In the wars

Last Thursday Hayley went in to hospital to have some scheduled but rather urgent knee surgery. She had been trying to rest her knee but the Christening meant that plan went out of the window. On leaving hospital she was advised to rest her knee and not to stand for more than 20 minutes in an hour.

On Friday and over the weekend I was there to help. But since I went back to work today these guidelines have been hard to follow with a baby and a toddler in tow. Friends have helped where they can. One took Oliver to playgroup today. Another is taking him to nursery tomorrow and hopefully for a play-date with her son afterwards.

Over the weekend we were due to go to a party, my Mum coming up to babysit overnight. In the event she decided she couldn't stay over but still baby-sat while we went out. We were out for no more than two and a half hours and while there my slightly upset stomach of the afternoon progressed to full-on nausea. I couldn't even look at the delicious food and while others sipped champagne, my strongest tipple was pepto-bismol from my host's medicine cabinet. Hayley managed to accomodate a walking stick into her fancy-dress outfit but in any case spent most of the party sitting down.

The one up-side of me being ill was that by not drinking I actually felt less than
a complete wreck when I woke on Sunday morning to get up with Oliver and Lucy at 7am. I couldn't help thinking of everyone else who attended though. We were the only couple who had to get up with our kids the next day, everyone else having the help of overnighting grandparents or having dropped off their darlings before going to the party. Still, no-one forced us to have kids and we always knew we'd be pretty much on our own with my Mum the closest grandparent at an hour away and everyone else effectively just occasional turns on the stage of our children's lives.

More concerning than our own woes though is that Lucy has been ill for the last few days, in fact we think we can trace it back at least a couple of weeks. She has been throwing up all her milk some evenings as she goes to bed. Her nappies are also very frequent, runny and smell very bad. She has lost weight and we also noticed her belching at odd times of the day when she'd had neither food nor milk.

Today Hayley took her to the doctor who tentatively diagnosed two things. Firstly, she may be lactose intolerant so milk is now off the menu and we have moved to SMA-LF, a lactose free milk. This condition may not be permanent. It can disappear by age 12-18 months. The second condition diagnosed was some reflux which can be treated with Gaviscon in her milk. Hopefully this too will disappear in a similar timcescale. In fact, the doctor said his own daughter suffered from it but grew out of it.

Little Lucy never complains much despite her woes. Even when she has thrown up vast amounts of milk and food all over herself and Hayley, after a few seconds of tears she then often musters a little smile. It tugs at the heart-strings I can tell you.

Last night she must have wondered what on earth was going on. We managed to get her to bed without her being sick. A couple of hours later we came to bed ourselves (in the same room... yes we still haven't moved her!). No sooner were we in bed than we heard the unmistakeable sound of a nappy being filled. So we both got up, put the light on and changed her in her cot. SHe woke up and smiled at us. We largely managed to avoid eye contact as this is supposed to encourage her back to sleep. Then we cleaned up and went back to bed. Only one of us had made it under the covers before we heard the same sound again. The light went on again and the process was repeated. This time Lucy was making cute little shrieks and smiling madly at us. Resistance was crumbling as we smiled back. After a while we went back to bed. But not for long. About 45 minutes later a third explosion was heard and we got up again. After this change she wouldn't settle and in the end we were up for an hour.

Today hasn't been much better. As she woke she set the tone for the day with a runny nappy and Hayley reported that she has either had to change her or clear up sick for much of the day. And yet she is still one of the happiest babies I ever saw. TOngiht while Hayley went out for an hour, I sat on the sofa reading books to Oliver while Lucy sat and played next to me, occasionally entertaining herself by biting my arm. Her favourite trick right now though is to bite my nose but ever so gently, which makes me laugh, in turn making her laugh and repeating the trick.

Other pastimes for Lucy right no are to give Mummy kisses: very similar in fashion to Oliver at around the same age. She also waved to me unaided this morning when I waved goodbye to her from the door.

So Oliver is currently the healthiest member of the household, with only the occasional runny nose to boast.

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