January 2013 In Hindsight

2013 does not seem to have got off to a brilliant start for me, as I've already had two trips to Casualty; thankfully for the second one I did not have to arrive by ambulance.

So this second trip was last Wednesday night. Wed arvo at 4.30pm I was putting Annie in the car when she suddenly saw a bird and flipped her arm around to point at it, but she stuck her finger in my eye. It hurt possibly more than anything I've ever felt; after I'd managed to get myself together I had to get up to the house and try to bathe my eye... but after 15 mins of that, it wasn't feeling any better, and I could hear Annie in the car crying. Thankfully Jim, (the guy whose granny flat we live in) was home, and I asked him to go and get Annie out of the car for me, and we somehow made it through until Alastair got home from work. But by 10pm I was writhing on the floor in agony and Alastair insisted (for the third time!) that we go up to casualty. A friend came and sat here in case Annie woke, and waited for Meaghan to arrive, who already knew about the injury and had offered to come down and stay over. After an agonising four-hour wait, I was finally seen by a Dr, who I'm pretty sure had very little idea what he was doing (and it REALLY HURT as he tried to grab my eyelashes with his rubber-gloved hand to flip my eye-lid over a cotton bud in order to see underneath it) and sent me home with antibiotic drops. That was at 3am.

Next morning it was still excruciatingly agonising pain, so I got Meaghan to take me up to a lovely optometrist I've been to before about something in my eye, and he saw me in between patients, gave me anaesthetic drops and two prescription drops and told me it should be a lot better in 24 hours. And he didn't charge me anything. He asked me if I needed a medical certificate for work, and I said I didn't think my 17-month-old daughter - who was the culprit - would accept it. :P The anaesthetic drops only numb the eye for about 20 mins at a time, and I was told to use them sparingly, but still, 20 mins of less pain was absolute heaven. However at 5am Friday morning I woke up feeling like someone was shredding my eye with a shard of glass. Mum came down to help with Annie while Alastair was at work, and mid-morning we went back to the optometrist, who said it was looking better than yesterday, but still looking horrendous, so he put a band-aid contact lens (!) on, which he said would slow down the healing a bit, but at least would get me out of probably 70% of the pain. He didn't charge me anything on Friday either, he's the loveliest man. I told him I loved him and I think that made his day. So tomorrow I have to go back to him and he'll take the lens off, and see how things are going. I can open my eye now, but the vision in that eye is still blurred, and it feels gritty. And it's still painful, but nothing like it was. I have honestly never felt anything like it - I managed childbirth with no pain relief and no tears, yet this was even worse. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!

February has arrived though, and I'm hoping this month is going to be a little less traumatic than last.  :)

Anthea has finally started to walk so January wasn't a complete write-off. It's amazing how quickly they go from their first tottering steps to practically full-blown running. She's a lot happier now, and seems to enjoy her new-found freedom very much. I think a little too much at times.

The other cool thing that happened in January, which I nearly forgot to mention, was that in the last little while I've begun to feel our new baby's first movements! They're still in that "oooh, I think I just felt something" stage, not the grand internal-organ-shifting movements they turn into eventually. :)

We've had some lovely cool weather over the last few days - very welcome relief after the extremely hot weather last week and the week before. Problem was though, Annie had grown out of all the clothes she wore last winter without me realising. I guess that happens, I just hadn't thought we'd be needing size 2 wondersuits in February! I loooove babies in wondersuits though, they're just so cute and cuddly! And since she's been walking for such a short time, she doesn't remember wearing socks or anything slippery on her feet, so it's been fun to watch her puzzling over that, and she gets a very cute look of concentration on her face. She doesn't say much (only 'Mama', 'Dada' and 'woof') but I'm certain she understands everything. Am even toying with the idea of starting some basic toilet training with her in the next few weeks to see how we go, as most times I put her on the potty she does something... and I've been reading a few different peoples' ideas on toilet training.... still need to do a bit more thinking though.

That's all for now I think. I have my 19 week scan tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to that so I should head for bed in order to get enough sleep so that I can hold my 500ml of water without going crazy. :)