a sweetheart with a very difficult situation at home, I really felt for her. On friday, I had another meeting with the manager. I really like her. Honest, upfront and hands-on. So she told me that a disciplinary action had been taken against both girls on duty on friday. I felt so so sorry for Wendy I tried my best to make sure she knew I thought she was great. And she did know, but could not ignore the infringement to the safety rules and we both hope Wendy will come out strong at the other and of the process. The second girl (Rebecca) was still on probation so her future in there is definitely less certain. The manager apologised on behalf of the girls and offered weekly meetings with me to make sure I had constant updates on how she was handling the situation. But honestly, I really think it was an unfortunate day on friday and I have no doubt Oliver is well cared for, so we left it that I will let her know immediately if I see something I'm unhappy with.

So we survived the first week of the new routine, I'm much happier and relaxed now!

Crèche update!

You girls are gems. And so are all my cyber friends who emailed and commented on the various boards I posted on while panicking like never before....

I slept very little and ate even less over the weekend, worrying sick about the week ahead and the what ifs. I looked up and contacted childminders and nannies just in case.

Yesterday morning we arrived at the crèche early and the manager talked to us immediately. It went quite well. She took full responsibility and was not bullshitting at all which I really appreciated. She said that the fact we had written a formal complaint made her job very easy, she'll get back to us with a full report on her investigation by the end of the week and she will fwd our complaint to the main management due to the severe breach in regulations. She assured us that the safety of our child (and all the children in the creche) is absolutely not a matter of personal attitude, that there are rules and her staff has to follow them. If they don't there are consequences. I felt better I have to say and she aslo said she's going to have Jennifer (a senior carer, the one who minded him for the first two days) in the room for a few days and she's planning to move a different carer into the room anyway as she acknowledge the girls lack motherly attitude towards the babies (they are all young girls).

During the day Mike and I called the creche a couple of times to see how things were going and we got always the manager talking to us first and then she would pass us on to Jennifer who was lovely. We were reassured throughout the day that all was well (of course they also said he was getting upset a bit at times which was totally normal to us and made it sound really genuine). When I picked Oliver up he had eaten all his dinner and slept for 1.5 hours in the afternoon (and was alive!!), he had just got up and was getting his nappy changed. You see, I still have this utter fear that Oliver may die in his sleep at the crèche (or anywhere in fact...I know...I'm working on it) and so for me the fact that they say they are checking on the sleeping babies every few minutes really put me at ease. Unless I of course think they are just saying this and in fact they don't do it at all which is what I thought on friday. But my heart melted at the care I saw yesterday. They asked me if I wanted to stay there and give him the bottle given that it was almost time for his feed. Wendy came up to me and showed me his diary and she was lovely (I know she'd been spoken to already by the manager and worried she may be upset with me, but if she was, she didn't show it at all). So again I completely changed my mind and actually thought it was al in my head on friday...Oliver was absolutely happy there watching the children and wanted to get off my lap to sit on the mat and play. I stayed there probably another half hour and the children were all relaxed and playing. Two of them were actually playing peeckaboo with pillows! They were just over 11 months! It was adorable!

Of course I spoke to the manger (who stayed with me all the time in the room) saying maybe I over-reacted and that the girls were in fact lovely. She said that one of them had been with them for 2.5 years, the feedback on her is always fantastic, but that in any case what happen to us on friday was horrible and not to happen again and that we'll still meet on friday and she'd tell me how it all went. There must have been something going on on friday (this is what I think now) and I was there when this first girl had just gone home and a second one was covering (the one who knew nothing about Oliver's day) so I had the impression of neglect while in all probability was just lack of communications between the girls.

Anyway, last night I slept finally and today I am much more relaxed!