Babies Born ~ May 16th-31st 2009 #8

Hi girls!
Bella - so glad to hear Jemima's birthday was great and also good to hear sleeping is becoming a little better.

Krystie - I was always happy when I got m/s in the early stages of pregnancies. LOL. I liked to tell myself it meant that the pregnancy was super sticky. It's not much fun, and I hope it doesn't stick around very long for you.

Sorry girls not much time for persies.

Taking Allira for a checkup today. I know I haven't told the whole story about her being sick.... I've written the whole thing out, just might be a tad boring. I will paste it in another post.
Anyway, her hands and feet went up again yesterday (which was the primary cause for concern at the hospital), so I took pics to show my GP (who has no idea what's happened, so the appt today should be interesting).

I hope you are all well and keeping warm in this chilly weather!

xxoo

Ok so from the start....

Two Thursdays ago, Hubs went in to give Allira her usual small cup of milk at around 10.30pm before we headed to bed. When he headed in he didn't turn the light on, but dropped the sippy cup. When he went to pick it up, he felt something wet on Allira's leg and he knew it wasn't the milk. Anyway, he called out to me and then turned the light on to discover a MASS stomach evacuation. It was sooooo much... I couldn't believe it! We just assumed that Allira had eaten too much for dinner, cleaned her up gave her a bath and brought her out to dry and dress her in front of the fire. Well, she made us need a shower.. sick everywhere and we knew it meant she was sick. It was HORRIBLE watching her throw up... not being able to breathe and going all red in the face. None of the kids had ever been sick like this before... only colds.
We set up the porta cot in our room, got tonnes of towels, sheet sets, blankets and a few spare outfits ready to go, and headed to bed. Allira was sick constantly... every 15 minutes for a few hours. She couldn't keep water or hydralite down.
Anyway, we kept trying to keep her fluids up and keep an eye on her. Things were going ok... she was having a big sleep in and hadn't been sick for a few hours when all of a sudden I started throwing up. I continued for another 10 hours when we put Allira in our room again and heard Lachie screaming. It was 10pm Friday night and Lachie had been sick all through his bed and all over his floor. He was beside himself.. he had no idea what was going on. So, into the shower with him, while hubs cleaned his bed and room up, we got him dressed in front of the fire and he was sick again. So we set him up in the lounge room as we already had Allira in our room so he'd stay nice and warm. I stayed on the couch while lachie slept on his mattress and tried to get him to aim for the bucket. It was a struggle but he got there most times. He was sick every 10 minutes for 4 hours and then stretched it out. half way through the night, Hubs and I swapped shifts and I went to bed, while he went on the couch to watch lachie.
Lachie was last sick on Sat morning, and Allira had started with the runs... Still sick on the very rare occasion.
Most of saturday was good... Lachie wasn't sick, I wasn't sick, Allira wasn't sick... Until Sat night when both kids were sick again.
Set up beds in our room and we all slept in there.. with Allira being sick a few times overnight.
Sunday was a good day, and apart from the bottom end of the kids working overtime, noone was sick. Allira looked really good and had lots of energy. We thought she was over the worst of it and would come good.
From Sunday night through to Thursday, every so often Allira would be sick after a drink or something to eat. It wasn't a projectile vomit... It was more like the reflux she had when she was younger.
Anyway, When it hit Thursday again, and Allira was still being a bit sick and had the runs, I decided at 3.30pm to call my GP, who had a message saying that he would not be in until Friday lunchtime. Bugger. I called hubs to see if he thought I should wait until then, but he suggested calling his GP, which I did. After talking to the receptionist, she said that she wouldn't be able to offer us an appointment either. I said I just wanted to make an appt before the long weekend, as that would be a long time to be worried.
Anyway, she spoke to hubby's GP who decided he wanted to see her that day so we made an appt for 5.20pm. hat gave me 15 minutes to get myself out of my PJ's and dressed, and also get the kids dressed into more clothes so I was running around like a made woman. I wore thongs even though it was cold and I would regret that decision later on.

Anyway, we headed into the Gp and saw him at about 5.40pm. He said he wasn't overly concerned about her being sick, but when we showed him her hands which had swollen up and gone red, he looked puzzled. We had noticed her hands do the same thing the night before for a few hours. I called Mum to ask if she's seen it before, but she hadn't. It ended up going down and we didn't really worry too much about it. Just after I got into the car with the kids to head to the GP, they started swelling up again.
Anyway, he said normally he'd send us to a pead, but because it was after hours and he really wanted her checked out, he was sending us to the hospital. Joy! He wrote a letter for us to take and wished us luck.
We arrived at the hospital just after 6pm (hubs grabbed something to eat for dinner before we headed in which was a VERY smart move).
There were 6 ambulances parked outside, another person waiting in line in front of us to be triaged, and quite a few people in the waiting room. We were triage (3) and told to wait... I think they were expecting we were to be seen pretty quickly since we had a 12 month old who was possibly dehydrated. Well, it took 4 hours. I was starting to get antsy when we finally got called in just after 10pm.
We saw the head Doctor who was also concerned.
Then started the testing. Emla was appiled to Allira's hands and elbow creases and then we were left to wait 45 mins for it to work. It ended up being an hour and a half as our doctor got busy. He tried taking bloods and had little luck, only managing to get a tiny amount. He then tried to put a bung in Allira's arm for an IV drip as he was pretty sure she was a little dehydrated. No luck. He tried 3 more times in her left arm, then went for her right. No luck. He got another doctor... who also had no luck. By this time Allira was in hysterics and I was a bit teary. They decided to wait a little while and called the anethetist, very confident that she would find the sweet spot. She came about 40 minutes later and had just as much trouble. Allira's arms already started developing bruising. They went in blind a couple of times just hoping...
They decided again to give up. Allira was just hysterical. I've never seen her scream so much (up until that point in her life).
So they called the hospital pead who said to give up on the IV and to place a naso gastric tube through her nose and into her stomach as there was no way they'd get fluids in through her veins. I was a little worried, but they had to do what they thought would help. We waited... and waited and waited. I was told she was being admitted and signed the forms and then we were taken to the childrens ward.

When we arrived, I had more forms to sign. We got settled in, folded out the chair and waited for the NGT to be inserted.They then came in and said they had decided after Allira's ordeal that they would forgo the NGT as she was at least taking some fluids by mouth still. That was a releif. At 4am, Hubs left to stay at my parents house while I tried to settle Allira. She went to sleep by 4.20am and I lay down and passed out at around 5am.
At 6am I woke to her screaming. I had NEVER heard her scream like this.... it was much worse than earlier in the night (morning). The nurse came in and said that the ED doctors had told them to expect her to act funny as she had suffered moderate trauma due to the needles etc earlier on.
We saw that she was in teh middle of a night terror... where she wasn't actually awake, but was screaming and thrashing about. It was horrible and I nearly broke down.
It took me until 7am to get her to settle down. I then left to get myself a drink, spoke to another Mum who had been in with her son a week, had a small cry, then went back to the room and fell asleep at 7.30am. At 8, she whimpered again and I thought it was round 2... but she settled and we both passed out until 9am.

Her BP was up at 9.30 so they were going to monitor her more often. I had a few doctors come in and ask for the story from the start again, then they told me they were going to get blood taken again and see what happened from there. I was NOT looking forward to that. At about 11am the nurse came in to take bloods while I held Allira, another nurse helped hold her and even Hubs held her legs. Well, this nurse was AWESOME and got her first go! I was thrilled (and got teary yet again. LOL). Allira was upset, but nothing like the night before. She learnt very quickly in the ED not to trust anyone that wasn't mum or dad and she would get extremely upset when anyone tried to lay her down, worried that she was going to get poked again.

We didn't hear much after the BT's. Allira had a bath and a urine bag attached (and the previous bag detached and contents tested).
It was found that she had protein in her urine, so we really had to push fluids.
She slept on and off for the rest of the day. I fell asleep at around 4pm for an hour, and then went shopping for clothes. I was still wearing what I wore into the GP the day before, and we had no idea when we were going home.
So on bugger all sleep... I drove to the shopping centre and bought some clothes and supplies for hubs, Allira and myself and how I got in and out with everything and without having an accident I will never know... but I am DYING to get my specs soon cos I really need them!
Hubs stayed the night in with Allira, but not before we had to transfer rooms. I left them in their new room at 9.30pm grabbed myself some dinner adn stayed at My folks (stayed and not slept, because I couldn't sleep much. I got 4 hours total.. but was all broken).
I headed back in at 7am and hubs and Allira were asleep. She'd had a few tests overnight and not slept very well.
The pead (professor such and such) came around at 9am and ran through the BT results... Perfect. He said that because she was eating and drinking well, the swelling had gone down, and she was really happy that we could leave. Phew! He wasn't sure what the deal was with the swelling etc but we have to watch her over coming days and have a follow up appt with my GP on Tuesday (where I'll have to go through the whole story from day one AGAIN).

I missed a bit of stuff in there... but you get the point. A very boring 2 days in hospital, but the staff were lovely. VERY glad I went with my gut and decided to get her checked. It could have been ANYTHING... they were leaning towards a serious kidney issue which was quite scary.
All I can say is.. if your child is sick and you are worried, don't second guess yourself and make an appt to see someone.

Sorry that was so long.

Wow, Nicky. That must've been horrible :( I hope the swelling has gone down again? Will keep thinking of you and your little girl.
As for keeping warm, we are FRICKING FREEZING lately and I know our power bill is going to be explosive this quarter.
Bella: Glad the party went off well. Re the disorganisation, I totally get it. I remember a housewarming party we had once when the first guests were helping me to construct the gingerbread house I had ambitiously attempted to make prior! It just added to the fun of it :)
Krystie: Sorry about the MS :( I remember one night when I was putting Natty to bed I was so weak with exhaustion. She was still climbing into bed and I was crying my eyes out, LOL! It all came to an abrupt halt with a mad dash to the bathroom to chuck up. After that it was slightly better but still, they are not fun times. Particularly when you are doing it predominantly on your own. Hope you are celebrating your DH's arrival home and that you're able to get a break tonight for some rest & a relaxing bath or something.
BG: Are you doing better now? By golly you have been suffering away. Hope the mastitis has cleared up and you are on the mend. Are you finding E is feeding less these days? I am finding P is not really interested in milk unless she is feeling sleepy.
How is E doing now? Is she still struggling with the new teeth? Poor little love.

I am fulltime at work as of Monday. I could've killed DH when on Tuesday he came out with, 'So when do I need to arrange to have the extra day off work?' OMG I nearly throttled him. "That'd be next week!" Honestly, the man cannot focus on more than one thing and up til now it has been the stupid holiday. My mum is going to bail us out by having the girls one extra day next week until DH sorts himself out. I am still mega angry about it. I wish he would take some responsibility for the girls' care. His only involvement these days seems to be criticising the childcare centre but not offering any alternative ideas.
Sorry for the vent. It's stressing me out a little bit atm.
Aside from that there's not a whole lot going on here. Phoebe seems to be getting another cold - joy. She hasn't even gone to childcare this week yet. And her sleeping is still crap. On Tuesday night my cousin took me out to see Wicked (it was awesome btw) and Phoebe apparently woke at 10:45, DH gave her a bottle and she then cried for 45 minutes. Poor DH was at his wits end, rocking her, putting her down, picking her up, patting her bum, un/wrapping het etc etc. I felt dreadful when I heard. Obviously a social life is not something she's happy for me to have!
Anyhoo, it's quittin time so I'd best finish up here and dash home.

Her hands went up last night, were down this morning, down at the GP, then up again at lunch time.
GO has no idea what the deal is but doesn't think it's too much to be worried about. We monitor for a week, then get a referral to a pead. I will put all my money on getting a referral though. This just doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.

Amy all the best with work next week. Boo to hubs. *hugs*

How strange. I hope the paed gives you some answers.

Nicky - that sounds just awful hun! hope you get the paed referral next week - whether it's happening regularly or not, i'd be guessing you want answers! Hope you're all feeling a little better now

Amy - glad you had a good night out at Wicked - bugger about P not being happy with you having some time out! Hope your DH steps up to the plate soon and helps with the girls and supports you more.

Bella - the pics from J's birthday look like you all had a ball! fantastic!

AFU - i want this cruddy cycle to end. thankfully everything seems to be settling down for me! i've decided to up my hours at work next week to three days, 8-5. long day, but it will work out ok i guess. i will be getting retrained in my full job again! woot! happy happy me!
E isn't sleeping fantastically still - i think til all these damn teeth come through, i'm resigned to being unsettled. thankfully DH is really good support wise, so he is at least helping out. i'm pretty sure we're in the midst of the worst part of week 55 wonder week - she is struggling to get into a proper sleep at night - up to 2.5 hours last night and night before of cuddling and things before she FINALLY stayed asleep when put in her cot! still not crying or anything while we cuddle her, just not staying asleep... day sleeps she is fine though - i can't work it out!

Nicky - Babe, what a tough time you guys have had with sickness, man I welled up a little reading your post, how tiring and worrying for your guys, hope the swelling is sorted asap and in the meantime a million hugs from Bailz and I. Anyway, sending lotsa love your way

Will post properly soon, trying to organise our Optus Quiz Night and have to sort it all out tonight (its Saturday), its a great night (we do it every year) so I better get back to it

Bailz has have anotehr 4% improvement on both hips - the ortho was very happy so we are too, no more xrays for 12 months - Frigin YAY!! :)

Love and Hugs to all!

Nicky- Honey it sounds like you all went thru a really tough time with Allira! So sorry to hear it babe. This is going to sound strange now but as a nurse reading your post I couldn't help thinking that you had picked up the lingo IUKWIM? Push fluids and NGT!! Good on you for adapting so quickly. Just so that you know the ED nurses weren't lying to you with the category they gave Allira. A Cat 3 means that they want the Dr's to see her within 30 mins. If a really sick person comes in or a car crash or there is just heaps of sicker people who are there before you, it can put you back. It is impossible to predict. But I bet it didn't help much when you had a sick bubby in your arms with no Dr in sight for 4 hrs.... it always breaks my heart as an ED nurse to see that..... I think I would really struggle with the kids if I go back.... when I go back.

Anyway hope you are ok and Allira is better and giving up some answers

Love Bella

Thanks Bella. I know a little about how it all works and like to try and learn if I don't know. LOL (oh and My sister is a nurse, and BIL is a nurse/radiographer... then there's all the threads I read on forums such as this that educate me. hehe)
Completely understand about all the ambulances coming in with more severe patients and don't think a bad thing about the staff at all. The hospital needs to be upgraded and they need SOO many more beds and staff. It's been the same for years up there... and the town has only gotten bigger. The ED waiting room has about 30-40 seats and it's the only ED to service the 100,000 plus population of the town, plus the thousands of others in the area. It's horrible when you see the waiting room so packed with sick people.

Allira is still pretty well. We've all got a chest infection that won't leave, and her hands and feet have puffed a few times. I'm so unsure as to whether I leave it for a few more weeks and see how we go, or get the referral for the pead this week?
I mean, I'm not really too worried about it. She's acting like her normal self in every way, but I don't want to be too cautious (which I have a habit of doing... hence why I needed 3 drips for dehydration when pregnant with her).

*yawn* Anyone else here sleep-deprived? ( - looking pointedly at you, Emma! LOL!)

Nicky: Sorry about the chest infections! You can join the "I hate winter" club as well. It's your call as to whether you take her to the paed, obviously. I probably would but then I tend to overreact mostly. Don't know if you remember, but when P was 4mo the GP told me she had uneven pupils and gave me a ref for the Paed. Besides being very confident that she was just fine (and even with some reassurance from Bella that she'd seen plenty of patients with this 'quirk' in her time) I still took P to the paed because that was the only way I would feel satisfied/comfortable. It was a VERY expensive reassuring dr's visit, but I felt I needed to go.
It is your call, babe - whatever you are comfortable with.
Nay: How was your trivia night?
BG: How is E going with those teeth? Is she settling any better for you?

Had a shocker last night. P lulled me into a false sense of security by sleeping 7 hours straight on Saturday night. Last night the longest stretch she did was 3 hours and that was when I wasn't in bed. Boo.
Nothing much else to report. We were umming and ahhing about what to do with P with childcare. She seems to just hate it. But then on Friday she had a much better day so now we're thinking we'll hang in there for a bit longer. It's tough - I really don't want to have to take her out as that will make life very difficult but I also don't want her to cry all day every day each week either. :(
Natty and I had a lovely time yesterday at the shops. Target has a massive sale on atm so I was able to pick up a couple more tops for work which is great. I have only a couple of tops and this weather isn't great for getting washing dry! Anyhoo, I think I got $80 worth of stuff for $45. Yay! Got to love a bargain.
This is how much my little girl loves me:
We were in the change rooms and I was trying on one of those 'p00fy' tops - it was silky and it p00fed out and then was brought in again at the bottom with elastic. Anyway, I put it on and Natty said, "Oh Mummy, you look beautiful." Touched, I thanked her and said, "I'm just a bit worried that this style makes me look a bit fat..." to which Natty replied, "But you ARE fat, Mummy."
Gotta love it. Way to build me up and then knock me down in 5 seconds flat! LOL.

oh rofl snacks!!!!! kids are so honest hey! XPs neice who is 3 asked me if im having another baby caus i have a ball (thats what she calls fat tummies) :o
how long have you had P in daycare? it took DD a good 2 weeks to get used to it and now she loves it, and we r moving in 3 weeks so will have to start again!!

ROFL Amy - bless Natty, damn kids, they dont let you get away with anything do they?
Emma, quite a few years ago my neice (then about 4, now almost 12) asked me if I was 'growing' a baby when she sat on my lap and thought my belly was rather round LOL, I was devastated, but laughed along with everyone else (as of course it was in front of the whole family!! :o ) Kids - damn their straight to the point honesty!! :)

Ah yes, they are good for a laugh.
Emma, Phoebs got to CC one day a week. We started her earlier in the year, not long after I went back to work. It is taking her a long time to settle in but that's likely because she only goes 1 day and it seems like every other week she is sick anyway, so it's more like she goes once a fortnight.

I am at my wits end with Phoebe. I have just left her for a minute to gather myself so I don't hurt her. I have been trying to settle her back off to sleep since 10:30. Have breastfed her, put her back to bed, patted her, rocked her, given her a bottle, breastfed her again, sat holding her... I just don't know what else to do and it's ****ING ME OFF!! I have to work tomorrow. I know I'm going to be rooted. The thing is, once I get her settled some time in the next hour or so, I know she'll bloody well wake up again after 2 hours. So I just put her down gently in her cot when in reality I wanted to throw her into it. *Sigh*
I think I have calmed down. Better try, try again.

Amy - that so sounds like our night last night! from 9-11.30 i was trying to settle E - she fed four times, she cuddled, i put her in her bed (then gave up cos that was a pointless exercise), kept her between us - was driving me frikken batty! she was awake every 90 minutes or so. seemed to have nasty wind (if the eruptions were anything to go by) and her teeth were giving he grief. the hard part is - she doesn't CRY - she just lays there, laughs, giggles, tells us DON'T when we try to settle her etc. if she was upset i'd KNOW there was something wrong - as opposed to just thinking she is a ratbag. she got up with me at 5.45 this morning and is ready for bed - so DH gets out of it easy. i drag my tired sorry ass to work, he gets baby to sleep and has half the frikken day off. grrrr

Yes, that's right. It's not "I'm in pain" screaming, it's just "don't put me to sleep!" crying/complaining. Sorry you had a crap night too.
At least P settled not long after my post - about 12:35, then slept through til 6:45! So amazingly I got to sleep until 6:15 when my alarm went off. That was pretty darn good at least.

:hug: Amy you poor thing.
These kids and the lack of sleep we are all getting is a joke.....what happened to the 8 hours we use to have ...LOL
Amy I am going to Westmead Private on Thursday are you working?

Hi everyone else I am still lurking atm, Aaron is NOT sleeping in his cot at all and is co-sleeping with me which is ok as DH is sleeping in our spare room slightly driving me nuts.
SIL told me she is PG with #3 and this has hatched soooo many bad memories for me and I just can't shake it off, as in the past each time she was PG we were TTC....I won't go on about it so you all don't get bored but it's in my blog if anyone reads it.

Anyway must away and try and put Aaron to bed before Grey's starts...woo hoo 2 hours tonight....but who will get shot!!

xx

Hi everyone - still lurking just spending most of my time on seek and writing CV's etc. - so boring but has to be done - I really want to be in work by 1st of August at the latest. CJ had hour orientation at daycare today -she was fine, smiling away apparently just cried when I picked her up which she always does. CJ has had me up once everynight this week which is bad for her so maybe she is joining in with the other bubs - oh well I am getting my own back tomorrow by getting her up at 3:30 to go to a friends place to watch the Socceroo's! Will be first game I have really watched, as DH has gone out for other Socceroo's games and so I can't get motivated to watch on my own.

Still lurking. Sending sleep and get well vibes to everyone. Having a busy week as my uncle is over from NZ. Will post a decent post early next week.

Love you all.
xxx