Not so good first birthday

We went away for Easter, rented a cottage in the west of Ireland, absolutely fabulous and we were blessed with sunny and balmy days! Children had a blast, we had a very friendly horse in the filed attached to our back yard, and the farmland we were on had cows and calves and not a car or another house that could be seen for miles all around.

Mike took part in an adventure race which consisted in 16km cycling, 13 km run and 16 more km cycling all up and down a hill. It was tough but he did very well (considering he barely had any training!) and we met up with friends which was lovely.

Martina took her first steps on Easter Sunday, she was so excited! Definitely knew she had done something special and really wanted to keep trying!

But then on sunday night she started feeling not so well, very clingy, felt warm (but I had not brought a thermometer, so not sure how warm she was) we gave her paracetamol and she ended up sleeping in our bed as the only way she was happy was attached to me. 

We drove back on monday and she got sick in the car, we were stuck in traffic, it took ages to get home and by then we knew she caught some sort of a bug and her temperature spiked close to 40 C. Not good. Tuesday during the day she was ok, no temp but not in great form, coughing and sneezing and rapid breathing, off her food etc. As the evening came, so did the temperature and we were back up to 39.8 and sort of hovering around 39 even with ibuprofen. I took this pic a few minutes before midnight on tuesday thinking this is not going to be a very happy birthday for the little girl.

A trip to the doctor on wednesday confirmed it is a viral infection, we got the prescription for an antibiotic in case she doesn't get better within a couple of days, but chest sounded clear and nothing major was seen in her throat and ears. We attempted a mini party with a cake in the evening but it wasn't really worth it as she didn't eat at all. 

By that time Oliver started complaining that his tummy wasn't feeling so good and that he was cold. So he came down too with high temp and cough etc. 

Today Martina is a better, no temp all day and even now that we put her to bed she was in the normal range, but last night we had a couple more spikes near 40 C which scared me quite a bit. 

So hopefully with the weekend the children will be back to good form and we are doing our best not to catch it too!

10 month old update

Oh man, we were sick with the flu complicated by a strep throat infection. Both Mike and I are on antibiotics, that didn't make for a fun week let me tell you! But now we are all well, the children escaped it somehow so at least it's just us having to recover.
My periods seems to have settled on a 21-23 days in length which is a real pain, mostly for the pool. Thankfully this time it coincided with being sick so I would not have been able to go swimming anyway. I will start again tomorrow.

Martina is 10 months old today, she has been teething non stop since her first tooth not even a month ago, she has 4 through and a 5th one nearly there, the poor chicken can't get a bit of a break, but at least then they'll be out and we can move on.

Both herself and Oliver went for their developmental check 10 days ago, and all is well. She is crawling at speed now, with a straight leg in front of her (quite funny to watch) and gives the impression she is going to stand up an walk instead. I'd say it wont be long.
We finally moved her into her room on friday, two days shy of ten month as our room-mate, but what can I tell you, she is still waking once at least, it was just unthinkable to do it when she was up 3/4 times a night. She seems to love her room and for us it's nearly strange not to have to tip toe when we go to bed.

Oliver is my big boy, I have started changing a bit my way of relating to him (I was a bit short fused for a while and threats were my way of getting him to to things), we spend much more quality time together, including going to the pool just the two of us at weekends and it is really helping building trust and recognising boundaries. I am proud of myself and really really proud of him too.

I am also doing well, still haven't started with the new therapist (very difficult to match her schedule with mine and she is very busy), I'll see her in just over a week, very curious about it. The chiropractor has given me a new life for sure, I am so so happy, now I'm going to see him every 10 days or so and then it'll be once a month for maintenance. I'm stil keeping a diary for headaches and general feelings, it really helps to notice how long I now go without a headache. Long may it last!

Progress

Progress on all fronts.
Thank you so much for your love and support in my last post. I do feel a bit better, blood tests came back and after an initial bout of anxiety (a couple of hormones are below normal) I remembered among my friends who are doctors I have an endocrinologist and so I called in a favour for his opinion. He was great and very reassuring, he believes there is nothing wrong with my sight and/or hypophysis and that really the GP was just being extra careful. As you know some part of me still thinks something will shop up in the scan on wednesday but I'm taming that thought. Also after a few more days of headaches and the like I got my period, 21 days long. And then the headache is gone and the eye is back to normal. Go figure.

I did stick to my plan though and contacted the psychotherapist I did the mindfulness course with and she saw my on thursday. I was already a bit better but seeing her really helped. She gave me some tools to use, one for example is to give the state of anxiety a name, so when I feel those thoughts appearing I can tell myself straight away "oh there's my darkness lurking" or whatever I felt like calling it. I called it Johnny. Because you know, it'll sound like "Heeeere's Johnny!" a la Jack Nicholson in The Shining when out of his mind was axing through the bathroom door! I thought I could do with a bit of a laugh. And it's working. Seriously. Another very important tip is to be aware this anxiety is not my full self, but just one part of me, that I have to acknowledge but not allow to take over, the key is to stop the feeding mechanism that fuels the anxiety which triggers the physical response (say tight chest) which then goes back to the amigdala which fires the alarm signals of imminent danger, anxiety and back to the beginning. Hopefully it'll get me through the next few days.

Martina was nine month old on thursday and on friday she slept for the first time through the night. Not a peep from her for 12 hours. Unbelievable. Tonight she has cried already so I won't be counting my chickens yet. But it's major progress, even if it's one night occasionally, we are totally regenerated. And her first tooth cut through just yesterday!

Oliver definitely seems to favour speaking Italian with me even if we are outside, at the creche or in a generally English speaking environment, and he is very good, fluent really, and very funny. He is still super cuddly and love hugs and kisses, does that to Martina more often than not and she is in awe, he can do no wrong to her eyes, it's really sweet to watch! Have a look at one of his funny faces (before the haircut last night!).

Settling into a new routine

We are back since last tuesday night. I realised I didn't mention that Oliver is no longer going to his old creche, we took him out for the whole month of December as we were going to Italy, initially thinking he would go back in January and Martina would join him in February, but then a few things happened over the last few months (change in management, massive staff turnover, lots of confusions about moving rooms, a bully in his room, and finally the last of the carers we knew from the beginning also decided to quit) that made us decide it was time for a change. When we had the original induction in the creche, things didn't really go smoothly and on that occasion I had contacted the sister of one of my PhD students who owned a creche very near our home, she was great but had no space available and then things just improved in the place and we left it at that. Anyway, I contacted her again in October given our cooling feelings for the hold place and incidentally she had two places starting in January, one for Martina and one for Oliver! I went to see the creche straight away and oh my God what a difference! It is a much smaller place of course, but the outdoor space is massive, very well cared for and the children rooms are in little individual wooden houses. The best thing is that the carers have been there for many many years (the two in the baby room they have been there for 15 and 17 years!) and the place feels extremely settled. Another nice thing is that this place is up on the hills, about 2.5km from our home, not really on the way to work but at this stage that doesn't matter. The views from the gardens over the city are stunning, the road to get to the creche is a country side lane, I don't think I ever crossed another car, very very quiet, and fairy tale style really. To add to this, the rates are cheaper and would you believe it, they offer a service of school pick ups when the children go to school!! They collect them, bring them back to the creche, feed them and have their homework done by the time you go and take them home. Phenomenal service.
So I brought both children in for a couple of hours on Wednesday, they both loved it, and by the time it was friday they were in full time. Martina slept easily there and Oliver loves the fact that he can go and see her if he wants. We couldn't be happier, they are safe, they have a great time and lots of love from very experienced (mother-type) carers. So that is one thing sorted for good.

Another update is that both Mike and I feel we have to get back in shape, we are not overweight by any means, but we are not fit at all anymore. I will join the college gym in February and Mike deiced to start training for an adventure race which will take place in April. We can do it. By the time I'm 40 in September, I want to be happy about myself again. This is my new year resolution.

MIL is doing better, it was touch and go for a while and I was worried sick about her, but after a bit of a confrontational conversation with her doctors (I was NOT impressed with the level of care), things started improving a bit. On friday we had a family meeting and I was shocked to hear that the survival rate after a double leg amputation at 12 month is only 30%....let's hope she is in that 30%.

Martina has just today started crawling a little bit, but she much prefers standing which meant we had to lower the mattress in her cot. Her sleep is a bit better, some nights we only have to get up once for a feed. We hope to move her into her room by the end of the month.

Better go now, I'll try and post a bit more often, hope you are all well.

7 months update

Today Martina is 7 month old! The major thing she has achieved is sitting up on her own! She still needs help to get to the sitting position but other than that she is fairly stable.

For the last four nights her sleep has been much better. All of a sudden she only wakes up twice a night. This would have happened in the past but only for two nights in a row at the most, so I wasn't really keeping my hopes up this time, but for now it seems she is on a good stretch. She wakes around 11 pm (give or take 30 minutes) and drains her bottle. The she wakes around 4 (give or take 30 minutes) for another feed and then she is settled till 7-7.30! Wohoo I'm optimistic we'll soon be able to move her into her room. We have not done this yet because her room is attached to Oliver's and while he sleeps soundly, her crying will definitely wake him up with a shared wall. I'm planning to do it the week I'm back from Italy just before Christmas, Oliver will stay back with my parents till we all get back together on the 23rd. Did I tell you already about our plans? I'll fly solo with the two children on the 3rd of December (and there is no direct flight, have to stop over in Hamburg..) then Martina and I will come back to Dublin for a week and then Mike will fly back to Italy with us on the 23rd. The whole family will come back to Dublin on the 7th of January. Wow, even writing it down is tiring! Let's hope Oliver will be on his best behaviour on the first leg of the journey.

Martina eats happily practically everything she is given, I will stop pureeing her food and just mash it to introduce texture. I don't think it'll be a problem given how she chews pasta!

Mike brought her to the 7 month check up on wednesday and she is 8 kg and 68.5 cm long! She is a long baby and is flying through her clothes.

Have you guys watched Breaking Bad? I had totally missed out and going though the series now. Love it!! Jesse is my latest celebrity crush...what can I tell you...

6 months old

Little Martina is not so little anymore and turned 6 months old yesterday!

Almost sitting up unaided she is a very active girl let me tell you. Our nanny is brilliant and I am really relaxed when Martina is with her. Though I leave very early in the morning, Mike tells me that she is arriving always a few minutes early, and when I go back home in the afternoon I get a full report of the day. She is sleeping quite well during the day and for the last three nights we have seen an improvement too! She is eating all that's given to her and she is still very happy to breast feed a few times a day/night.
Tomorrow is friday already and my first week in work has literally flown by. At this rate I'm afraid that if I close my eyes for two minutes I'll miss Christmas! One week down and 5 to go, I think the major difficulty I have is that my brain is not fully in gear yet (or I'm having early onset of dementia!) so I have to dedicate a little longer to review lecture material before going into a class and given that I teach 3 classes at different levels in different days and with complete different curriculum, I appreciate the quiet time in the morning before anyone comes into work.

Back from Italy, 20 weeks old, Tracy Hogg

We are back! Flying with the children is fine, so much so that I'm going to go solo with them in December when I'll be off work! And that flight will actually be 2 as I have to go through Hamburg...let's hope for the best.

Our time in Italy was great, Oliver slept with no problems thankfully which made his mood and overall enjoyment of the weather superb.

Clarissa, Oliver and Martina

Martina on the other hand...does not sleep through the night at all, wakes generally between 11.30 and 1 am, then again around 4 and then at 6...not good. At least I now have her in bed by 8.30-9.00 consistently which is something. During the day she can somewhat successfully fall asleep in the stroller (morning and lunchtime) but she cries. I can count on one hand the times that she just fell asleep on her own without crying. It's hard. I'm resisting latching her on during the day for naps (but still do at night time) or we'll never come out of that and I'm going back to work in 6 short weeks...She still cat-naps but I'm working on it, mostly because I know she is not well rested after only 40 minutes.
An update on the tongue-tie. My friend the surgeon doesn't think she has it at all, and when in Italy my parents insisted we brought the children to a peady there (you know...the best in the city, yadayadayada) as Martina was still coughing and my dad was convinced Oliver's knees were converging too much. I want to add that I believed Oliver's legs were physiological and that Martina's chest was clear as we had them both already checked out. Just in case you think we are careless parents too.... Of course we were told by the super paedy exaclty the same things we knew already and he confirmed too that Martina has no tongue tie that can affect bfeeding. In the last few days I have started feeding her again without the shields but being consistent with putting on the lanolin and so far so good. She has also started solids very slowly at lunch time which means we skip a feed and all seems to be going well. She is 20 weeks old today and she is rolling over (back to front and occasionally the other way around too), weighed in at 6.2kg at 19 weeks and is 63 cm long. Very sturdy, I can believe she is "only" 20 weeks old and she looks about 6 month old for alertness and interaction.

 At the table with papà last night

"Reading" a soft book in her bouncer this morning

As of yesterday I have started applying the Tracy Hogg method for Martina's daytime naps...so far Martina is winning...

Three month check and other craziness

Martina was 3 months old yesterday and in an amazing promptness the district nurse came over today for her check up. She is doing great, weight 3.35 kg, 59cm and right around the 50% growth chart. I wasn't worried one bit, she can lift her head easily when on her tummy, smiles, cooes, follows you with her eyes etc. She feeds well, I cannot say we have a schedule because we don't, nights are ok most of the time when she wakes up once for feeding and then goes back to sleep. During the day she is happy if she is held...which has my back in bits and mostly I can't do much at all. She may sleep for a whole 10 minutes if I put her down (asleep) in her swing chair and we have to start over. This is not ideal of course, but what can I do? She is looking more and more like her brother, have a look at this two pics, Oliver was 3 months and 3 weeks old, and below is Martina just the other day! I love that pic of Martina, looks to me like one of those ads for baby food or something.

Here is Martina and Oliver together

They make my heart smile!

And now for your joy, here are some of the craziness on my part. Remember I have convinced myself that I have some terminal disease but that I was working on snapping out of it and see if my symptoms would just go away? Well, not so easy. I went eventually to the doctor last tuesday, feeling half silly and completely well at that point. Explained I have been having this upset stomach for about ten days now and that I was worried I may have stomach cancer...she laughed it off, visited me, and said it was probably a bit of extra acidity and had I changed anything in my diet. I had actually, I started back drinking coffee (espresso) after lunch after years of not doing so and to improve my milk supply I was also taking every day an herbal mix definitely overdoing the doses and simmering times. she said to stop and see how I felt. I felt better for a couple of days and then the nagging sensation was back on sunday. It's on and off, I constantly think about it with all the dark thoughts that come with it. Of course it doesn't have to be stomach cancer, can be pancreas too or liver...in my head they are all deadly anyway so no real difference. And today I caved in. I called a friend of mine who is a doctor working in a hospital here and explained all that I have just told you. I said I wanted a scan or I would just go crazy with fear. He of course reassured me as he said it's much more likely anxiety and post-natal hormones but also said he will organise a letter for me so that I can go to one of the local centres and get it done. So there you have it, I'm a classic hypochondriac. Let's just hope we will be able to laugh about this in a short while.

Auntie Fran

My niece was born this morning around 4am. Mum and baby are doing well, I can't believe my sister is a mamma too! They called the baby Clarissa and she is the cutest little thing. I hope to meet her very soon.

In other news I'm 33w3d today and yesterday I had my check up. Phoenix is doing well and growing! Blood flow through the cord is good and everything looks fine. I had another puking incident yesterday morning, so strange, I just had a glass of water with my vitamins and it came all back up...

Big thing to record here is that Oliver has been sleeping in his big boy bed since last friday night. It is still taking a bit of time to settle (keeps getting out of the room) but we have started applying again the method of the controlled crying keeping the door closed and it's getting better every day. We are already back to normal going to bed time. He may get up once as he loses his soother and can't find it in the bigger bed, so I have a reserve one which I promptly give him and he goes back to sleep. The move to the big room has been paralleled by the arrival in the bed by his new best cuddly toy "Baa Baa" alias Shaun the Sheep with which he's now totally in love! Of course the fact that his new duvet is made with the wool from Baa Baa makes it almost magic...

Mindfulness is going really well, though I have to admit this week I have not been too persistent with the exercises...but I really like it and keep it up. I will have a dedicated post to it soon I promise! Same as I'll post pics of the kitchen as soon as Mike has finished with the details!

28 weeks milestone

I didn't get to update last week, I've been a bit under the weather and really really overwhelmed with lecturing and lab supervision. By the time it was thursday I had nearly lost my voice altogether, nagging cold, a bit of cough, the works.

Thankfully the pregnancy seems to progress just fine, I have gained half a kilo since last week (after  a few weeks of no weight gain at all) and I'm at +9Kg which I'm very happy with. Plenty of movements throughout the day (and probably night too, but I can't tell) and I think my belly had a bit of growth since the last pic, so I'm posting the progress here.

I have 4 more weeks of very heavy teaching, I really hope I didn't take on more than I can handle...I actually took friday off (meaning I worked from home) to take it a bit easier. Friday is the only day I don't teach and I have no labs. Anyway, I know by the end of next week I'll be half way through and it will feel great!

Oliver is doing very well, chatting more and more, somehow he realised he can now push the bed from the wall and get down...this afternoon Mike was out and I was handling nap time....I totally lost my cool I have to admit, couldn't manage to properly block those damn wheels, after an hour of up and down etc and me physically blocking the door (it's a sliding door, can't do much to keep it close) finally Mike came back and fixed the bed. Thing is we are heading off to a birthday party in half an hour and he will have slept about 45 minutes, half than his usual time. Not good.

No sign of the bedroom arriving, it should have been 3 weeks since placing the order and that happened before Christmas. No update on where we are at either. Very frustrating. Similar thing with the kitchen slight modification we'd like to do, it's dragging on forever. I have the feeling it'll be like when Oliver was born and the attic project, everything done about a day before the arrival...

Anyway, better get ready to go to the party (it's a 2 year old!).

20 down 20 (more or less) to go!

I wanted to thank you for the kind words on my last post, funnily since I wrote it I had a couple of days with plenty of movements (and quite strong I have to say) which made me feel great. Then today not so much. So back into uneasiness (if not anxiety). But today is a good milestone and I took the post I wrote at the same time when i was pregnant with Oliver as it is a nice way to record feelings etc about the pregnancy. So here it goes!

How Far Along: 20 weeks

Total Weight Gain: happy to say I'm up 6kg while with Oliver I was up a whopping 11kg!

Maternity Clothes: yes, can't really wear anything else and my wardrobe is quite limited! (unchanged! as per the original post)

Symptoms: I feel well, I'm not swollen which is a big plus, but I find going up the stairs (with or without holding Oliver) is tiring. My nose is a bit blocked but apparently I am not snoring like the first time around. Occasional headaches. Boobs are one size up (DD) and had to buy new bras. Sex drive is GOOD!

Stretch marks: I have not noticed any new ones!

Sleep: I’m sleeping ok, getting up once or twice to pee and occasionally I may have to get up if Oliver cries but thankfully this is rarer and rarer. Occasionally I have to have a very early night, like I can be in bed by 9pm and it feels great.
Best Moment of the Week: Mike feeling Phoenix moving. We are definitely ahead on this milestone this time around.
Movement: I feel movements every day now, but the frequency can be very very different. I think it's definitely more defined than at the same stage with Oliver, but for the moment afternoon and evenings are the most active times while the morning can be totally quiet.

Food cravings: not really anything in particular, but definitely sweet things of all sorts, preferably chocolate based. (unchanged! as per the original post)

Gender: Don't know! We think we may go for a surprise! Feeling strongly it's another boy!
What I Miss: Nothing at all, I wouldn't trade this for anything.
What I'm Looking Forward To: Honestly? Having Phoenix here with us. Everything in between is a mix of anxiety and what ifs. (unchanged but for the name! as per the original post)
Weekly Wisdom: Let go of things I cannot control.
Milestones: Half way through the pregnancy! Unbelievable, this time around it absolutely flew by.
Emotions: doing well I think, but I am less patient though I'm trying really hard not to be. If I feel anxious about the pregnancy I listen to Phonix heartbeat which is averaging in the mid 130 (Oliver was 150 at this stage).Upcoming Appointments: Anatomy scan on wednesday, please please please let it all look good.

That's it for now, will post a new belly pic to show the growth since week 15!

Progress

You know the way toddlers will imitate what you say, trying to sound the same? Well as of yesterday we had a few cute things to report. No, no words that we can understand yet, but this is better.

First he now puts one hand to his hear a makes a sound that's like "hello?" and so we have endless fun pretending to make phone calls.
He shakes his hand and says "hu hu" (no no) when he knows he shouldn't do something (and yet...)
He points at the light, at Carlito and at Mike when asked the question "where is....?" in either language. No, mamma is not in the picture apparently!
But the absolute cherry goes to the fact that he now can imitate sneezes!! It's really funny to see and he has a great time doing it (with the head movement and all!). We have it on tape too!

I thought I had to make a post of this for future laughs!

Another week

Friday already! Can you believe it? We had a bit of a rough week, Oliver got sick at the weekend and eventually we went to the emergency doc has his temperature was quite high, he was crying a lot and no sleep at all. The verdict was a very inflamed throat and so we had a light antibiotic to make sure no secondary infection was setting in. He was much better within a couple of days. I stayed home with him till Tuesday and though this never happened before I found it so difficult to go back to work on Wednesday!! Mike came down with the same flu about monday evening so I had two to look after. I seem to have escaped the worse of it though I'm getting a cold just now...

Oliver is making steady progress with cruising, still needs at least one hand to walk but every wall, table or chair is a great "walking aid" for him. His new love is going up the stairs with me or Mike holding his hands and he goes up one full step at the time! Of course for him the steps are as high as his thighs so it's a big effort!We also got some locks for cupboards in the kitchen, mostly where I keep detergents as he seems really curious about that specific press! I bought him his first pair of "real" shoes which are very flexible and soft but will help his stability, in the shop the assistant actually took a pic of Oliver and frame it for us as a big milestone! One thing I liked is that they measured also the width of his foot (both!) to make sure they model was a perfect fit. He loves  wearing them.

I'm still very excited about our trip to the US and delighted I may be meeting even more bloggers! I have not decided yet when I'm going to the East Coast, and of course I don't have to go to Boston directly, could go to New York and have a couple of days there and meet a few more bloggers! So all is possible.

One final thing, I noticed that those blogs that are using the "word verification" thingy when you comment have now a new version of it, if possible even more annoying where you have to type two words which are often illegible! Do you guys get that many spam comments? I removed that check a while ago and eliminated the option for anonymous comments and never had a problem! I read a great post a few months back about how useless that feature is and how it limits comments (if you read from your phone for example), so I invite you to give it a go and see how it goes without it!

Have a great weekend you all. 

Some pics

I finally managed to download the latest pics from Mike's camera. Unfortunately we have none of his first birthday cake and his first haircut! Bohooo!! You'd wonder why that is...well, we do have video-clips but no pics. I'll have to look at how to get single shots out of the camcorder.

Some updates first. Oliver got another upper tooth and a fourth one is almost through! He has moved to the Wobbler room in the crèche and loves it, the new carers are lovely and he was rejoined with a couple of children who were for a while with him in the baby room. And of course Cian is with him too! Our first week back was...tiring as expected but thankfully Oliver is back to a good sleeping routine which is great. We decided to split the nights if he wakes up. One night I get up all the time and the next one Mike does it, otherwise if we both get up we are both really tired the next day and there's no point.

On a very sad note, I only found out at the weekend that Megan, a cyber-friend I followed lost her battle to cancer last November. I was so saddened by the news, she leaves behind her husband and their lovely triplets conceived via FET when her cancer was in remission 2 years ago. The news was posted in Lost and Found but I had missed it. She was inspirational with her approach to life and she fully enjoyed it despite the disease and was not afraid to die. My thoughts and prayers to her family.

 Christmas Eve with my grandmother and my sister

 Family pic

 First taste of chocolate!

 Trying on mamma's skiing helmet. Next year darling!

 With my parents on the skiing trip, it was his birthday!

Eleven

My baby is eleven month old today! Still no teeth! He is now pulling himself to standing on anything that seems stable enough, crawling better on all four and almost no commando style. He has a friend in the crèche from whom he's picking up a lot of funny expressions! He has a very cute way of wrinkling his nose now when he's very happy about something and making a peculiar breathing sound. He started clucking a couple of days ago, still loves the bath and he's sleeping very well through the night (though he's started complaining when put down to bed). No words yet as such, but making lots of cute sounds and exploring new syllables. He's also very affectionate, laughs a lot (specially if tickled!) and when at home Carlito is his best friend. Below three of my favourite pics!

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/

Induction day 2 and 3. Failed hearing test. Meltdown.

I'm in a terrible state. It's going to be a long post.

Thursday started with a re-failed hearing test for Oliver. Ok now I was getting a bit worried. The nurse said they'll make a note for the doctor and she'll check him too in the afternoon. Oliver's second day at the crèche for 2 hours seemed to be much better, when I went picking him up, he was fast asleep (had just fell asleep), apparently had played all morning and Jennifer (sort of room supervisor) was so so caring I felt he was in the best place possible and that he would have settled in no time. The doctor visit in the afternoon was absolutely fine for development, weight and hight, he's well above the 50 percentile and not a bother. But the hearing test was failed for the third time. The doctor was not that thorough, kinda rushed it and said she was writing a referral for a more specialised screening and that in any case it was something very mild. Come again? Are we talking about a mild hearing loss? Maybe. Not sure. Don't worry it's nothing. Seriously?? Don't worry?? Me??? Obviously I do worry, I read a lot since on the fact that the neonatal screening may fail to pick up minor hearing problems, what if my little one can't hear well? We know he can hear us talking, calling him etc, but we'll have to look a bit more into this. As I got home I called the paed office and left a message. He called back this morning and was so so reassuring. The test they did to him was totally archaic, 80% of the children apparently fail it and are referred to a specialist who will do a proper test, check the baby's ears for wax or fluids and generally it's all ok. The doctor didn't even bother looking into his ears but the paediatrician agrees that it's very likely nothing. Probably some fluids, or teething, or a bit of cold, or tiredness, you name it. Anyway, if I'm worried to anticipate our appointment but he really thinks there's no need to do anything.

Breathing a little better.

I brought Oliver back to the creche this afternoon for his final induction. 3 hours. He was fed and had slept plenty in the morning. I got there on time and the first thing I was surprised was to see only one girl in the baby room. There were two babies on the mat and she was writing notes on a spreadsheet. Her name is Wendy and looks like 20 something. I asked her if there were only those two babies or of some were asleep. She said a few were asleep in the cot room but that one wasn't sleeping (we could hear him through the intercom). I asked her was she on her own and she said the other girl was just having her lunch. So..yes you are on your own. Who the hell is checking on the babies in the cot room? They are never supposed to be on their own and they swore to me they are checking on the babies every 5 minutes. I was there for 15 minutes, she was always on her own, and never checked on the babies including the one crying his eyes out. Not good AT ALL. Mike was there too and on our way out we talked to the manager asking for how long the carers can be on their own. She said absolutely never, it's the company policy and she'll look into it straight away, she said they have a system whereby when one is on a lunch break another one covers so that there's always two in the room. So we said maybe one is in fact in the cot room and we didn't see her. The manager also said that Wendy has been with them for 2 and half years and she's very experienced so she was going to have a word. We left it at that. This Wendy doesn't really come across as very well educated (she has a strong accent that generally is lost as you go to school and college), Mike think she's not really coming across very happy or bubbly at all. I'm less bothered by this, yes, she's not funny as such, but she seemed to know what she was doing. Anyway, Wendy told me she is generally off around 4 so there would be another girl when I was going to pick Oliver up. Not a problem. I went back 3 hours later, as it was pissing rain and I was a bit early I just sat in the corridor for a little while. The manager saw me and very warmly she encouraged to go in and that I could watch Oliver in the room from the glass. She buzzed me in. She had no info on whether Oliver had slept/eaten etc but that the girls would have told me everything. And here is where things started going really bad. I arrived to the room and could see Oliver on the floor getting very upset (he had not seen me yet). Two more babies were there. This other carer was holding another baby who seemed just fine and not really paying much attention to Oliver crying (ok...I realise this may be my memory playing tricks now). I put on the covers for the shoes and entered the room. The girl was a bit startled as obviously I had not called the room to announce myself like we generally do and was very quick in saying that Oliver was absolutely fine till two minutes beforehand. Yes right, see if I give a shit about your judgement right now. I picked him up and soothed him quickly. I asked if he had slept and she had no clue. Really?? WTF?? She said he maybe slept for 25 minutes probably around 2. What?? We got there at 2.30! I was totally losing it. I asked can she check his diary and let me know, this is important. She looked at it, couldn't tell me anything else. He didn't eat his tea and he took very little from his bottle. Very strange but sure it's possible he has to settle in...Normally he has a full bottle around 4 pm and now it's 5.30. I gave him the bottle and he drained it in no time. Maybe he was crying because he was hungry?? The thought tortures me. The I saw this girl picking up from the floor (under a couch!) Oliver's little bear-blankety thing he uses to sleep. Now I was very clear that this toy is for his sleep only, not to be used by any other child and not to be given to him when he plays either, how did it end up under the couch I have no idea. She was so so off-putting I was getting more and more irritated. I left the room, sat on a chair outside trying to calm myself down. First of all this other girl was also on her own in the room with 4 babies (the ratio is 1 carer and 3 babies). The second carer only came back in when I was already sitting outside the room. Say maybe after at least 15 minutes. The rage I was feeling I think may be comparable with a mother bear thinking his cub is in danger.

I went to the manager and first thing I asked if she queried about the fact that Wendy was on her own. She said it was because they were expecting us for 2.30 (and I was there at 2.30, not earlier) and that absolutely it'll never happen again. Then I told her about the lack of information provided but this other girl who was there now and of course started welling up. She quickly brought me into the office (surely she didn't wan't other parents seeing me upset) I told her about the bear on the floor, the fact that Oliver was crying and that I really needed strong evidence that this was NOT the norm. That I was having second thoughts and that there was no way I'd be having Oliver in there for a full day monday of next week. She promised me she would look into this and not to worry, she'll talk to me again monday morning, she'll have the girls in the office right away and will discuss with the other manager too.

So this is where I'm at. Oliver seemed absolutely fine, very chilled, as soon as he had his bottle and we were sitting out of the room he was full of smiles for all the children, played at home as always, had his dinner and bath and went to bed without a peep. Sound asleep. So obviously I know he was ok at the crèche but jeez this is not the service I'm expecting for a top class facility which won prizes and everything! On monday Mike will drop Oliver in, but I'll go in too. I feel all this responsibility is on me and I really need him to step up and talk to the managers too.

If you got this far, thank you so much for reading, I had to get it off my chest and hopefully I'll be able to sleep tonight.

Tomorrow Oliver is 9 months old (and 39 weeks exactly...this only confuses me further on the length of a pregnancy...) I can't believe he is so big already.

38 weeks

My little darling is 38 weeks today and decided to start celebrating very early this morning...generally when I leave for work at 7.30 is just barely awake and I was looking forward to an extra hour in bed today. Nope. But thankfully my mum came to the rescue and looked after him so that we could sleep a little longer. I don't know what we'll do when she goes back home next saturday and we have to quickly establish a new routine which involves bringing him to the crèche and collecting him in the afternoon. I envisage quite a few pizza nights...

So this coming week is packed with new things we have to do. Wednesday he'll go to the crèche for the first time for one hour, then thursday two hours and friday 3 hours. And Monday next it'll be his first full day. On thursday he also has two health checks, he has to repeat the hearing one that he failed with a nurse in the morning and then a doctor will give him an overall developmental check in the afternoon.

We still have no teeth though he's definitely more in pain in the evening and I found that homeopatic granules called Teetha help him a lot, he certainly has slept soundly all week long (doesn't even wake up when the damn alarm goes off occasionally!)

He's eating everything, loves bread sticks and he's that happiest little man when he sees that you are giving him something from your plate. He clearly says "Mammamamamamma" very loud, generally if he's upset or hungry, he whispers "Papapapapapa" which is very very cute too.

So this is where we are at the moment, work has also settled into a more organised routine now that we are two weeks into term.

I'll update during the week with the progress at the crèche and at the doctors, wish us well!

7 and half months check up with the nurse

Today I brought Oliver to the local health centre to be checked out by the nurse. I would have walked but we seem to be experiencing quite a few summer thunderstorms (at least 3 today).

Anyway, I wasn't particularly worried about anything, I know that at this visit they would check baby's hearing, height and weight, postural milestones etc. We had Oliver's ear check when he was 2 weeks old at the paed and I know he's growing like a weed and he's in good health. If I had one small concern is that I'm under the impression that his foreskin is a bit tight (circumcision is not commonly done in Europe), but I didn't really know what it should look like at this age.

Anyway, the hearing test was quite fun, I sat with Oliver on my lap facing a nurse who would grab his attention with a toy. Meanwhile another nurse (the assessing one) was behind me making noises to our right or left and Oliver would turn his head to the right or left. Actually he didn't hear two tones from his right and a different tone from his left but the nurse said it's very common and to go back in 2/4 weeks to repeat it. Hopefully it'll be fine then.

His weight is a whopping 9kg (a kg in just over a month!!) and his hight is 71cm which puts him nicely between the 50th and the 75th percentile!! Wohoo this is coming from a little one who was always in the 25th percentile!! He sat up nicely for the nurse and showed her how much he's keen to actually stand on his feet. His feeding stage is where it should be so I'm pleased I got full marks for my little one.

She had a look at his foreskin and yes, she think it's a bit tight but that a doctor should have a look. I'm thinking to wait till the next hearing test and then go back to the paediatrician.

I'm also happy to say that he's back to sleeping much better, last night he slept from 8pm to 6 am this morning, it was a soother emergency and he went right back to sleep for another hour and a half.

In other news, I got a call from the crèche where he'll be going to set up his induction dates. It'll happen the week before he starts so wednesday the 28th of September is the first hour! Also, I'll be unfortunately at a conference his first full day there (monday the 3rd) so it'll be up to Mike to drop him at the crèche that morning. My flight is due back in Dub at 2pm though so I'll go straight to pick him up. I'm really excited and not worried about this new step in his growth, I think he'll have a great time, hopefully I won't be proven wrong!

Home sweet home

We are back!

Holiday was fab as always but this time we were eaten by mosquitoes (Oliver not so much thank to a mosquito net and citronella and geranium essential oils) and the temperature in the last few days was unbearably hot even up in the hills. This made for some very interesting nights... Oliver was back to waking every couple of hours, I also couldn't sleep much and Mike and I got a few headaches from heat and dehydration.

But the positives were so many more.

Oliver is now sitting up on his own! Still loves to bath in the little pool and he's eating practically everything which is great. He also discovered his willy and oh boy the fun he's having every time we change the nappy/bath/shower/naked time etc. I'm told it's very normal, but the way he's pulling at it looks painful! Again I'm told it isn't.

Peeing and pooing in the toilet is going great, admittedly in Italy he was drinking so much water that it was difficult to catch every pee, but he certainly knows that when I hold him over the loo it's the signal to pee/poo if he has to. He has successfully used toilets at airports and even on the plane! He's very vocal, nearly always smiling and he's very cuddly. He hugs us any time we pick him up from bed and he's started stretching his arms out when he's tired to sit/stay where he is.

I think we all gained a bit of weight (damn for me!!) despite playing tennis and doing regular walks, but I'll go back to yoga soon and I'll start bringing Oliver to the local pool this weekend! I have a plan, let's hope it'll work!

In other news, I'm waiting for AF to show up to start my ICSI cycle with elective freezing!! Really excited but also soooooooooo much more relaxed knowing we already had one miracle, and if we get a second it'll only be an additional blessing.

I'll get back to commenting asap!