Chillin' with the illin' baby

Sue went to the doctor's yesterday and it's official - Emily is ill. She's got a virus and a fever.

This would go a long way to explaining her crabby, unhappy temperament the last few days and why her face has been covered in green bogies and why she sneezes alot!

Sue's managed to come down with a cold as well, which isn't surprising. I'm trying to fight off infection too, but it's hard when you have a young child who hasn't developed social niceties yet - like hand in front of mouth when sneezing or coughing. I've had to wipe my glasses more than once because Emily's nasal cavities have let loose on my face. Not the best way to stay healthy.

We've also had a large amount of vomit from the little lady. This is more than likely a mix of snot in her belly and overfeeding for comfort. The latest happened today when I picked her up to comfort her after a drink and a coughing session that didn't seem to end. Well, it did end with me covered in milk and stomach acid.

About the only brightside to this is Sue managed to get a 'scrip for Calpol for Em, so we got it free, saving a whopping £2. It's not a terribly good brightside.

Sick little bunny

For the last day or so, Em's been feeling quite ropey. It's the first real time she's had to deal with feeling ill - green bogies, chesty cough, just looking and feeling rough.

I guess it's true that an ill person - at any age - acts the same. She's lying on the couch at the moment looking at Sue with pleading eyes for a drink having just had enough to fall asleep with. "Please do everything for me," it's the sick person's cry at any age.

Sue's been using the booger sucker we got from Boots overtime to keep the green loogies clear from Emily's nose, and getting ill herself in the meantime. I guess it's true what they say about having ill children - the whole family collapses like a house of cards.

Coming to grips with being ill, Em's been tired all day, but not been able to sleep. She's been rubbing her eyes, but when she's about the fall asleep she opens her eyes and starts crying. It's like being ill has given her extra energy. Obviously, she's overtired and in pain, so hence she can't get to sleep.

The most harrowing aspect of dealing with her being ill is when she gets to sleep, she'll scream in pain for a couple of seconds in her sleep. It's really quite disconcerting.

At least with colds and flus, it's never for long and I imagine that this is only helping her immune system get used to the thousands of colds she'll endure in her lifetime.

Yakety Yak

It seems like there's something with Em.

Sue's called a couple of times this morning to let me know that Emily has vomited a few times. They started off milky and now are apparently bile.

Previously when she's vommed, we've put it down to teething, over feeding, or other things. As none of the previous issues apply, we can't for the life of us think what would be causing this new bout - apart from a tummy bug.

Apparently she's also vomiting up what looks like pumpkin seeds, so we might be able to start a garden centre (because neither of us have fed her anything resembling said item).

Sue's called NHS Direct and if Em yaks up two more feeds, it's off to the doctor, on their emergency number - as the doctor doesn't work Wednesday afternoon (of course!)

best piece of advice

Emily got me this book for father's day about being a dad, written by a dad. It's broken down by month and tells you what to expect (baby's sitting up, baby's playing with toys, etc.)

The one piece of wisdom that has finally sunk in having read and re-read it is: babies get distracted easily and can forget what they were doing. It's offered in the context of "if you punish your baby after they've done something, chances are they haven't the foggiest thing what you are punishing them for."

This also works the other way. As long as there's no outstanding issue like hunger, illness, etc. you can really turn your baby's mood around by simply distracting him or her.

I've been using this diligently for the last week or so and it's come in pretty handy, apart from when Em's exhausted and just wants to cry cry cry.

Teething again. Again.

Emily and I had a nice evening tonight. It's been Sue's first night back at Uni for a while. We had a playful trip home on the train and a lovely dinner time.

It all fell apart when it came time for sleepies. The teething issues came back full force. Em didn't want the Calpol, and fell asleep after a bottle. ALMOST into REM sleep, she started howling ... eyes closed, in her sleep.

It was horrible.

Teething. Again.

Over the weekend, Emily has gone from the normally happy placid baby she is to a crying, drooling, almost feverish baby. Yep! Teething time again.

Last night I was trying to get her to sleep and she was happy as you like until the pain kicked in, and the tears and the drool came streaming. The look on her face would break your heart. The look was like she was almost apologising for not being a good girl and for crying and making noise. The tears came streaming while she was fighting to fall asleep, which came mercifully quick.

Emily is also eating more for comfort these past couple of days (rather than hunger). This has resulted in her vomiting not once but twice all over mummy on Sunday. It seems when she's drinking the pain is less, so why not drink forever? Well there's a hideous stench of rotten milk that would be a very good reason #1 not to drink forever.

I guess the first test of any human and their pain tolerance is teething (or circumcision if you're a boy). I'm just thankful in some ways that these early days won't be remembered when she's older.

Aqua Tots

This morning was our first class for Aqua Tots. From 9 - 9.30am Em and I kicked about and had a jolly good time in the pool down in Whyteleaf.

We're going again for another 10 or 11 weeks, until early December.

Something I didn't realise until Sue mentioned it was that everyone in the pool with their child was a dad. I guess that's what you expect for a Saturday class. Weekdays are strictly for mums.

Em has been in the pool a number of times before, so it didn't come as a shock to her. She seemed to have a good time and was eyeing up other babies and parents with her mega-watt smile.

When we were in Spain with Paul we were dunking Em under, but apparently we have to wait until week 4 at Aqua Tots to do that.

She'll be quite the pro.

Heavy Child

Now they're back from Oz, Sue went down and got Emily weighed and measured. She's now topping almost 10 kg (that's around 22 lbs in old money!). Quite the weight to lug around. No wonder my arms are a bit tingly after holding her for any length of time.

She's also 73 cm which my quick math told me is almost 2.5 ft (as a foot is 30 cm), so she's growing quite tall as well, which is all good.

Today we also have my mum and dad visiting which will be nice. It'll be the first time dad will have met Emily which will be cool. His first grand child experience.

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Now playing: Mesh - I Can't Imagine How It Hurts
via FoxyTunes

Recognition never realised

Managed to pick Sue and Em up at Heathrow this morning. Their plane landed at 5.30... in the AM!

I got there just before 6am, having had quite a turbulent non-sleep (waking every hour until about 4am where I gave up on sleep).

I was quite excited to see my girls return, quite aware that it would be bittersweet having left the bosom of family to come back to a husband/dad that would be absent most days.

What I wasn't really prepared for was Emily. The look on her face when I saw her was a complete blank - nothing that could be confused for recognition crossed her face. To her, I was another person to meet. This was upsetting, but as she'd spent 1/6th of her life away from me, I wasn't completely surprised.

I was prepared slightly for how big she'd gotten, but I'll never forget that first glimpse of her when Sue carried her out of the arrivals hall. It was just really odd... almost like "who is this creature"?

I'd been a dad for 5 months, then a singleton for a month and now I'm back to being a dad, exactly where I want to be.

Child care

It's funny, when you have a child you want the best for them... sorry THE BEST. No frozen fish fingers or sugary drinks, let's go fishing ourselves and squish some fruit to make drinks.

I think pretty early on you have to realise you're not superman and take some of the staunch views you develop as Ideal Parent and relax them a bit.

I came across an article at the CBC about a new style of daycare that's 99% outdoors. Yes, outdoors ... all the time .... in Canada (near Ottawa). You can imagine how hot in the summer and how bone-chillingly cold in the winter it would be, but the article made some sound points about battling obesity and other ills that children of today face.

They also mentioned these types of child care centres are quite popular in places like the UK! So, with Ideal Dad hat on, I plan to find one of these marvels of child rearing and see if it'll be possible to send Emily there, to experience nature, not be sick and be healthy enough she won't get obese.

Oh pipe dreams.

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Now playing: Erasure - Love to Hate You
via FoxyTunes

Real Food

Image via WikipediaSue tells me that not only is Emily growing by leaps and bounds down under, she's also eating toast!! That's real food.

All I've seen her eat so far (or fed her) is bland looking mush - baby rice, or blended up veg.

Toast is a big deal, although Sue tells me Em is sucking on it more than eating it, so I may not be missing too much.


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Now playing: New Order - Here To Stay
via FoxyTunes

large and in charge

The count down is on until the girls get back and I, for one, can't wait!

The word on the phone is that Emily is large and in charge. Rolling from back to tummy, almost walking (not!) and ready to start Uni!

We've been buying those "you will know it's time to turn the page" books for her which is a hoot. I had them as a kid - complete with dodgy little 33 1/3rd 7" vinyl. Of course, as Emily is a child of another century - her books come with CD!

In other news, apparently Emily might have problems later in life as she was a large child. According to a number of online articles, the larger the baby the more the risk of breast cancer at a later date.

WONDERFUL! I'd better get my hugs in when they get back next week in that case.