A poor sick baby and a wonderful sister

Within hours of posting last time, my little poppet came down with a vomiting bug. :( It might sound silly, but being the first time, I found it quite scary. I'm so over being vomited on and scrubbing vomit out of carpet. One of the evenings I went through three sets of pyjamas. Last night it was through my hair and everything. This morning we were just having a snuggle when all of a sudden I had a bubbling vomit fountain in my arms. It's just awful watching a helpless little one heaving her guts up. :(

I took her to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon, but he said she was doing okay and that it was probably a viral infection which had to run its course, and I came home feeling like a hypochondriac mother. But I have had so many worries and concerns over the last few days.... What if she dehydrates? When should I start to worry? Will I know when she's dehydrated? She's still alert and happy and her mouth isn't dry... but why has it been so long since she's had a wet nappy? Does her skin feel warmer or cooler than normal? Why does she just start to cry when I sit her on the floor? How should I tackle this latest vomit episode we're both covered in? What if I take her to the hospital now because I think she needs medical attention and they ask me how long it's been going on and I say three days... are they going to ask why I wasn't there two days ago and think I'm a neglectful mother and call DOCS and take my daughter away from me? :(

This morning at 8am was the last time she vomited, so I'm hoping she's turned a corner and is actually on the mend. My beautiful sister Meaghan has been an absolute gem. Yesterday it was dreary and rainy, and she came down to be with me... and knowing that there had been a lot of free-flowing vomit in our house, she went past Dusk on her way, and got an odour-eating candle, vacuum beads, and a beautiful rose and tangerine room spray - just as a gift. She went past my favourite bakery too, and bought me a delicious Neenish Tart to cheer me up. She cuddled Annie while I cleaned upstairs and got it smelling nice... then helped me with washing and dishes and everything. And she came back today to help me again. :)

But it was a glorious day, so instead of sitting inside and doing sensible things, we bundled the baby (plus multiple changes of clothes for us all in case we had to deal with a vomit episode!) into the car, and went down to Kiama for the afternoon. It was so lovely to get out... and I wouldn't have been brave enough to go out by myself with Anthea unwell. But I think it did her good to get a bit of fresh sea air... and it probably did me some good too.

I am so blessed to have a sister like Meaghan, and to have her just 45 minutes up the road.

Love you, Meaghan. xo

Normal Life

Not much happening around here really... just fairly normal stuff.

Alastair's well. He's done a bit of overtime recently, which will -oh joy- pay for the two fillings he needs. (Man, isn't dental work expensive!) :P The Tour de France is on at the moment, so he's been staying up too late watching that. Oh, and he weeded our vegie garden, and washed and vacuumed the car on the weekend. :)

Anthea's started blowing raspberries. :) Of course, she's just been being her cute self, cruising around the furniture and playing with her toys. She has been having a tiny weeny bit of food each day, which is more than she was having so I'm calling it progress. We have also cut down from 7-8 feeds a day to 4-5, and it seems to be working okay. The poor darling was quite out of sorts and slept a lot today, but perhaps that has something to do with the third tooth I can see under her top gum, trying to push its way through.

And me. Oh well... I just spend my time doing washing washing washing and dishes really. And I try to get Annie to eat, and I change her nappies. :P Today Mum came down to help me with some cleaning jobs, and we got a few done, but mostly we had cups of tea and chatted - which was nice, but not enormously productive. :)

That's all. I'm tired.

The things we do...

Here I am, less than a week since I last blogged - go me! :)

The rest of last week was fairly straightforward... at home on Wednesday... shopping on Thursday... mothers' group and the completion of another workbook on Friday (only 3 to go now!).

Then along came Saturday. It was just a monster-big day. Lovely, but enormous.

It started Friday night really, Anthea woke every hour through the night. So that wasn't a great start to the weekend. Meaghan came and stayed the night on Friday so that she could come down to Murrumbateman/Yass with us on Saturday. We left at 8.30am, stopped at Sutton Forest at 9.30, and got to Aunty Heather's (Murrumbateman) at about 11.30. Had a lovely lunch and afternoon with them, even though Annie didn't sleep much. At about 5pm we went to a birthday party (combined 50th/25th for mother/daughter friends) in Yass. It was great to see so many of our friends in the one place; many of them hadn't yet met Anthea! But it was hideously hot, and she wouldn't feed and wouldn't settle, so unfortunately I found it rather stressful and overwhelming. We left at about 10pm and headed home, arriving just after midnight. Annie was good on the way home - slept most of the way. But once we were home she just wouldn't settle until after 2am.... and I had a bit of a meltdown. :(

If the beautiful family who threw said party read this, I want them to know that it was a lovely celebration, and it was absolutely nothing they did or didn't do that made it work out like this for me... thank you for inviting us! It was just me and where I'm at just now... hopefully I will learn to handle these situations better in the future and be better company! Or maybe big get-togethers just aren't our thing at the moment...

Yesterday, (Sunday) we just had a quite day, which was really good. Anthea was still a bit tired and grumpy, but last night she slept from 8.30pm til 4am when I put her dummy in, then slept til 7.15 when I fed her and put her straight back down and she woke just after 10am! Today she has slept a lot too, and she is much happier. :)

Some really nice things though: at the party we were able to sit with friends whom we hadn't seen for nearly a year... and both of us have welcomed new babies since that time! Also, I met two lovely women who have been following my blog for a while without me knowing. And, for one miniscule split second, I felt a tiny weeny bit famous - isn't it only famous people (like Danielle Carey) who have Amazing Unknowns read their stuff? :) Anyhow, it was so lovely to meet them, and to learn that they like reading about even the little things that I blab about here. :)

And now.... photos! These are the most recent, but certainly not the most flattering:

Ready for the party, but looking like a dag. (Thanks Aunty Meaghan! Did you take a nice one?)



Sporting the new running shoes... courtesy of Aunty Meaghan!



Annie just wants to stand up all the time - her legs are so strong!



Reading "Good Puppy" in the highchair



And this is today, helping me with my workbooks. :) She'd just woken up from a lovely, long, afternoon sleep, and Mum was down helping me so she took a photo. :)

And lastly to Amanda: yes, everything in my brain seems to be poo-related at the moment. Ahhh the joys... :P Yes, as I type we're waiting on the three-day poo again.... :)

An update in pictures...

So much has been going on, and we've been so busy lately! It's late New Year's Eve, and we're at Mum and Dad's spending time with Lachlan while he's home (he's only back for 9 days!!). It's nice to see him, though sad that Meaghan is away in Europe so we're not all together as a big family. I'm missing her a lot - and from what I've heard, she's missing us too. She had a vomiting bug over Christmas too, poor girlie.

Anyhow, I don't really know how to sum up the last few weeks in words, so I'll do it in pictures instead. :)

Our Christmas tree - lights on:


Lights off:


And some of my favourite decorations:








O

Our 3rd annual Gingerbread Day at Donna's - my house:

Our houses (nice look, Hamish!):


The fruits of our labour:


And on Gingerbread Day, Anthea got to have her first bath in a "big" bath (since we don't have a bath at our house) with her 8-year-old friend, Mairead - how happy does the bubby look?!?!

Christmas dress from Great-Uncle Jonathan:

Cute picture taken by Aunty Meaghan, the day before she left for Europe:

Mr. Fox - Annie's Christmas present from Uncle Lachlan:

First ever cuddles with Uncle Lachlan!


The chocolate piano I made for Lachlan:


Christmas Day with Pop (Alastair's Dad):

Daddy got a new computer game for Christmas... he was watching Anthea for me for a few minutes yesterday, and this is what I discovered when I came back:

And my parents earlier this evening... dressed up for a Dutch New Year's Eve/80th Birthday Party... how cute are they?!

Now, for some reason, those last two pics have decided to align left, and I can't fix it!!! Having tried several times, I'm just going to leave it - Happy New Year everyone!!! :)