Last week I learnt a number of new things (as I do constantly with this parenting malarkey)...
1. Not to buy a high chair, or indeed any large object which you can't carry, whilst alone with a baby. On a whim, in Toys R Us, I got carried away with myself. I paid for said large object, sauntered over to the collection point where the lady passed me a huge box...ahh, not sure what I'm going to do here.
"Ooh I can't carry that and push this pram" I realised out loud
"And even if I put the pram in the car, I can't carry both a baby and a box, can I..." (yes I admit this was almost a question.
"Do you do a carry to car service?"
The look on her face said,
"Are you kidding me, have you seen the queue, I am here on my own, what do you think?"
I gave her my very best 'I'm a new mum and may well cry if you don't help me' smile,
"I'm literally just outside the door" I attempted (I wasn't obviously but there was no way I was going to say otherwise, I'd be lynched by some of the slightly dodgy looking characters behind me).
"Right, come on then", she managed to say through gritted teeth. To be fair she was actually lovely under the circumstances!
2. When babies have a cold they sometimes don't take to their milk. One night last week we had a full bed change, and no not because I still haven't been doing those blasted pelvic floors. Snotty nose, lots of sneezing, huge gulps of milk, sit up to wind and whooosh. The torrent was so loud that G Kisby woke up (or was it that his OCD has some sort of night alert system that kicked in?) Lovely.
3. You are always best to get looking for child care as early as possible. People told me this, I knew this, and yet I seemed to be in some sort of weird new baby bubble which has only just started to pop. We now have the added stress of finding somewhere with the right vacancies as well as somewhere which is right. I'm just not sure what the solution is to this, I genuinely couldn't have dealt with it that much earlier.
G Kisby is on holiday from work this week so we are spending some quality time together, doing some good family trips out and visiting childcare options for when I return to work.
We've both committed to spending less time on the internet and more time talking (this doesn't count - he is in the shower). We started this commitment last night with a baked Camembert, crusty bread and a large glass of red wine or two...yum yum and yum!
So Mabel had her first injections yesterday. Not a particularly pleasant experience but with G Kisby off work there was plenty of moral support. I did well up slightly when she looked at me in horror as it took place but managed to keep it together and retain some composure.
A lovely walk home in the sunshine and a cup of coffee at the farm shop certainly helped proceedings.
However, at tea time she suddenly became hysterical. She very very rarely screams with such ferocity (during her injections being one of only a couple of times) so this was pretty alarming. After an age (in hindsight probably about 10 mins but time is seriously effected by noise at that level) we tried the 'fall back' option of a soother in the form of a nipple (I know I moved away from this following the 'regain control' regime of week 6, don't judge me).
However, said soother didn't work. She couldn't keep it in her mouth due to the screams, which continued unabated. At this point I really started to worry. Never before has the option of food been unsuccessful at calming her down and G Kisby even admitted this to be the case. We tried changing her nappy and her by now very wet babygrow (excessive saliva issue) to no avail, although we did notice that her leg where the injections had been was very red and swollen.
Force feeding attempt number two had even less success, at which point I suggested we rang NHS direct for advice. 10 minutes or so later, with me following G Kisby round the house (how annoying when you are trying to speak over a crying baby) asking, "what did they say" repeatedly, we had an appointment made with the 'out of hours' surgery at Huddersfield hospital.
What a relief that she would be checked; I passed Mabes over to G Kisby whilst I went for the wee I had needed about an hour earlier.
Fortunately, or unfortunately (depending on whether you are viewing it from an understaffed NHS perspective) Mabel felt the relief also and fell asleep in G Kisby's arms.
Ahhh, maybe she isn't about to have major organ failure due to an allergic reaction to the injections after all, or if she is she seems pretty o.k with it right now.
We decided to go along anyway, since we'd made the appointment and I was conscious that if she woke and it started again we'd be back to square one. The doctor said about 3 words (not sure it this was because he didn't speak good English or because he was literally flabbergasted at us bringing in a perfectly settled sleeping baby to an out of hours surgery). I think we must have literally had 'new parents' in flashing lights above our heads. He prescribed us, and I'm not sure how he didn't laugh, calpol. Yep, we went to hospital to get some calpol.
Our baby appears to have been suffering with a sore leg which I am happy to report is now fully better and she is back on great form (sleeping no less than 7 hours in a row last night, woo).
Her parents meanwhile were suffering with a small case of paranoia (though I reckon I'd do the same again, is there anything more scary than your child being unwell?)
She is changing loads at the moment. Here she is with her Auntie Vicki:
And yes we are back to dressing her in boys clothes again, but who can resist a striped knitted Gap number?
We've both committed to spending less time on the internet and more time talking (this doesn't count - he is in the shower). We started this commitment last night with a baked Camembert, crusty bread and a large glass of red wine or two...yum yum and yum!
