Back at work and boy did I hit the ground running? A first working week of 70 hours meant that I spent very little time at home awake. This obviously put the onus back onto Lucinda to be primary carer for the girls. Amélie is too young to understand but Éowyn subconsciously senses weakness added to her own sense of change. This leads her to misbehave not in a malicious way but misbehaving nevertheless. This culminated in an incident on Saturday while Lucinda was in the kitchen washing up, she came back into the lounge to find that Éowyn had poured her bottle of juice onto each of the seats of our sofa. When I came home Lucinda made Éowyn tell me what she had done. Éowyn duly told me that she had poured juice on the sofa. So I asked her why she had done it and she replied, “So when Mommy and Daddy sit down they will get wet bums.”Part of me admired her honesty, her foresight and general japery and that part of me wanted to laugh, but I held it together to explain to her that it was naughty. “Yes Daddy it is naughty, Éowyn sorry.” How thankful am I that we bought brown leather, it seems to be a most forgiving sofa material.
Éowyn is a thoughtful child though, especially when it comes to her little sister. Sunday, Lucinda and the girls were invited around her parents for Sunday lunch (I was at work) with Lucinda’s aunties (Lucinda’s mum’s sisters). While they were eating lunch Éowyn asked if she could leave the table and play with her puzzles in the front room. She was told that because Amélie was sleeping that she should bring them back to the table and be very quiet when she was in the front room collecting them so as not to wake Amélie. This she duly did but then whenever anyone spoke at the table she would shh them and say “Be quiet, Amélie’s sleeping.”
She also doesn’t like Amélie to be missed out and includes her when she can. Éowyn was cleaning her teeth the other night. “Mommy’s toothbrush, Daddy’s toothbrush, Éowyn’s toothbrush,” pointing to each of our toothbrushes in turn. “Where’s Amélie’s toothbrush?” Lucinda explained that Amélie hasn’t got any teeth yet, so she hasn’t got a toothbrush. Éowyn replied: “Well go to the shops and get them.” Lucinda asked to confirm whether Éowyn wanted her to go to the shops and get a toothbrush for Amélie and Éowyn answered, “No Mommy, teeth!” It is amazing what you can get at the shops these days!
As I mentioned in last week’s update, we were expecting a telephone call from the paediatrician concerning Amélie. Lucinda had prepared a list of examples and questions for the paediatrician in case this was no going to go any further. At the appointed time the paediatrician called and Lucinda was going to launch into her soliloquy when the paediatrician just said, we have looked at Amélie’s notes and we would like to see her Monday morning. Lucinda was a little deflated because she had been prepared to justify why they should she her and the wind had been taken out of her sails. We still don’t know why they had to call to say that and why they could not just have sent an appointment through the post.
So Monday morning we dropped Éowyn off at Playbox (although subdued she wandered off into the classroom without tears or clinging to my leg) and headed to Ashford hospital for our appointment. Amélie was weighed (she is now 6.0kg (13lbs 4oz) which is dead on the 25th centile) and although she has put weight on she is still not quite following a centile curve. However this does not seem to be concerning any of the medical staff, as she is putting on weight.
The paediatrician looked at Amélie’s notes and examined her. She has asked us to return to the GP to reassess the quantities of Domperidone and Ranitidine in light of her weight gain. She listened to her chest and believes the noisy breathing/ wheezing to be all upper respiratory rather than a problem with her lungs and chest, which is a relief. She has requested an ultrasound to be taken while she is feeding (we are still waiting for the appointment) and a urine sample. How do you get a urine sample for a 4 month old baby girl? With great difficulty, I can tell you! Our first attempt involved holding her over a bowl while we fed her. We did this for about an hour with no success, then she threw up in the bowl. Lucinda moved her to her lap while we retrieved the bowl and Amélie duly urinated on her leg!
As you may know we have started to feed Amélie solids. However she is not taking to it as Éowyn did. Then again if her reflux is such then perhaps it is painful, but she doesn’t seem to be too worried. As I mentioned last time Amélie was not showing interest in food as Éowyn did, so perhaps that is part of the problem too. We are only weaning because of the reflux and on the advice of the dietician, and the hope that she will be satisfied for longer than the 3 hour alarm call that she currently operates on.
This week we received the photos from the photoshoot and they look wonderful. We just have to decide on where best to hang the frames. Lucinda and I were chatting about it and without trying to sound too big-headed many of the photos that I take are just as nice (probably because I can get better reactions out of my children!) but we have never printed them out. I have over 30,000 photos sitting on my computer but hardly any on the walls or in photoframes. This is why this site and my Flickr account are good outlets because it allows me to at least display them for others to see. Perhaps I should begin printing some out?
Lucinda has a very strong artistic streak, and I like to think I have at least a soupçon of artistic talent so it is no surprise that Éowyn seems to be using art as a medium for her imagination. Drawing, painting, sculpture (O.K. Playdoh) all are part of her répertoire. However, Lucinda started something with a chance comment. Éowyn had sat down at her table and drawn a picture. She gave it to Lucinda and Lucinda said “That’s very good, let’s put it on the fridge.” Well that just opened the floodgates. A barrage of drawings followed (some of them consisting of only three lines) all with the cry of “Put it on the fridge, Mommy!” We need a bigger fridge!
As you may, or may not, remember a friend of mine, Eilidh Cairns, while cycling to work was involved in an accident with a lorry and passed away a short time later (please read here for my tribute to her). This weekend marks the second anniversary of that day and since then Eilidh’s mum, Heather, has been working with her local M.E.P. to try and get a E.U. declaration signed to get H.G.V.’s fitted with sensors and cameras to remove their blind spots making the roads a safer place for cyclists (and the general public). They need your assistance so please pop by to www.eilidhcairns.com or click on this flyer and see how you are able to help. Thank you.
Peace and Love
Baggie
