Sharing the love

Ok sharing is caring and all that crap, but really do some things have to be shared?

It's me doing the sharing this time though, the kind person that I am. Yep I've passed on my delightful gastro bug to Grace and maybe Duane.

Grace & I spent Sunday afternoon visiting Trude. Grace had a snooze on the couch, whilst Trude and I chatted and munched on Aldi Chocolate bullets and Trudy's homemade raspberry muffins....Yum. When Grace woke up she was a little quiet, but soon perked up when Trude offered her some marshmallows and a chance to dig around in her dress up box. We left around 5.30pm and Grace was still fine, not showing any signs of feeling sick.

After dinner I asked her if she would like some custard, normally a stupid question - she always wants custard. Well this time she didn't, then kept saying that her tummy was sore. Of course. I guess if was only a matter of time.

Nothing else came of it until 1am in the morning when we heard screaming coming from Grace's room. We both raced in and poor Grace was sitting in the bed crying with the remnants of last nights roast chicken scattered around her. Her sheets were stripped and shoved straight into the washing machine, towels were layed down on our bed and she came in with us. The night was a haze of Grace moaning, heaving and then spewing into a towel. After each time I would whisk the towel out and grab a new one, gosh we went through about a dozen towels during the night. Poor little thing was so scared and frightened about the vomiting, but still managed to sleep between.

Duane woke to get ready for work, had breakfast and then promptly upended it all in the toilet. So after a call to work he crawled back into bed with us. He was a little tired, but fine for the rest of the day, he thinks he might just have been vomiting after seeing Grace vomit, cause it didn't feel like gastro.

We had a very low key day at home, just watching endless amounts of Tv. Shocking, but there's not much you can do when the whole house is feeling like they are dying. Xav has so far not joined in, but he has come down with a green snotty nose - so maybe he'll go the cold route and not the gastro one.

Every time Grace had something to drink or eat (dry crackers) she would just vomit it straight up again. She kept saying she was starving and wanted something to eat. I made her up a drink of gastrolyte, but she wouldn't drink it, so I went out and got some of the hydralyte icypoles. I was gone about 45mins, and Duane said she vomited 3 times.

She loved the icypoles, downing 2 straight away and pleading for more. She kept on perking up and telling us that she was feeling better and needed to eat and then in the next second she was back to laying down and looking terrible.

She hadn't vomited for a while, so we covered her bed in towels and put her in there. Well along came 1am again and once again she was crying out for us, vomit everywhere. She spent the rest of the night in our bed, vomiting up bright green bile - which I can only guess is from the icy poles. It was another long, long night and to top it all off, I have woken with a head cold. My sinus's are blocked, my throat is thick and mucousy and my head is feeling like it is about to explode.

Grace has been ok this morning(scrap that she just vomited AGAIN), she managed to keep down some weetbix and another icy pole. We are having another quiet, lazy day in front of the box watching back-to-back episodes of playschool. None of us have any energy for anything else. I'm also frantically trying to get all the washing done whilst it's not raining. I have a lot of towels, and they are all either on the line or in the washing machine.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some energy back and I can disinfect everything and be rid of this horrible bug forever. All the floors need doing, the toilet needs scrubbing, the bathroom and all door handles need disinfecting. All washing has been given a hot wash and a dose of canestan, I know it's for fungal things but made me feel better. Hopefully the hot sun will kill any other remaining germs.

Also, the kids haven't been taking their immune care drugs, so might prirotise a trip back to the naturopath to stock up. NO WAY do I want a repeat of last years cycle of sickness. Actually, I've just been reminded that this is my first cold in 4 years that I can take drugs! If I start feeling worse, I'm getting them.

Ok, the kids are due for a sleep and I don't normally join them, but today I need to.

Gastro

The last 2 days have been absolute crap, pun intended.

Thursday morning I was feeling fine. The kids were having a great time at playgroup, running around and being monsters - We've had so much rain lately that I think they were expending all there pent up energy! We headed home and Xav had a snooze and Grace played in the lounge quietly whilst I browsed some sites on the internet.

My stomach was starting to churn a little, but nothing too bad. After the kids woke up we headed to the CHN for Grace's 3 y/o check (more on that in another entry), then to Robina TC for a look around. I was still feeling ok, just a bit off and a tight knot of something developing in my tummy.

Grace was tired as she had gone 3 days without a day sleep, that combined with the early morning of 6am convinced her to put on one of her best meltdown performances ever. She was screaming and totally inconsolable, no amount of talking to her was going to calm her down or snap her out of it. So I sat on the floor of Kmart, hugging her and reminding her to take deep breaths. Finally she calmed down and then in the next instant she was back to being my polite, happy little girl. The only other time that I have seen her so irrational was the Tantrum we had walking back from the park last month, but this time we both handled it better. Last time if I let her go it could have been dangerous and I also had Xav that I had to contain, but this time Xav was contained in the pram so I could give her my full attention.

Anyway, I was still feeling a little quessy so we headed home. I got inside and noticed a few black things on the door of the pantry. I opened it up and there were a gazillion more little black things, and they were moving. ANTS!!! Dammit, I hate the little suckers. Getting into every nook and cranny, invading the inside of the honey jar and wedging themselves up into the lid crevices of everything. Hate them.

We had a problem with them a few months ago, got the pest guy out who found a nest behind the pantry. He got rid of them for us, but seems the little critters are back - along with all their bloody relatives and friends. I slammed the cupboard shut and may or may not have uttered the "F" word. Did I mention I hated ants? Anyway straight onto the phone to Mr "I will guarantee the aants will be gone forever" and demanded that he come back and kill them. All's good and he is coming back tomorrow. Although he has asked that I refrain from wacking each and every one of them over the head, seems he wants to find where they are coming from and would prefer a live trail, not just a trail of squashed black dots. It's a hard ask though, they are everywhere and I can't even stand looking at them as they scatter around.

So my tummy is still churning, but not enough to turn me off making seafood marinara for dinner. It was so yummy, full of prawns, fish, calamari and salmon. Didn't taste too good on the way out though.

About 8pm my stomach was feeling heavy and a bit strange so I headed to bed. I read a bit, tossed and turned but just couldn't relax enough to sleep. About 10.30 I made the first of a million trips to the toilet. I'd just get back into bed and the dreaded feeling would return and I would be rushing to the toilet again. It wasn't until about 3am that I actually starting spewing though, wouldn't have been too bad if it was just diarrohea - I hate, hate spewing. I hate the feeling, I hate the after taste, I hate spewing up bile and I hate having to pick the spewy bits out of my wisdom tooth hole. Just gross. Spewing would have to be high on my list of hated things. Even above ants.

As nice as it is to just be able to spew and flush, I just can't spew into the toilet. So I chucked in the laundry sink, with the water running and the lights out so I didn't have to look at the mess. In true gastro style there were times when both ends where demanding to be emptied at the same time, so a bucket was necessary. Very attractive.

Duane ask if I wanted him to take the day off work. Having Friday off is not a good look, so I sent him on his way and said that I'd call if I needed him to come home. I thought that I'd be ok and just laze around whilst the kids watch TV. Well seems that there was still plenty left in me that wanted to come out.

Xav woke around 6am (he hasn't woken this early for ages). So he's crying from his cot and yelling out for me, in between spews I'm telling him that I'll be in soon. I was so weak and exhausted, that the thought of doing anything but passing out was beyond me. So I called the MIL to come help out for a few hours.

Grace was suppossed to have her last day at old CC, but I was in no way able to drive her there. She probably conspired for this to happen anyway, she'd been saying all week that she wasn't going! Anyway the mil turned up, I was laying pitifully on the couch whilst the kids were running around eating milk arrowroots for breakfast, cause that's all that Grace could reach out of the cupboard. I really didn't give a damn though, they could have been eating anything and I wouldn't have cared. I handed over the reigns to Wendy then went to bed.

Grace was being an absolute sweetheart, coming up and asking if I was getting better and if there was anything that she could get me. I asked her for a cuddle, but she said no she didn't want to get too close cause I smelt like poo and looked funny. I probably did, but having a shower would have required energy that I didn't have. So I layed around a little longer in my grossness.

So the Mil fed them and amused them for a few hours then had to head off. Xav went to bed and Grace and I hung out in my room with the aircon going. Duane came home at 2pm, and I spent the rest of the afternoon asleep. I didn't eat at all during the day, but come dinner time I was starting to get hungry. There was nothing in the house that even tempted me, so I sent Duane out for chicken noodle soup and plain white bread - gosh I can't even remember the last time I ate white bread, but something about eating grainy bread wasn't appealing to me. He came back with creamy chicken noodle soup, I just wanted plain cambells chicken noodle soup. Anway, I ate a piece of the bread dunked in the soup and called it a night.

I'm nearly back to feeling 100% today. Just a bit weak and tired, but all in all ok. I just hope that whatever it was doesn't get passed around. Xav did wake this morning with a poo in his nappy, very unusual for him. His penis was really red and swollen, if it doesn't get better with his cream I'll have to take him back to the Dr. He keeps on touching it and saying "Owwies", the end looks so painful. Because he was born with the foreskin already retracted, I have to make sure that it is cleaned properly. We do do this, so I'm not sure why he keeps getting little infections. He does seem to have an excessive amount of foreskin, but the surgeon assured me that it all looked fine and no surgery was necessary. I'm not really sure what else we can do.

Duane's at golf, so I'm spending the morning cleaning up this horrid house. I can't seem to keep up with it at the moment, I am constantly cleaning and tidying but you would never tell. The washing is all backed up because of the all the rain we have had lately. We have been having lots of hot day too, just seems the rain likes to start when I am driving home and can't get there quick enough to get the clothes off the line. I dislike using the dryer for a bunch of reasons, but might have to suck it up as I am on to my "comfy" undies and the kids are running out of clothes.

First day of Pre-school

Well after a year of mainstream childcare, Grace still wasn't enjoying it. She had settled in for a few months, but the last few months have been unbearable for both of us. If school is mentioned she insists that she doesn't want to go. Dropping her there has been a nightmare, full of crying and clinging desperately to my legs. Every time I've picked her up she is upset and apparently has been since after sleep time. The carers all seem nice enough and insist that she has had a good day, but been shy, quiet and upset.

Every time I go into the childcare room it just seems so chaotic with kids running everywhere, screaming and yelling. In the 3-5 y/o room there is about 30 kids, with all but 5 being boys. In the room beside that is the 2-3 y/o's, with another 25 or so kids. The kids are separate for eating and sleeping, but mix up together for the majority of the time. So you can imagine how many children are together at the one time, crazy. The carers all seem to have it under (some) control, but I can see how some kids get lost in all the chaos. Grace seems to be one of them.

I know that its harder for her as she only goes 1 day a week and effectively has to refit in every week. Most of the other kids go either for the whole week or at least 2 days, so they tend to rule to roost.

Anyway, I have found a perfect alternative. It's a Steiner pre-school for 3-5 y/o's. It's not too far from here and is set in a house that has been turned into a little school. The house is set on 1/2 acre of lovely shaded land, with a gigantic sandpit, large tree house cubby, swing set, worm farm, vegie garden and chooks wandering around.

After picking Grace up from Daycare last week and once again being greeted by her being so upset, I went straight to the Steiner centre to see how far up the wait list she was. It must have been my lucky day cause there was a space for a Monday and even though she wasn't at the top of the wait list, we got the spot!!!

She was excited and I was excited. So her old daycare was cancelled (she still has to go next Friday), and she started the new one today!

I left Xav with Wendy, and Grace and I headed up to her new school. She was excited as she had remembered playing with the wooden eggs and kitchen last time we were there. When we arrived only 1 child was there already, so we headed out to the backyard to have a look around. Grace was a little shy to start with, but after a while she was playing on the obstacle course and yelling out for me to watch her as she balanced on the beams. I showed her where the toilet was, where her bag would be and also where to get a drink when she wanted one. Each child is assigned a symbol for the day and the symbol will be on all the things that they use, ie chair, cup, plate, locker etc.

The kids all play outside until 9.30am when everyone gets together in a big circle to sing the morning song and to say goodbye to the parents. I gave Grace a big hug, her eyes were a little misty, but she was happy to go off with everyone to play. I can't describe how much nicer it is to leave her relatively happy and not bawling her eyes out.

She was so happy when I picked her up, busy taking the baby clothes on and off the line. She had a great day and spent the rest of the afternoon excitedly telling us everything that she had been doing.

I know that she is going to do so much better here, there is such a better feel to the place.

Xax @ 18 months

Xav had his 18 month check-up today at the Child Health Clinic.

It was handy having the reinforcements (Mum) with me, both kids were bursting with energy and bouncing of the walls. Poor clinic nurse was a bit overwhelmed and kept saying how "busy" they both are. I've been around long enough now to understand that "busy" is another term for "full on little terrors", my kids get called "busy" A LOT!

Anyway Xav passed with flying colours. I don't tend to take too much notice of what is right and wrong according to the clinic nurses, I just like the check so that I can get accurate weight, height, head and a general track of how they are going developmentally. I lost all confidence with them when Xav's lack of weight was constantly banged on about. He gained a lot in his first 6 months and then slowed down, but apparently that wasn't tracking the curve right. Also he was still having overnight feeds which according to the "schedule" he should have given up by then. Anyway, I was supposed to go back after his 12 month check, but being the know it all that I am, just ignored it.

So now the little boy weighs 11.5kg, which is just below the 50th % and a whole 1kg less than tubby Grace weighed at the same age. He is 85.5cm tall which is halfway between the 75th and the 90th %. His beautiful little head is measuring 48cm, which is smack bang on the 50th%. So tall, lean with an average head. Sounds perfect!

The clinic nurse was very surprised when she undressed him to notice he was just in undies. She did keep eying him suspiciously, probably half expecting to be covered in wee if she wasn't quick with the re-dress! She also said that she hadn't seen any other child (especially a boy) trained that early.

His talking and comprehension is apparently quite advanced (her words). I don't think that his talking is that impressive, but I know that his comprehension is really good for his age. He does say a lot of words, but many of them are only understood by us. The main words he can say at 18 months are ball, door, bowl, Xav-ya, baby, up, who's that?, what's that?, so-shoes, nose, eyes, ABC, wee, poo, hat, mine (usually screamed), me, banana, book, sh-it (sit), bum, smack, pig, baa, Mama, Daddy, car, toot, quack and probably a ton more that I can't remember.

He sure knows how to get his point across though. If Xav is hungry he goes and gets a bowl out of the drawer, comes and grabs my hand and leads me to either the fridge or the cupboard depending on what he wants. His appetite rivals Grace, they both spend the day eating me out of house and home. He loves all fruit, olives, sultanas, dates, rice crackers, water crackers, milk arrowroot biscuits, carrot, pasta, rice, vegetables and pretty much anything else that is offered to him. He drinks water all day, both out of a cup and his sippy cup and has started again having a cup of milk before bed time.

All in all he is growing beautifully! He has many "boy" traits, such as loving anything with wheels, anything that makes a noise, anything that he can throw and anything that he can hit (including his sister!) Xav also has a softer side too, especially when he's wandering around the house with a string of beads around his neck, a pair of pink dora undies (I found some that I had bought for Grace but they are too small!) and pushing his dolly around in the pram!

Baby making

Well after 3 weeks of sitting pitifully on her nest and not budging we have decided to grant Silkie her wish, babies. Now as we don't have a rooster in the house there is absolutely no chance of any hanky panky for her, so we did the next best thing and ordered a clutch of fertile eggs - kinda like egg donation for chickens!

They are sitting on my bench right now, waiting for night to come so we can shove them under the broody hen and hope that she stays there.

I've marked each egg with the word "baby", so we can tell them apart from the other chook eggs. Silkie has a special milk crate to go over the top of her for a few days, so the other chooks learn to lay somewhere else. If it all things go to plan, we should have little beaks breaking out of eggs in 21 days!! How exciting! We are going to keep the chicks until they are a few months old, then give them back to the breeder. No doubt one will stay with us though, just not any of the crowing variety.

Its all very exciting. Due date for hatching will be around the 7th March, which is my birthday - what a present that would be!