Nanny and Granddad

Éowyn’s Fourth Birthday

Monday 22nd October 2012Baggie

So after an unplanned update due to Lucinda’s appendicitis and subsequent appendectomy we are back on track with one of the few updates that are planned years in advance. The whole raison d’être of this website, or at least it’s initial conception was you keep you, my dear readers, up to date with Éowyn’s progress. As she was our first child and there were so many of our friends and relatives that are spread across not only the country but the globe too, it seemed the easiest way to ensure you all had a window to glimpse the antics of this branch of the Bagnall family tree. That was four years ago. Yes, our oldest child has just celebrated her fourth birthday.

Usually the weeks between Amélie’s birthday and Éowyn’s birthday are quiet and uneventful, this year was far from uneventful however Lucinda’s appendectomy could not have happened at a more fortutious time in terms of either the development of our unborn son and to coincide with a quiet(ish) time at work. Obviously the most important of the two is the fact that our unborn bubba is seemingly well and healthy (our 20 week scan is in the coming week so stand by for yet another update). With an international break weekend the number of football matches coming through my work world drops from >70 to around 20 and hence although there are still lots of things to do at work my presence wasn’t as missed as it would have been on a full-on weekend of sport.

However, the five days I had off from work were necessary to look after the family while Lucinda begun to recuperate and just as work did not miss me that much neither did I miss work. Obviously it is not possible nor practical for me to take off Lucinda’s complete recuperation time off but neither is Lucinda up to looking after the children, this is where living in the same village as the grandparents comes in very handy. So the plan for this past week has been dropping Amélie off at Grandparents, followed by dropping Éowyn off at school. Then take myself to work. Granddad has been picking Éowyn up from school, then on my return from work, pick up both girls before heading home and cooking for the family. Then put the girls to bed and relax!

Wednesday saw Éowyn actual birthday. She was allowed to open some of her presents before school and insited on wearing one of her new dresses and another of her birthday pressies: a tiari and magic wand. This was the first birthday that Éowyn has spent at school (last year we took her to Peppa Pig World, something we should perhaps try and squeeze in before the end of the year) and was also the first of my children’s birthdays I have spent at work. However I did manage to make it a short day and get home before rush hour to take Lucinda to Nanny and Granddad’s for a birthday dinner and a muppet themed birthday cake.

Éowyn really enjoyed being the centre of attention and made Nanny light the candles three times so that she could blow them out, again, again and again. We got home and opened the rest of her presents and she seemed incredibly pleased with everything she got, indeed telling Lucinda, ‘Mommy, this is the best birthday ever.‘ It is nice to know that a home cooked meal with Nanny and Granddad and some presents surpassed the trip to Peppa Pig World from last year! Will it always be like this? I doubt it.

The week continued in the same vein, with Lucinda recovering well but still not strong enough to look after the kids, me at work and Lucinda’s parents looking after Amélie each day and Éowyn after school. As the week wore on the strain of looking after two young kids was becoming more deeply etched on Nanny and Granddad’s faces and although they would never say anything I decided that an alternative needed to be found for the weekend, especially since I would not be able to get out of work early on either Saturday or Sunday to help put the girls to bed. Call in Nanny Fran.

Lucinda’s parents live within a two minute walk, Nanny Fran lives a two hour drive away. Lucinda’s parents are retired, Nanny Fran retires at the end of the year so getting Nanny Fran involved take a little more organising. So Friday saw a similar start to the day as had happened all weeklong. Amélie at Nanny and Granddad’s, Éowyn at school, then a 15 mile drive to work. I got out of work a little early and then picked up the girls from Nanny and Granddad’s. Back home for roast chicken, then get the girls ready for bed, pop them in the car and then a two hour drive to West Bromwich. I got to Nanny Fran’s just before 10pm and put the sleeping girls straight to bed. They were now in Nanny Fran (and Auntie Liz’s) care.

Woke up the next morning, said goodbye to the girls (who seemed to be very excited to be on an adventure at Nanny Fran’s) and drove the 130 odd miles to work. It seemed very strange to head back to home with just Lucinda there (and to drive a car with no child car seats in the back). Obviously it was nice to see my wife but the house seemed oddly empty without the girls, even though had they been there then they would have been asleep. It was also strange to get an uninterrupted night of sleep, I can not honestly remember the last time that happened. Then back to work on Sunday for me while Nanny Fran brought them back down Sunday afternoon.

Not sure who had more fun at Nanny Fran’s, Éowyn and Amélie, or Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz. From the photos and the stories probably Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz just edged it. At least next year when Nanny Fran has hung up her last file of photocopying then there can be lots of adventures for the girls (and the new addition to the Bagnall family) in West Bromwich! Indeed when I asked Éowyn if she wanted to go back with Nanny Fran, she became all excited.

Hopefully Lucinda will carry on recovering as well as she seems to be and so the reliance on Nanny and Granddad (and Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz) not to mention the extra taxiing and workload that I am carrying will lessen. You realise when something like this happens just how much teamwork is involved in raising kids and looking after a house, especially since the majority of that side of the family tasks is done by Lucinda as I tend to be at work up to 6 days a week (oh, for the correct six numbers this week!). You also realise how precious life is and how quickly it can be put in danger. It puts in perspective what is important in life and what is just flimflam and although no doubt the flimflam will begin to creep up in pseudo-importance over the next few months, I just hope we can both remember what this episode has taught us and hopefully it will also help you to realise the flimflam in your own lives.

Peace and Love

Baggie

A smile for the camera

Stop it!

A shaded smile

Just playin’

A cheesy grin

Smile

A just a little bit more

A masterpiece

The completed work

Seesaw

Margery Daw

Johnny shall have a new master

A cheeky smile

I’m not listening

Sisters!

Éowyn and Mommy

Run Éowyn, run

Can’t you drive any faster?

And blow

You are not cutting Kermit!

Bagnalls

The first cut is the deepest

Friday 12th October 2012Saturday 13th October 2012Baggie

I have been regaling the world with tales of my enclave of the Bagnall family for nigh on four years. Many of these updates are planned; some are written out of necessity and are difficult because there were no major stories to base them around but there have also been a number of them that have been thrust upon me. This is one of those.

Most of these updates have photos to illustrate the stories behind them. A few have no photos. This is one of those.

So what has happened to necessitate an emergency update prior to Éowyn’s birthday?

Our story begins in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Lucinda had gone to bed feeling a little discomfort in her abdomen which we had put down to pregnancy grumbles, but at 0100 she woke me up saying that the pain was a little stronger and it felt like she needed to go to the loo. We put it down to a virus that is going round and although she had a disturbed night thought it was nothing more. I went to work the next day but kept in touch with her through the day to find out how she was feeling. She didn’t seem to be getting better and she couldn’t get an appointment at our local doctor’s surgery so I left work early so that she could go to the walk-in clinic at our local hospital (Ashford) – it no longer has an Accident and Emergency department like many hospitals around the country, it used to but now it just has this walk-in clinic.

She was at the clinic for around 90 minutes before she was seen and they worried her: her symptoms seemed to indicate appendicitis and that she needed to go to the ‘local’ Accident and Emergency department at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey (the hospital where both of our children were born). This is where living in the same village as your parents and brother comes in handy. With Éowyn and Amélie in safe hands we headed around the M25 (in rush hour) to St Peter’s.

We reported in to reception and were quickly seen by the triage nurse. Bloods were then taken and a cannula inserted in her hand and we were led to a bay to await a visit from the on duty doctor. Appendicitis in pregnancy is not uncommon, and in fact appendectomies are the most common need for surgery in pregnant women, however appendicitis in pregnancy can be notoriously difficult to diagnose as, due the growing foetus, the appendix will have been pushed up and back from its usual position. In addition not all of the usual symptoms (especially a fever) will be present.

The doctor we saw was excellent, she had a great bedside manner and quickly concluded that Lucinda did indeed have appendicitis and that she needed to be seen by the surgical team as soon as possible. As you are probably aware appendicitis is the clinical term for inflammation of the appendix which, if left untreated, leads to appendiceal rupture (a burst or perforated appendix) which can lead to peritonitis, septicaemia and even death. Obviously being pregnant complicates this somewhat. A conservative estimate for the mortality rate of a healthy adult with a perforated appendix receiving treatment is about 0.5%, for a pregnant woman it is 8 times higher with 1 in 25 of patients dying and the prognosis for the unborn baby is worse with 1.5% dying in women with appendicitis and over 1 in 3 dying should the appendix burst. Thankfully we were unaware of those odds at the time.

It is with those odds in mind that medical teams will err on the side of caution and always opt for the appendectomy. It is far better to remove a healthy appendix than run the risks of the above, especially since the risks of the procedure are far lower than hoping that it can be tamed with antibiotics (which is only in the case of a ‘grumbling’ appendix). Hence the removal rate of healthy appendices in pregnant women is higher than that in the population at large.

We were taken from the Accident and Emergency area to the Surgical Assessment Unit to await for the surgeons. Unfortunately we had just missed the surgeon’s rounds and they were not expecting him to come back for several hours. After waiting for several hours Lucinda and I decided that it was probably best for me to head home at relieve Lucinda’s dad of childcare duties and allow him to get some sleep. Lucinda had her phone and strict instructions to call me when the surgeon came. At 0200 the surgeon assessed Lucinda and basically told her to get ready for theatre. She called me and was obviously very scared especially as there seemed to be a debate between the surgical team and the obstetrician team over who was in charge and what pain relief and medication she was allowed. As many of you know when you are pregnant the only pain relief you can be given is paracetamol, nothing stronger and any medication given needs to be proven not to cause any issues to the unborn baby. Not necessarily what you want to hear when you are pregnant, in pain and scared.

Needless to say I didn’t sleep very well and I am sure that the girls knew that something was up and they had a disturbed night too. I got out of bed early and phoned the Surgical Assessment Unit. They told me that Lucinda was now under Midwifery care and so to call the Joan Booker ward. It took three attempts to get through to the Joan Booker ward to be told that they had no record of Lucinda and were just about to hang up on me when I became a little more assertive and before I really did get angry with their dismissive attitude they suggested that perhaps she might be on the Labour Ward. I called the Labour Ward (thank Tim Berners-Lee for the internet!) and got through to a very helpful Midwife. She went to check on Lucinda while I was on the phone and said that both Lucinda and our unborn son were in good health even if Lucinda was a little groggy.

Plan A then went into action. Amélie was dropped off at Nanny and Granddad’s after which I took Éowyn to pre-school before taking supplies to the hospital. Lucinda was a little groggy and in some discomfort but in good health and not in the pain that she was in the night before. Obviously the Labour Ward has a high demand for immediate bed space and so we were temporarily moved into a delivery room to allow more immediate needs to take Lucinda’s space on the ward before she was to be moved to the Joan Booker ward. In a quirk of fate the delivery room that we were moved to was the same delivery room that Amélie was born.

Before we were moved to the Joan Booker Ward the surgeon came to see Lucinda. He seemed very pleased with her progress and was quite happy to discharge her from his care into that of the midwifery team. He did confirm however that her appendix was extremely inflamed and close to rupture and because of its inflamed nature and the fact that in pregnant women the appendix will have moved he was unable to perform keyhole surgery and hence why she now has a 2 inch (5cm) scar. Again in a quirk of fate she received her first operation scar thirty years to the day that I received mine (although mine is slightly more impressive: a 10 inch sternotomy scar from open heart surgery).

Before moving down to the Joan Booker ward we requested to listen to the bubba’s heart beat. We knew that the midwife team were happy that all was OK in there, but we wanted physical reassurance of our own. We were both relieved when a really strong heartbeat resonated through the room.

Lucinda got stronger throughout Thursday but was starting to feel the two nights of lost sleep, so I left her in the late afternoon and headed for Nanny and Granddad’s for a home-cooked meal and to see my little girls. Again both the girls seemed to pick up on the fact that something was amiss and it took quite a while to settle Amélie before I could actually sit down and relax and eventually try and get some sleep of my own.

Friday morning started as Thursday: drop Amélie off at Nanny and Granddad’s, Éowyn at pre-school and then to St Peter’s. Lucinda looked much better but was still feeling sore. As anyone that has been in hospital would know it is not possible to get a good night’s sleep, especially when you are being woken every four hours to have your blood pressure and temperature taken and so it was for Lucinda. It wasn’t long before we were given the news that we wanted, Lucinda had been discharged from the surgical team and the midwife team were happy to do the same and so it would not be too long before she could go home. She also let us listen the bubba’s heartbeat once again and it was loud and proud. By all accounts if a pregnant woman is to have appendicitis the best time to have it is in the second trimester. In the first the foetus may not survive and in the third it can bring on contractions (indeed, one of the drugs Lucinda was given was an anti-contraction drug so that the surgery did not bring on labour). Therefore Lucinda chose well to suffer appendicitis in her 17th week.

Just after lunch the duty midwife came with Lucinda’s notes and medication – Paracetamol for pain relief and Enoxaparin, a anticoagulant to thin the blood to prevent thrombosis. The paracetamol was in the usual tablet form but the Enoxaparin is in a pre-filled disposable syringe and Lucinda has to give herself an subcutaneous injection once a day for the next five days, a small price to pay.

I have to praise the staff at St Peter’s and especially the midwifery team, they looked after Lucinda extremely well and the head midwife especially took an active role in Lucinda’s care.

So you will forgive the lack of photos and our elusiveness over the last couple of days but I think that the above is fair excuse and I thank my lucky stars that I still have my wife and unborn son even if Lucinda is making me honour the wedding vow ‘In sickness and in health‘.

Peace and Love

Baggie

Post Olympic glow

Tuesday 28th August 2012Thursday 30th August 2012Baggie

It is only a short few hours before the Paralympics hopefully picks up from where the Olympics left off. The whole of the UK still bathes in a post Olympic glow and not all down to the fact that it was our most successful games of the modern era (29 gold medals beaten only by our haul in the 1908 Olympics – also held in London) but the spirit that was generated by the whole event. Even the football stars are trying to use the country’s love of all things Olympian to try and raise its, sometimes, tarnished reputation. As a West Bromwich Albion fan I am very content that after 2 games of this season we are still undefeated. Olympics or no Olympics that makes for some very happy Yam-Yams!

It is August, the football seasons have arrived and as usual i am manically busy at work. Any regular readers to this blog and anyone that works with me will realise that August is a time when I get very little time for anything and so updates to the cyberworld are usually few and far between and days with my family are precious. However, two days off around the August Bank Holiday, Amélie asleep, Éowyn playing in her room and Lucinda shopping I thought I would try and take the opportunity and give a little update on the life in the Bagnall household.

As mentioned in the previous update after 3 years, Jo our childminder has given us notice and on the 21st August 2012 she looked after the girls for the last time. It is quite sad and it makes child care difficult as we have no true alternative, there may be lots of trips to Nanny and Granddad and Lucinda and myself taking days off work when possible. The joys of ‘family-orientated policies’ of this and previous governments. Nevertheless we will find a way, it will just require more advanced planning on our behalf.

Nanny and Granddad have spent the majority of the Summer with at least one, and on a number of occasions with all of their grandchildren playing at their house. Although this must be a nightmare (in a nice way) for them – and they are truly knackered at the end of the day – it is fabulous for the girls for they get to spend a lot of time with their older cousins who genuinely enjoy playing with the two little ones, even if they can be a little bit of a handful at times. I am sure that Nanny and Granddad enjoy it too and running after them all sure keeps them young and fit sometimes I am not sure how they do it I can be knackered after looking after just Éowyn and Amélie for the day.

Amélie has been worrying us a little of late. As anyone with kids will recognise (and I am sure ours are no different to any others), kids tend to go through growth spurts. That is, their growth pattern is not a constant rate but moreover a series of rapid growth spurts followed by a filling out. It is almost as though they bulk out, then stretch and then bulk out again. Amélie has just gone through one of these stages but during her growth spurt she seemed to lose and inordinate amount of weight and we were worried that there was something else. It is something that we will speak to the dietician when we next see her, for we went to see the doctor and the doctor assured us that there was nothing seriously wrong but admitted that it was a specialist question and that she did not feel qualified enought to advise. I think that is fair enough and since there was nothing seriously wrong and now that her growth spurt has ended she has begun to bulk out once again.

However, we have once again become really strict on removing all Cow’s Milk Protein from her diet to ensure that her intolerance wasn’t having any effect on the weight loss. Obviously she doesn’t get any dairy products per se but Cow’s Milk Protein is used in many foods that one would never realise, such as flavoured crisps. In our processed food world milk proteins can find their way into many foods and with one child that loves dairy food, inevitably there will be times when Amélie eats something meant for Éowyn. Now Cow’s Milk Protein intolerance does not mean that she will go into shock or come out in hives, but it does cause her pain and discomfort and, without painting too graphic a picture, doesn’t make her nappies very pleasant. A case in point was the other day when Amélie ate a yoghurt intended for Éowyn. Éowyn who is acutely aware that Amélie shouldn’t have any dairy, got upset because a) Amélie had eaten her yoghurt and b) Amélie shouldn’t have yoghurt (except her own Soya yoghurts). All was fine until the night when Amélie woke up screaming and I went into her and she hugged me tight saying ‘Daddy, it hurts.‘ Unfortunately there is nothing you can do except comfort her. At least when we see the dietician we can categorically say that she still has the intolerance.

Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz came to stop with Auntie Mary for Bank Holiday weekend, unfortunately I was working on that Saturday and Sunday so Lucinda took Éowyn and Amélie to visit their Aunties and Nanny. Although they were both very happy to see their Black Country relatives Éowyn was a little disappointed that her new best friend, Louise, wasn’t there. It was while they were there that Amélie first used her new phrase. She has been bouncing on the mini trampoline that Auntie Mary has and had fallen over. Everyone laughed and she stood up, pointed her finger at them, stamped her feet and said: ‘It’s not funny!‘ Cue howls of laughter. This has quickly become her new catchphrase and she keeps using it to the delight of everyone that hears it.

Although Éowyn’s new best friend, Louise, wasn’t at Auntie Mary’s, she does have a new best friend that she quite regularly sees. You may recall that last year Éowyn had an imaginary friend called Sam that came with us on holiday to Kent. He was quite a special friend as he could be small enough to fit on your thumb or be bigger than daddy depending on the day. He spent around a month in her life and then nothing more was said. A couple of months ago she acquired a new imaginary friend (or quasi-corporeal companion to give them their technical name) a brother (in her words) called Dizzy. She and Dizzy spend a lot of time together and he often tells her things that they should be doing and apparently they go on lots of adventures together. She hasn’t really described Dizzy too much and I haven’t pushed it too much as his appearances were very scant but now they are becoming more regular and she speaks of him several times a day I will delve a little more and see what I can find out about Dizzy.

Apologies for the lower than usual number of photos but as I am the photographer in the family (although a number of the photos below were taken by Éowyn and she seems to be following in Daddy’s footsteps) and I haven’t spent much time with the family then I do not have the breadth of photos to call upon. Will try harder for next time.

Peace and Love

Baggie