The car that crashed...

into our car was driven by a 76 year old man who I think, fell asleep at the wheel. Our stationary car which was parked right outside our house, was crashed into 2 thursdays ago (26th June), the day before C&N got married. It happened at about 12.30pm, on a thursday. Most other thursdays, I am at M&S having tea and biscuits with the other mummies and their babies. But this particular thursday, I decided NOT to meet up with the other mummies as we had a long day ahead of us that day (we were supposed to go pick up N's dress from Jodie's house, and then go for a dinner at the Fordwich Arms as a pre-wedding meal with the family!) and G doesn't do very well if we have a very packed day (I have to admit, I don't either!).

So, I was in the living room, sitting on the sofa with G, when I saw and heard the car move and crash. It was surreal. I jumped up, and saw this black car's front end in the back of my Honda Civic. And an articulated ASDA truck opposite my car. Fantastic...

It was a good job we weren't in the car - I had just thought 5 minutes before to nip to the shops as I wanted to get some shopping done before the long weekend! I could have been loading G into the car when that car ploughed into ours!!

Anyway, to cut the long story short, after calling the police, ambulance and insurance company, getting a replacement car organised (which apparently D had not included into our policy!), the wedding dress was delivered to N by Jodie, and we drove to the Fordwich Arms in our Honda, which was deemed driveable on Thursday afternoon and then deemed un-roadworthy on Friday morning. We got given a VW Passat as a replacement car. Although my first impression of it was 'huge car, how will I park it?!', I've decided that I quite like it now. It's got a fabulously huge boot (the buggy fits really really well in it) and it drives beautifully on the motorway. Granted, I only did the motorway run on Friday when we went to Bluewater (just me and G! that's another blog entry), but that run was really brilliant. It's a diesel car which given the current price hike in petrol/diesel means that it's costing us £1.31 per litre, but it's great.

We'll apparently get our Honda back next week... oh well, it's good whilst it lasted.

love
34 years 361 day old p x

BCG...

G was BCG-ed this morning at 9am, and it went well. Having said that, as usual, I was paranoid mummy, and daddy did really well by remembering to calpol baby (baby paracetomol) so that the pain may be lessened. Not sure if it does work but it does make us as parents feel better! G was ever so brave again, didn't cry. In fact, he cried alittle only because of the way he was being held (his left arm had to be still as the needle was going in).

There's a tiny little red mark where the needle went in and they say a scab should form and fall off over the course of a month or so. Let's hope he'll be fine by the time we fly!

The TB nurse was going on about how it was actually ok if we had his vaccinations in the same week as his BCG as all the other injections are inactive. I was thinking, sure that might be the case, but surely his little body won't take too kindly towards 5 major infections and 1 live one?!

oh well. Ok, G's turned himself again and is stuck.

Gotta go!

p x

The baby has flipped...

at 18 weeks (and 1 day!)..!! hehe. another milestone.

G had been trying for ages now to turn onto his front - he'd try for what seems forever to flip onto his front but gets nowhere (about half way really - so onto his side). We'd been pushing him gently on his back and he'd then turn over, feel really pleased with himself, and then get tired quite easily.

Anyway, Tuesday morning (after G's big day with daddy!), I left him on his playgym on his back as usual, and when I came back literally 2 minutes later (to a strangely silent baby), I found him on his front, quite happily looking around and grabbing things! OMG. I was so pleased....had to ring daddy immediately to tell him!! hehe

And since Tuesday (it's Thursday now), everytime we put him on his back, he's turning and flipping onto his front! And he does it really fast now! Very impressed...

I think we might have to think about weaning him soon - perhaps not yet, but perhaps a good idea to get some baby rice and equipment ready. He's been eating alot more (draining his 120ml of Aptamil once a day) and I think it's time to increase his milk intake. He's still being breastfed and I have all intentions of still breastfeeding him till at least 6 months, but I guess since he's being more active, he'll need more food and calories. Maybe by the time we get to sg, he'll be able to have porridge!

Chris and Natty are getting married tomorrow - how exciting.. and baby G's got a bling outfit, including a diamante cravat!! hahaha. Will try and post some pics.

And G's going to have a 2nd cousin in October - a baby girl. yay!

P and G xx

3rd round of immunisations and latest weigh in!

G is 17 weeks this week, but I'll be writing about what happened last week...

his immunisations was due last Wed and we went with some trepidation as this time, he was due to have 3 injections (the previous rounds were 2!!!). Baby G was soooo brave, as he was smiling and giggling when Daddy sat him on his knee and held him real tight. Nurse Wendy was really nice too (she's always nice) and did the injections real fast

But it was still very traumatising to watch him smile one second and his face turning into a grimace the next and tears starting to flood in the next!! :( My heart was breaking when that happened...but baby G was soo brave, and only whimpered and cried for literally 30 seconds. Again, we calpol-ed him (yay!) and I saved a boob for him to suckle on and he was fine after the 3 jabs (2 in one thigh!!). :) He literally forgot about it by the time we were out of the surgery, which is great. haha.

The next day, we went in for his monthly weigh in and measurement, and the results are.........*drum roll*...

Weight: 6.68kg (14 pounds 11 oz) - 50%ile
Length: 66.5 cm - nearly 98%ile (?!)
Head circumference: 42cm - 50%ile

So everything spot on and as per normal. Here, they're not too concerned where baby's plotting on the growth charts, as long as he's more or less following his projected percentile. So if G was always on the 50th percentile, then he should really be around there every time he's weighed, if that makes sense. I'm really happy that his weight's on the average as this chart's based on formula-fed babies, and he's mostly breast fed. Last night was the first night in days that he took a whole bottle of formula (120ml) and even that was less than what's 'recommended' for his age (210!), so it looks like he's growing and thriving on mostly breast milk.

Speaking of growing and thriving - saw this programme on tv the other night, "Britain's Biggest Babies"...OMG, it was most ridiculous to see these really obese babies, and many (if not all) of these mothers are obese themselves! There was one woman who claimed that she loved fish when she was pregnant - turned out that she was gorging on fish and chips!! I know it's fish, but no matter how good the quality of fish is, if you coat it with batter...and accompany it with chips, then surely the goodness is all wiped out!? There was another woman who claimed that her baby girl at 14 months "loved chips"...excuse me, but how does a baby learn to 'love chips'... surely she would have learned it through her parents providing that as a meal?! On tv, they were showing the toddler sat in her high chair, with a big plate of shop-bought chips (so, not even oven-baked chips at home). It was enough to make me sick.

Lastly there was a 3 year old boy who was so obese, he had to use an adult size swim ring in the pool - and his mother thought it was hilarious. And after the swim, she fed him rubbish food again.

I don't get these parents - surely it's one thing to feed yourself junk food, but to feed your child the same, especially when they are too young to make a decision for themselves? The occasional junk food is fine, I think (esp since if you forbid it, it becomes the desired forbidden food!), but to have it practically every day, that I think is tantamount to child abuse.

P

Daddy's home alone with G!

Following on from the previous post, D was home alone with G, from about 8am, to about 9pm. And I think, he's finally realised/understood, how difficult it can be. Very 'fun' and great to be with the baby, but it's a full on job (having said that I'm typing this at 4.40pm, and G's having a nap.. - long may it continue..well, at least till I finish this!).

I rang a few times (10am, 1pm, 6pm, 7.30pm) and thankfully, he wasn't screaming except for the last time at about 9pm, which was when he was due a feed and D thought that I could feed him (and I would have liked to) but the train came in at 9.10pm, so I was too late (when G wants his food, he WANTS his food NOW!)... (people have wondered where he gets his impatience from... dum de dum de dum...haha).

They were very active during the day - they 'sunbathed' in the garden (great pic of G on the sunlounger, and on the picnic mat...!), they went for a walk (great video), lots of giggles (all on vid), and even to G's first football match (D runs his office's football team and they had a game that evening)! I would love to be that active with G but am nervous about lugging baby around every where I go. When I'm alone, we try to do one activity a day. Some days (like today) we just stay at home). We weren't supposed to be home today, but our date to Whitstable beach with Shelley and Sophia got postponed.

D will be home alone again on the 23rd of June with G... Let's hope it'll be just as fun! Ironically, because I'd expressed milk a few days before, G had a whole day of just breastmilk, which is great!

We have his 3rd round of immunisations tomorrow - wish us luck! Must remember to calpol him before we go. We then have our weigh-in on thursday. I can't wait to see how tall and how heavy he is. He's definitely put on weight. Tried weighing him by carrying him and then minusing my weight, and it looked like he's now about 6.5-7kg! which is great. We'll get the official reading on Thursday.

ok - will sign off now.

P x

Breast Mastitis

Something else wrong with mummy?!?!

yup... last tuesday, I went to London to do some rather lucrative work with another institution...and left daddy with G (that's another post!). Anyway, left home at 8am, got back at 9pm and brought my expresser with me. As part of the meeting plans, I'd also asked for a 'private room'. Rather embarrassing since I didn't even know these people! But hey, they provided, and I expressed and transported back from London 2 bags full of milk hahah.

When I woke up that morning, my left breast felt rather tender - I didn't think anything of it. But by the time I got back that night, it was hurting like mad. Turns out it was mastitis. I had to have a bath about 2am, as it was just intolerably painful. Both boobs were also leaking and feeding G was a nightmare - but we continued to let him feed.

The next day, I trooped off to the doctors who gave me antibiotics and some ibuprofen (just as well, for my wrist too!). It's feeling alot better now, thank God!!

On a more positive note, G's still sleeping through the night, going down on average about 9pm (sometimes earlier, sometimes later), and waking up on average about 4/5am. Which is great! :) He feeds at 4/5am, and then goes back down till 7/8am. He hangs out with daddy for an hour or so and then gets handed over. It's alot more manageable... and we've got a routine where he has 2 naps a day (sometimes he goes for 3).

On weekends, it gets abit knocked out of sync because we do things like shopping, and have lunches/dinners (or like this past weekend, 2 BBQs and a dinner!). By about bath time, he's just about had enough activity and wants to come home. And amazingly enough, he does know what home is, as by the time we come through the door, he's smiling again! Makes me slightly worried about our flight to sg this aug - what if he's upset he's not at home for 2 whole weeks?!? OMG. Oh well, not going to think about it till closer the date. Hopefully by then he's used to being out and about, he'll be fine!!fingers crossed very very tightly.

We've got his 3rd round of immunisations next Wed... they come round real quick!! and this time, it won't be pleasant at all as he'll have 3 shots. Tune in next week!

This May/June's turning into a wet wipe out. It's been raining more or less continuously for the last week or so... I'm getting depressed. I think Summer's come and gone... remember, the 10 days or so in April!!? Think that was it!

p x

De Quervains syndrome

WHAT?! what is that? and why are we even discussing this!?

I've been diagnosed with this syndrome this afternoon. After a few days of an aching wrist/tendon and a dodgy thumb, I went back to the doctors and got sent on to seek physiotherapy for my swollen wrist/thumb. I thought I'd slept on it awkwardly, at first, and so left it for a day, but it didn't get better. I went to to doctor and saw a dodgy one, who told me to take parecetomol and perhaps splint it. I decided to back to see Dr again today (2 days later) because it's getting worse and more painful. This time, Dr Molony gave me a list of physiotherapists whom he'd recommend (esp after I told him I had private health insurance!), and I rang one of them, and made an appointment for this afternoon (result!).

Anyway, so I went to St Lawrence Sports and Physiotherapy Clinic and saw Oli. And Oli told me that I have De Quervains syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeQuervain's_syndrome. He's really spot on as it sounds like I really do have this syndrome, with a swollen tendon near my wrist and thumb. Several factors have contributed to this, including the fact that I've just been pregnant (we release Elastin during pregnancy and after that, whilst breastfeeding, which basically makes us more flexible), the fact that I'm doing alot more carrying (baby, car seat, lots more stuff!), and the fact that I'm double-jointed or hypermobile http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=563&sectionId=1

oh dear...it's all sounding more and more ominous. So, he used some ultrasound treatment on me for 3 minutes, and some light therapy for a minute or so. It did feel better, but hey, it could have been a placebo effect! My wrist is hurting again. :(

I gotta go back for another treatment next week, and hopefully the wrist guard will be ordered and waiting for me then. Wonder how long this will take to treat. He didn't say anything... According to some of those websites, it said it should take 1 year... a year?!?!

let's hope the pain subsides... *fingers crossed*

p x

Sleeping through...for a week now! :)

Baby G's been sleeping till at least 4.30am most nights! yay!! :) never thought I'd ever think 4.30/5am is a good target to aim for... but such is motherhood in the early months! After the last blog post, I didn't think we'd talk about him sleeping through ... but he has. for the last week or so, he's been going down about 9-11pm, and going through till 4.30/5. There was one night when he went from about 8.30pm (!?) and another time he hit 6am! wow wow wow. Let's hope he continues with this, and somehow it didn't matter whether he was fed Aptamil, or breast milk or a combination of both!

Speaking of which, a couple of nights ago, he had a hungry night and ate something like 300ml in total (of both breast milk and Aptamil). It was frightening to watch, and we even had to 'break open' the carton of Aptamil, because we didn't have enough boiled water (on standby) nor anymore breast milk (in boob or expressed!).. that's like a pint of milk isn't it?! in a little body like his?! I don't get where it all went. We thought it meant that he'd go till at least 6 or 7am... but no, he still woke up at about 5. Oh well, mustn't complain.

ok, will be blogging about something else in the next post...

p x

2nd round of immunisations and weigh in!

We've survived his 2nd round of immunisations which was on wed 14th May. Again, he couldn't believe that we were subjecting him to the pain and the stress (frankly, neither could I!)...and after the 2nd injection (the meningitis one), the nurse admitted that it was probably going to be hurt more because it was a stingy one! (now she tells us!). I was in tears and so was my poor bubba... and daddy had to hold him tight. Thankfully, we calpol-ed him before and I also 'saved' a boob for him so that he could suckle and comfort himself. By the time we left the surgery, we think he forgot about it.

However, since that day (it's friday now), he's been grizzly and slightly tetchy. We think it's a slight reaction to the injections - afterall, we are exposing them to minute versions of these deadly diseases! poor little mites and their little bodies, fighting away! :(

The next round will be a month from now and that time, it'll be 3 injections - ahhh!!! and then he'll have to be subjected to a BCG too (coz I'm from a part of the world that still gives their babies routine BCGs, so bubba has to be the same as all his little friends there. hmmph).

On a cheerier note, he was weighed and measured yesterday, and he's spot on 13 pounds (5.9 kg) and measuring 63.5cm, which is great. That puts him on the 50%ile for his weight, and 91st for his height.

And even better, he slept through for the first time last night!! It's probably a fluke as he's tired himself out from all the crying he did 2 hours before that..(for 2 hours!), but he last fed about 8pm where we gave him 100ml of Aptamil, and he had his bath, and changed into his sleepsuit. He fell asleep at about 10pm and didn't wake till 5.30am for a feed! yay!! let's hope he remembers to do this tonight too and the next.

I expressed some milk last night to save up for when I go to London for the day in a couple of weeks. Have to remember to buy the bags to save them in soon!

ok - gotta go find out where to invest the 250 quid the government's kindly given us for his future...!

P x

12 weeks already..

Wow - I remember when I blogged about our 12 week scan, and now we've come through to the other side, with a 12 week old baby! :)

sometimes I feel that time has indeed flown past (I remember distinctly counting the number of days to our due date, and now he's already 3 months old and getting ready for his 2nd round of immunisations! sob!!)... other times, I feel that time's really creeping past, only in that every morning I wake up and it's the same thing of feeding, changing, playing, sleeping, and the cycle continues. It's a constant challenge to think of things to do and yet I find that every day, I don't 'achieve' anything! Reading books is a challenge in itself as I can't quite hold the book and breastfeed at the same time (however, in recent weeks I have managed to read a couple of books - mostly when he's asleep though). Doing stuff on the computer is not quite possible unless D's around or G's really sleeping otherwise, it's a random check for emails and then a few hours of thinking of a reply and then finding the time to reply...! Lunch is a quick 10 min microwave job (that's heating, eating scalding hot food and removing plate to kitchen sink!)...

and the husband thinks that I spend all day watching the Jeremy Kyle show... hmph. (he's just read this and denies he's ever accused me of that!! hmph).

G's 2nd round of immunisations is scheduled for tomorrow... if he's well. I think he is, but he's had a bit of a dry cough and a bogey nose and I'm not sure if it's hayfever, a cold, or a combination of that with a paranoid mother. If he's declared well by the doctor, the jabs will go ahead...otherwise, we'll have to reschedule it for next week. Eeks. Half of me wants it to be over and done with, the other half of me doesn't want him to ever go through with it!

We've booked our flights home to sg!! :) yay... grandad's so excited... and we're excited to go and show G off to everyone...hehe, and get loads of cuddles and pressies...hehe...We'll be leaving on Aug 19th, on the A380... D's so excited...I hope it'll be a good flight for G.

ok - gotta go get some shut eye and relaxation before the next feed...

P x