Family

Put it on the fridge!

Saturday 5th February 2011Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

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

Mother’s pride

What can I see?

Sisters!

Chocolate grin

Me and my monkey

Not my glasses

Riding on Daddy’s back!

Making a cup of tea

Bubbles!

Squeezy Fruit

Get the last little bit

Lip-lickingly good!

A week off

Wednesday 26th January 2011Sunday 30th January 2011Baggie

All too quickly the final days of last year’s leave has ended, reality kicks in and I have to return to work. It has been good to spend a week with the family, even though we didn’t get half the things done that we had planned to do. Time just seems to fly past far too quickly, especially where there is a baby and a toddler involved. Nevertheless we have managed to squeeze in a few things.

Amélie is still a concern to us. She is putting on weight but seems to be encroaching on the 25th centile line (and not in a positive way) and, more concerning, her reflux is still severe. You can change her a dozen times in a day (and yourself as least twice!) and she will seemingly be continously soaked through. Doctors tend to dismiss reflux as a laundry problem but it is more than that. Lucinda was wearing a new T-shirt on Sunday when she was caught. The vomit bleached her top, that is not just bringing up a little milk, that is stomach acid. If that is what it does to a T-shirt imagine what it must be doing to her throat and airways. The drugs that we have been prescribed should be reducing the stomach acid, would dread to think what it would have done if it had been full strength acid!

Fortunately we have been able to both attend the appointments with the doctor and although he doesn’t seem to think that there is any cause for concern he has finally given us a paediatric referral. Now that is another strange and convoluted procedure. First you get the referral from your GP. They give you a print out with phone number and reference number (among other things); Then you phone the number and quote your reference number and the triage goes through your child’s symptoms; They then arrange a paediatrician to call you on a given day to go through your child’s symptoms in detail and then if they think the case is deemed worthy they will arrange an appointment to see you (and your child) in person. Simples! We will keep you posted!

We also saw the dietician this week, who suggested that we try weaning early but is reluctant to do anything drastic until we have been seen (or spoken to) the paediatrician in case they suggest something for the reflux. Now Amélie has not shown interest in food in the way that Éowyn did. (Remember the infamous Coconut Macaroon incident?) Nevertheless we took heed and Lucinda gave Amélie her first taste of solid food on Tuesday 25th January: baby rice and water. She seemed to enjoy it, opening her mouth on cue. However, she soon had her fill and pushed the spoon away. I call that a success, especially since she kept it down.

Amélie has achieved a couple of firsts since the last update. The first first (so to speak) was to roll over. She has done it twice, once with Lucinda and once with me. However both times we both have missed it. Lucinda left her on the bed was out of the room for a moment came back and she was on her front. I was changing her on the floor, again left the room for a moment and came back and she was on her belly. Either she rolled or the house fairies are having a laugh with us.

Amélie’s other first since the last update was to go swimming. We asked Éowyn what she would like to do since we were all together as a family and she asked to go swimming. It was a little surprising as she has been nervous of late since she had a bad experience at a pool. Nothing major but it had put her off. So when she suggested it we jumped at the opportunity. Both of the girls loved it. Amélie was just serene as Lucinda held her in the water while I was trying to teach Éowyn to swim, while at the same time being mindful that a false move could put us back. I think a few more lessons are required but she did spend most of the time on her front kicking her legs (supported by Dad) so progress.

It has been interesting and a little upsetting to see how Éowyn is dealing with the experience of attending Playbox Playgroup. Obviously, it is a new place with new people and so it will take her some time to get used to it, as indeed it did when we first took her to Jo’s. However, now she is a little older and can talk to you it is harder to convince yourself that you are doing the right thing when she says things like: “Daddy, I don’t like school.” “I don’t want to go to school.” It breaks your heart, especially when you drop her off and she is crying and clinging to your leg. This Monday though (her fifth day) we walked into the classroom and she wandered off. I asked her for a kiss and to wave me goodbye and she did. Again progress, although she did get upset in the last 15 minutes or so of the session, probably because she was tired after the weekend.

Lucinda and I just have to be strong and encouraging as well as learn to cope with the other things that happen to your children while they are at school. Éowyn has seemingly begun to re-inact things that have happened at school with her toys. She was playing with her toy monkey (Ok, strictly Amélie’s toy monkey but I think that Amélie has lost any ownership of that toy!) and although we only caught the end of the conversation (“…and that’s it and we can go home.”) but it sounded very much like something that the staff would have said to Éowyn when she is upset. Then Monday she came home with a scratch on her face, only minor and the staff did draw our attention to it and I had to sign the accident book to acknowledge that fact. They were not sure how she did it but think she caught herself with the end of a book, and it certainly looks feasible. However later that day she was talking to her monkey “…It is not nice to hit people monkey. It will make them sad…” We tried to get out of her whether she hit someone or whether they hit her, but we could not draw any conclusions. Although I don’t like the idea of either Éowyn hitting someone or someone hitting her, a lot worse will probably happen just have to try and get her to talk about it.

In addition to swimming, trips to the doctors and hospital and dropping Éowyn off at Playbox we managed to squeeze in a photoshoot for the girls and a trip to Nanny Fran’s for a Bagnall family photoshoot. The photoshoot for the girls was a freebie session (to entice you in) for Amélie at 3 months. It includes a free 10″x8″ print, so we thought we would go for it. Obviously when you see the other photos you are tempted to buy extras. Yes, we were suckered into that but thought that the price that we were quoted was reasonable and so the credit card made an appearance.

Nanny Fran’s photoshoot, on the other hand, seemed to be jinxed. We (her children) bought her the photoshoot as a present for Christmas 2009. When we turned up at the photographers it was closed and he couldn’t be raised on the telephone. He called back a couple of days later to apologise but wasn’t prepared to offer compensation and so we decided against using him. So we found another reasonable studio and booked for the beginning of December. A week before my sister Mary slipped on the ice at work and broke her elbow, so we decided to push it into January. So Nanny Fran re-booked for last Sunday.

The southern side of the family, Mary and us four headed up the M40 on Friday for the weekend. On the Saturday morning we jokingly suggested that she ‘phone them to ensure that they had our booking. Never a truer word spoken in jest. Sunday morning we all get dressed up and manage to keep Amélie puke-free so we would all look nice for the photos. No booking. Apparently the previous booking wasn’t cancelled properly so the re-schedule shoot was not in the diary. We have agreed to give it one more go before deciding that it is well and truly jinxed and give it up as a bad job.

Despite that we had a good weekend at Nanny Fran’s. Éowyn has finally grown too big for her travel cot and so Nanny Fran bought her a ready bed and pink tent to sleep in. Obviously it takes a little getting used to but she seemed to love it although the excitement meant that she didn’t get to sleep until after 10pm on the Friday night. Poor Nanny Fran offered to look after Amélie on the Friday night so that Lucinda and I could get some uninterrupted sleep. On Saturday night Éowyn went to sleep early (as she was tired from the night before) and we took Amélie in with us, however Éowyn who sleeps in the room next to Nanny Fran woke at 0400 and kept her awake. I bet Nanny Fran was glad we were going so that she could get some sleep.

So now I am back at work and the 1500 e-mails all need reading, some of them as long as this write up! Thus I will leave you to enjoy the photos.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Nanny Fran and Amélie

Nanny Fran and her Grand-daughters

Nanny Fran squeeze

Auntie Liz

Great Uncle Michael

Tickling my aunties

Smile for Mommy

Now this is interesting

Time for a snooze

Sleep’s shadow

Just going to do some cooking

Daddy and Éowyn

The turn of another year

Tuesday 4th January 2011Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

And so we are here at the turn of another year (that has a certain poetic quality – I like it). It is just over a fortnight since the last update (the Christmas message notwithstanding) and it seems like an eternity since then. Obviously there has been the snow, Amélie’s continued feeding issues and the little matter of Christmas.

This update is a little belated and becomes the first in 2011 rather than the last in 2010 due to the fact that I have been struck down with ‘flu. Now a lot of people say that they have a touch of ‘flu but from my experience over the last couple of days there is no such thing as a touch of ‘flu. I basically haven’t managed to get out of bed for days, I haven’t eaten a meal for 5 days, every single part of my body has ached. If the house had been on fire I do not think I would have had the inclination to have got out the house, I have been that lethargic. Even the sound of Lucinda playing with the girls wasn’t enough to make me want to get out of bed. My fear has been passing it on to the girls and Lucinda. Lucinda did develop a heavy cold but managed to shake it before it turned into whatever I had, and so far the girls have colds but again relatively mild. Let us hope it stays that way.

Back to the update: The Saturday after the last update the UK got hit by another deluge of snow (we should be getting used to this by now). About 4 inches or so fell in about an hour in our little corner of the country, far more in other parts. Due to the speed of the deluge Heathrow airport struggled to cope with the de-icing of the planes and the clearing of the runway. This was unfortunate for the people trying to catch a flight and the people that work at the airport as someone that lives not that far from the south runway the fact that there were no flights for the best part of 4 days was bliss.

We took full advantage of the snow on that Saturday and introduced Éowyn to the joys of building snowmen and having a snowball fight. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself, which is in stark contrast to the snows at the beginning of the year when she was perhaps a little too young to appreciate it and just complained that it was cold. Unfortunately the snow prevented two pre-Christmas meet ups that weekend due to the icy roads and the weather stayed below freezing for over a week, which meant that the snow that fell on the 18th was still about on the 25th. For the most part it was ice which meant that it was quite often safer to drive than try and take your life in your hands on the pavements, especially around the village.

This meant we spent more of the time in the house in that week leading up to Christmas which meant that Éowyn spent a little more time watching DVDs. One day she sat a watched Toy Story, followed by Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, then said “Toy Story 4 please, Mommy.” Lucinda explained that there wasn’t a Toy Story 4. “Then go to the shops and get one!” So Mr Disney and Mr Pixar if you are listening there is a little girl who wants another Toy Story film.

Éowyn has also developed a penchant for opening the front door to visitors. In fact she can get quite upset if she is not allowed to open the door. Obviously we have to watch her to make sure that she is not just inviting any Tom, Dick or Harry in but most of the time we let her do so. I assume that is it some kind of control, that she is controlling her environment and I have no problems with her being our little gatekeeper. She also likes to open the door when we are leaving the house. So one frosty morning before Christmas it was not unusual for Éowyn to insist on opening the door for me. As I stepped outside, she shut the door. As I was halfway down the path I heard her little voice say ‘Bye, Bye Daddy.’ I turned round to return the farewell but also to tell her to shut the door as it was bitingly cold but the door was shut. However the letterbox was open and a pair of blue eyes were looking at me through the gap. I waved goodbye and went to work with a smile in my step.

Amélie is still causing us worry. She seemed a lot happier on her artificial milk and we thought that all was going well however when Kate (the Health Visitor) came to weigh her, she still had not put on the correct amount of weight and was still concerned about the amount of reflux that she has. So Kate got us a prescription for another artificial milk, Neocate (as opposed to the Nutramigen that she has been on) and suggested that we see our GP to obtain a referral to a Paediatrician as it is possibly more that just Cow’s Milk Protein Intolerance.

So Christmas Eve we saw our GP who has prescribed a dual concoction of Domperidone and Ranitidine as this would be the first point of call for the Paediatrician it would save us a couple of weeks of treatment. So that is where we are at the moment. Domperidone is given help keep the entrance to the stomach closed to prevent reflux, it also promotes emptying of the stomach contents quicker. Ranitidine is used to inhibit stomach acid production. We are yet to see if this is the winning formula.

Despite her obvious discomfort Amélie is still a happy baby. She is very alert and enjoys sitting on your lap looking around at what is going on. She will hold your hand and coo and gurgle at you. Nothing is a heart-warming as when you little one first smiles, and although Amélie has been doing that for a while now when she returns your smile the feeling is not diminished. Let’s hope we can sort this reflux out so that we can see a lot more of them.

Now to the big event. Éowyn woke on Christmas morning to a stocking full of pressies hanging at the side of her bed and two piles on the floor. Obviously Santa thought that she had been a very good girl over the past year. Although she is beginning to understand the notion of Christmas the good thing was that she still doesn’t have the excitement factor and so was still asleep at 0900 Christmas morning. How many more years is that going to happen?

Christmas lunch was around Lucinda’s parents with Lucinda’s brothers and their families, so all the Grandchildren were together on Christmas day, which is lovely to see because they all get on so well together, even if Éowyn is a little bit bossy with them. It was a nice Christmas present from Lucinda’s parents, too: cooking Christmas dinner for us, so we could concentrate on the kids without having to juggle kitchen duties!

Boxing day I was back at work, so the festive break for me were a little short, but then we are used to that as a family, working in two of the industries that don’t stop for holidays.

Then it was Christmas number 2. Up to Nanny’s Fran’s for a more presents and more Christmas dinner. Nanny Fran gave us a nice Christmas present too, which was a night off as she looked after Amélie (and Éowyn) overnight. Both my sisters were at Mom’s so it was the Bagnalls together for a couple of days. Éowyn loves her Nanny Fran and aunties and kept them entertained (and busy) even though it was such a short visit.

As I have mentioned in an earlier update. My sister Mary has broken her elbow. During the first bout of cold weather at the end of November she slipped on ice and landed on her elbow. This means that, among other things, she is unable to drive. So she hitched a lift back home with us. Now although I have a mid-sized car, with two car seats in the back it doesn’t leave a lot of room for passengers. Luckily we squeezed her in and headed home as my body started to succumb to the symptoms of ‘flu.

Considering my deteriorating condition and the patches of fog we made it home safe and in good time only to find a theft had occurred. OK, perhaps that it is a little over-dramatic but when we left there was a covering of snow on the grass and at the edges of the paths when people had cleared cars and tracks through the snow, yet when we got back you would have never have know that it had snowed at all. The snow had been taken and replaced by mucky rain. Makes it all look a little dirty and dreary as opposed to the snow that tends to make everywhere look bright and pretty. Turn your back for five minutes…

The remainder of the year saw me in bed ill, and on New Year’s Eve myself and Lucinda Lemsiped up and went to bed at 2100. Fortunately the few fireworks that were in the area were not enough to rouse Éowyn and we had a relatively peaceful night.

So maybe a little belated but an epic so apologies and all there is left for me to do is to wish you all a very Happy 2011