Team Newman / Ferme

I’ve just spent the last few days trying to prepare the boys for the end of daylight savings, only to find out that it doesn’t end this weekend but next weekend instead. What a bugger! It’s really very hard work to change their timetable by an hour, and so far we’ve only changed about half to three quarters of an hour. I think we’ll stick with that for a few days and let them get used to it, and then next weekend we’ll be right to finish the change. It will stuff us up for this week though, because all appointments and so forth have been made around the regular sleep times and won’t fit in now that they’re sleeping at different times. I think it’ll be a tough week, but fortunately the nanny starts tomorrow, so there’ll be some assistance for at least a couple of days.

There have been a few other changes this week, with Lachlan and Daniel graduating from the laundry tub to the big bath. We decided it was time because Lachlan has learnt how to splash, and was emptying half of the laundry tub all over the floor. If he splashes in the big bath the sides prevent the floor from getting too wet. The other positive (sort of) is that the boys can share the bath (rather than the water) which I think they enjoy. They so love talking to each other and sharing their playtime. The only negative is the bath takes half the time which makes stringing them out until bedtime a little bit more difficult – especially when we’re pushing the time back for the end of daylight savings.

They’re both also coming along a little bit with their solid eating. Lachlan is accepting more lumpy food without too many complaints, and Daniel isn’t throwing up quite as much. However, with him it seems to be two steps forward and one step back. He takes food like toast, biscuits, banana and so forth and eats it with no problem (he chows down on a biscuit like a little chipmunk!), but this morning he threw up on some porridge oats. They had some tuna mornay the other day and didn’t mind the pasta too much, so I’m going to try that again soon. It’s still a bit of a risk with Daniel though. Luckily the vomiting doesn’t seem to bother him, but it’s really quite distressing for Richard and I. At the moment neither of us are particularly keen to feed him, which is a bit upsetting because it should be something we’re fighting over, rather than fighting to avoid.

Lachlan is still crawling okay though he’s yet to get up on his knees. He’s also starting to pull himself up on things (like Jungle Gym Richard), but he doesn’t quite have the strength to do it properly yet. He loves to stand up though, as does Daniel, and they will both go stiff as a board if they don’t want to sit down. He’s gone a little bit backwards with his sleeping though, and doesn’t seem to be able to settle himself when he gets out of his wrap. The last few nights we’ve had to try and settle him a number of times before giving up and re-wrapping him.

Daniel is also still rolling quite a lot – he really seems to enjoy it which is a relief. It’s still a struggle for him to lift his head, but he does it when he has to. He’s getting stronger all the time. He’s also enunciating really well and experimenting with making noises with his tongue. Richard and I are both hoping this will lead to him being better able to deal with lumpy food. He can get really loud when he wants to, which is such a surprise considering how quiet a baby he’s been until now. Lachlan is still far more noisy and screams and squeals all the time. It’s quite ear-splitting but it’s hard to tell him to stop when he doesn’t understand. He just gets so excited (or cross) and lets it all out!

Yesterday we went to kindergym to make up for some missed sessions. Richard came too and it was much more successful than the Wednesday sessions have been. Both boys had slept well and were much happier with Richard and I than with the kindergym coordinator. The group was quite different from the Wednesday group which is all babies. This group had kids of all ages and lots of Dads, so it was interesting in that respect.

The final change that I can think of that we’ve made this week, is that we’ve started removing Dan’s oxygen cable when he’s awake. We then attach it again with a very small piece of tape when he goes to bed. We weren’t doing this originally because he became so upset whenever the prongs were inserted in his nose, and we thought removing the tape would be very painful. But it’s working out quite well and he seems to be getting used to the prongs being attached. It’s certainly much easier handling him without the oxygen cable trailing along behind him and it means we don’t have to worry about Lachlan grabbing them, or the cable getting tangled as Daniel rolls around.

Yesterday we went to the hospital to get the results of Lachlan’s oxymetry. For the first time ever we were running late, so of course we turned up to find the doctor waiting for us. Every other time we’ve gone we’ve had to wait for around 45 minutes! Anyway, the good news is that Lachlan doesn’t need any oxygen even though his oxygen levels dipped a few times. He never dropped below 90% and for the 11 odd hours that he was asleep he was only below 94% for about 1.5 minutes. We are both so relieved, because Lachlan on oxygen would be a complete nightmare.

The rest of the Easter weekend (after the last post) was as good as the beginning. We had a lovely lunch with friends on Easter Sunday and we had other friends come by for a visit on Easter Monday. The boys were very well behaved on both occasions. Saturday night was a bit of a challenge, with about four hours of continuous attention required between 11:30pm and 3:30am. The boys were alternating in their demands, and only settled finally after a bottle and some pain relief for their gums. They’re both teething like mad at the moment, with Lachlan’s top teeth coming through, and number 8 emerging for Daniel. After we realised that they were in pain at night, we doped them up for Sunday and Monday nights and we were hardly disturbed at all.

I meant to write a post on the weekend about Easter being an anniversary of sorts for the boys, since last year I was in labour on Easter Sunday and the boys were born on Easter Monday. It was strange thinking about where we were last year and how so much has changed since then. It has been a miraculous year, but I guess the more appropriate time to reflect is when the boys birthday comes around. Only a couple of weeks to go.

Today was a good day, especially compared to last night, which was really hard. Last night Dan was just miserable and we had no idea what was wrong. We thought he had a tummy ache, a sore throat or really sore gums. He was crying all the time and flat out refused to eat any dinner. It was quite worrying. In the end he drank an entire bottle of milk and passed out in my arms, so I guess he was just really, really tired! Such a relief.

Today we went to Richard’s parents’ for an Easter lunch. It was a really lovely day, and the boys were very well behaved (mostly). They didn’t cry at all about being held by people other than Richard and I. In fact, they were both quite happy to play with their grandparents, uncle and great aunt. They even went to sleep when they were supposed to, and actually slept for longer than expected. The only small difficulty we had was when Daniel woke up and became really upset. The only thing we could figure was that he got a fright waking up somewhere other than his bed. It took a while to settle him down, but afterwards he was okay again.

Tomorrow, we’re doing it all again at an Easter lunch with some friends. It’ll be interesting to see how the boys go on the second day, with people who are less familiar.

We did the overnight oxymetry for Lachlan last night and have spent most of the day today trying to catch up on sleep. We won’t know the results of the test until Tuesday, but there is some doubt. His oxygen levels dropped a few times, but we’ll have to wait to find out if it is significant enough to worry about.

For some reason the boys have been pretty miserable today. I don’t know what’s going on with them. They’re SO clingy and want to be held and entertained constantly. I think they’re getting so bored with their toys and me. Thankfully, they’re now over their illnesses, so we’re able to go out more. And they’ve got a birthday coming up, so they’ll get some new toys then. Hopefully, things will get better after that.

Lachlan is moving around the floor at leisure now. He’s not going far or very fast, but if he wants to get something, he’ll get it. And Daniel is rolling at leisure too, and I think he enjoys it most in his cot. For some reason, both boys love rolling in their cots, grabbing the bars and peaking through them to see outside. It’s very cute.

Today, Lachlan crawled for the first time! Well, sort of. He got up on his knees and moved forwards but only a couple of steps. He did it more than once too, so he’s not far away from liberty. We’re definitely going to have to childproof the place now! He’s also almost pulling himself up on things. He loves to stand on the couch, holding onto the back and bouncing up and down. We don’t have much furniture for them to pull up on yet, but it won’t be long. He slept really well last night after a shocker the night before. Richard and I are in two minds about continuing with the wrap-free sleeping. So we’re compromising and wrapping him to sleep and then he can unwrap himself if he wants to. Last night he unwrapped himself at some point and we didn’t hear from him all night.

Dan is getting better and better too. It seems his nose is only really snotty in the mornings when he clears away the nightly buildup, and then he’s fine for the afternoon. He’s really blossoming at the moment too, which is such a joy for Richard and I. On the plus side, he’s vocalising a lot more and saying all the consonant sounds that he’s supposed to  – the bababas and dadadas. He finally went for the mamamas today, so it was a great day for me. He’s also dead keen to talk to Lachlan. This afternoon they were sitting side by side on the floor, and Dan kept grabbing Lachlan’s shirt and leaning forward so he could talk into Lachlan’s face. It was so funny – Lachlan didn’t know how to react. On the downside, however, Dan is fast catching up with Lachlan in terms of neediness. He’s starting to want to be picked up all the time, given cuddles and paid constant attention. I think they’re both starting to get jealous of each other too, because Lachlan gets really upset when I’m holding Daniel, and Daniel is more likely to want attention when I’m holding Lachlan.

I recorded another cute video of the boys, which I’ll show below. It’s good for a laugh or two. There are some photos with it too…

Richard and I have been debating for months whether we should stop wrapping the boys at night. We have continued to put it off time and again, because we believed it would be incredibly difficult to stop. We even phoned a parent help line to ask advice and they said that we should wrap them for as long as possible. So for the past several months we’ve come up with more and more elaborate wrapping techniques to try to keep them (and I really mean Lachlan) contained. Then last night I’d had enough. It was 1:20 in the morning and I was dead tired. Lachlan had lost his dummy and was out of his wrap again. I replaced the dummy and started trying to rewrap him, which is not easy in the dark when I’m half asleep and he’s fighting me every inch of the way. Especially considering the previously mentioned elaborate wrapping technique. So in a split second decision, I decided to unwrap him instead. I took the wrap away and he was asleep before I had finished. It was a huge gamble, but it seemed to pay off. I stayed with him in the room for the rest of the night, because I was worried about him becoming distressed or getting tangled in his sheets. He did neither, though he did wake a few times looking for his dummy. And we never knew before now, but it seems that the little fellow is a tummy sleeper!

So we’ve now lowered the base of his cot and we’re going to start leaving him unwrapped when he sleeps. Hopefully we can teach him to find his own dummy when he wants it and we might get some better sleep at night. Or am I dreaming? We’ll still have to teach him to put himself to sleep without the wrap, but hopefully that will only take a few days. And by the time we do his oxymetry test next Thursday night, he’ll be sleeping like a baby.

We’re going to continue wrapping Dan for a little while longer, partly because he’s on oxygen and we’re not sure what he’ll do with his nasal prongs and oxygen cable if he’s unwrapped. I think we’ll just see how it goes with Lachlan first and then move onto Dan in a few weeks.

In other news, Dan still has a runny nose – it’s truly disgusting – but he seems to be over his cough. It’s taking forever for him to get well again, but hopefully it won’t be much longer. On a more positive note, however, we’re moving forward a little bit at a time with their food intake. They’re both very happy to munch on biscuits, vegemite toast and soft fruits but I think it’ll be a while before they show much interest in pasta and lumpy foods like that.

I’ve been a bit worried over the last few days, because Daniel has been getting sick again. He’s got a runny nose and a bad cough. We took him to the GP this morning and he said we should go back to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital to get him checked out. So this morning (after only 3 hours sleep last night) I took Daniel and Lachlan into the emergency department. Because I didn’t know how long I’d be there, I packed a heap of stuff, including bottles, formula, food, toys and books as well as the usual bundle of nappies. The trip was quite difficult because Lachlan was extremely tired and very emotional. He was quite hard to manage – especially when Daniel was the focus of everybody’s attention. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we were sent home after a thorough examination as Daniel wasn’t too bad. He gave the game away by smiling and laughing through the exam and gobbling a big morning tea!

Oh – I’m not sure I mentioned before, but we’ve decided to get a nanny instead of going through childcare. We firmly believe that if we use childcare we’re going to be spending most of this winter in the emergency department. We know we can’t protect them forever, but we’re going to try to protect them until they’re big enough to be able to cope with it better.

In other news, we’re still struggling to get either Dan or Lachie to eat lumpy foods. I’m consulting with a nurse about it on Monday, but I’m feeling quite depressed about it. Babies have all these milestones to mark their development and it seems to me that we keep on getting further and further behind. And the further behind we get, the harder it is to catch up. I can’t believe the boys are now 11 months old. It seems like yesterday that it was Christmas and everything was going so smoothly. I was really looking forward to this next stage of their development, but it’s just been such a struggle. Dan has vomited up the entire contents of his stomach twice in the last 24 hours, but on a positive note, he ate some banana and toast this evening.

Anyway, I’m too tired to make much sense at the moment, but I wanted to post some more images of the boys. Here they are…

One of the nicest times of day is before bedtime when we read the boys some stories. They have some definite favourites and they enjoy it so much. The last couple of days they’ve started turning the pages for us and actually fight each other to turn the page first. Here’s a lovely little video of  a story.

Yes. We’re home again. Dan is so much better and came home yesterday. He still has to have increased oxygen for a few days, but he’s so close to being back to normal! We’re over the moon. He’s so happy and hasn’t stopped smiling for the last couple of days. He hasn’t quite got his voice back properly, but he’s playing and eating and sleeping beautifully.

Lachlan, on the other hand, is still quite sick. This has been bothering Richard and I because he never got as sick as Daniel, but he’s taking longer to recover. As a consequence, we took him to the doctor today and he’s got an ear infection – or two. He’s been so miserable with it too, which is upsetting. So they’re both on the drugs this week. Next thing you know, they’ll both have oral thrush… (which they got last time they had antibiotics.) Will it ever end?

In other news, Dan’s illness doesn’t seem to have set him back too much. He’s quite keen to roll onto his tummy at times now, and works very hard to do it. He doesn’t stay on his tummy for very long, but at least he’s getting there now. Lachlan is still rolling around with great dexterity and pushing himself backwards. No forward movement yet, but he’s getting from sitting to his tummy with some measure of control. His second tooth is yet to make an appearance, while Dan’s seventh is proudly through.

The move to lumpier solids has taken a back seat over the last week, and I was dispairing of ever making them something they’d be willing to eat. So tonight I made a pumpkin soup for Richard and I and offered them some, bacon bits and all. They demolished it, so I’m happy again.

It’s been a hell of a week, and it’s not over yet. Daniel is back in hospital and has been all week. He’s quite a sick little boy, and is miserable too, which is hard to handle. He’s got a virus – adenovirus - and his lungs have become clogged with mucus leading to bronchiolitis. He’s getting better slowly, but he’s been on increased oxygen all week, and will remain in hospital until he’s back to normal. Here’s how the week panned out…

Sunday night:

Lachlan was starting to get the sniffles and couldn’t sleep with a blocked nose. I ended up sitting up with him until about 1 in the morning helping him sleep. I was then awake again at about 4:30am when they started rousing again.

Monday:

We took the boys to the GP at lunch time. We ended up running a bit late, because Lachlan vomited in the car on the way. The doctor said they were getting a cold, but because they were ex-premmies we would have to keep a careful eye on them and come back if they didn’t get better in a couple of days.

Monday Night:

We did the oxymetry test for Daniel. So after only 3-4 hours sleep the night before, I got about 4 hours sleep on the Monday night. Dan was sniffly, but didn’t have too many problems sleeping. As I’ve said in another post, he did really well on the oxymetry, so we were pretty happy.

Tuesday:

We took the boys to the doctor (respiratory specialist) who looked at the results of the oxymetry and gave us the good news. He also listened to Dan’s chest and said it sounded clear. He also warned us that if Dan got worse that he should be in hospital.

Tuesday Night:

By the time Tuesday night hit, Dan had developed a really nasty cough. In the evening he vomited his dinner (all over me) and refused to drink his milk. We were getting pretty worried about him, because he was deteriorating so much but he was so tired that we put him to bed instead of going back to the doctor. We called a locum to come and see him instead. By the time he arrived at about 9pm we were debating going to the hospital, because Dan had woken coughing and crying and had a fever. We gave him panadol and the doctor prescribed some antibiotics after a cursory examination. Richard then spent the next two hours getting the prescription filled and then double checking if the dosage was correct. In the meantime, Dan drank a little more milk, but then his fever just kept going up and up. Even then he was so tired he was practically passing out, I had to undress him and put him in a cool bath. The poor sod cried the whole time, but he’s such a sweety he couldn’t help but play with the toys in the bath. He also vomited up the little bit of milk he had drank earlier. At about 11pm we gave him the antibiotics and monitored his temperature closely. It started to come down, so we decided to put him back to bed to get some sleep. Richard stayed up with him while I got some sleep. I was so tired. It didn’t last long, because Dan was awake again at about 1:30am. Richard gave him more milk which he vomited again. I think we finally managed to get him to keep down some milk and get to sleep at about 2:30am. Then at 4:00am he started coughing again, and at 5am he was refusing milk and just crying uncontrollably. He wouldn’t open his eyes or respond to us at all. So we decided to take him to the hospital. We had been stressed all night and neither of us had had much sleep in three nights. Even if they told us to live with it, we had to do everything we could.

Wednesday:

I took Dan into the hospital while Richard stayed home with Lachlan (who was also sick, but not as bad). We got into the emergency department pretty quickly, because the place was very quiet. We were seen by a number of doctors, one of whom told us that we’d be admitted because she thought Dan had developed bronchiolitis. They took some cultures from his nose to see what virus he had, and it turned out to be adenovirus, which is quite nasty. Because there were no beds available on the children’s wards, and the baby ward was closed with a gastro outbreak, we spent the whole morning in the emergency department. Dan had perked up a little as soon as we left home, but he was still very tired and miserable. While we were waiting for a bed, I managed to get him to drink some milk without vomiting, and he slept in my arms for a while before we both passed out on the bed. That’s where the nurse found us when she came to move us to the short-stay ward.

We were on the short stay ward for the rest of the afternoon. While there we finally saw the respiratory registrar, who said that Dan was in a bit of a grey area, in that he could be admitted if that’s what we wanted, but if we wanted to take him home we could. After thinking about it for a minute, I decided we would stay. I was dog tired and the last thing Richard and I needed was another night stressing about whether or not I made the right decision. If we were already at the hospital, then I didn’t have to worry about it. After the registrar left, Dan then vomited up his lunch (yes, you guessed it, all over me) so that confirmed for me that we needed to stay. I ducked home to get some gear while Dan slept and when I returned I was informed that we would be moved to the children’s ward.

Wednesday Night:

When we got to the children’s ward, Dan vomited again, so I think he had only managed to keep one or two small bottles of milk down in the previous 24 hours. I was getting worried about him dehydrating, but the doctor examined him and said that he was still okay for the time being. She decided that he should have small drinks every couple of hours overnight to keep him going. I was physically exhausted, so I told the nurses that they could do the feeds for me. We were actually located in an open ward, but all the other beds were vacant because Dan (and I) were so infectious so I finally managed to get a little bit of sleep. Dan managed to keep all of the milk down overnight, but he was physically and mentally exhausted.

Thursday:

We were moved from the open ward to an isolation room which was much more private. Dan slept a lot during the day, and was only drinking little bits of milk. He was given paracetamol for his pain, and his nose was suctioned frequently to help him breathe. He was also on oxygen continuously to keep his oxygen saturation levels up. He was pretty miserable, but perked up a little when Richard and Lachlan came to visit. Lachlan was still sick, but still wasn’t anywhere near as bad as Dan. He was a bit miserable too, and had developed a cough, but he was still drinking his milk and eating solids.

Thursday Night:

This was another bad night for Dan. He hadn’t been drinking much milk during the day, so I decided that I would ask for him to have a couple of feeds overnight. I tried to give him a bottle at about 11pm, but he refused to take it. The nurse told me that she would try again in a couple of hours and I should get some sleep. I was woken at about 1:00am by her trying to get Dan to feed. Again he refused. The nurse then brought in the doctor to examine him with the idea of putting an IV line in to give him some fluids. It was just because Dan was so tired and feeding takes so much energy that he just didn’t have. The doctor agreed to put in an IV, so they put some cream on Dan’s arms and hands to numb the skin. They said it would take half an hour to become effective. In the meantime I tried to doze, but was interrupted by some very strange behaviour from Dan. I didn’t understand it, but he seemed to be trying to roll over in his bed. He’d gone from complete exhaustion to playing!? I checked on him and his arms and hands were really red where the cream had been applied. I grabbed the nurse who immediately removed the cream and said he’d had an allergic reaction. The doctor wasn’t sure she could find a vein considering how swollen his arms and hands were. They decided to wait for a half hour or so to see if the swelling went down. (It was now about 2:45am). She came back at about 3:20am and said they were going to give it a try. So we all trotted off down the corridor to the treatment room, where they attempted to insert the IV. Finally, Dan caught a break and she found the vein on the first attempt. Dan wasn’t too upset by the experience, and went back to sleep pretty easily. So now we didn’t have to worry about feeds – we just had to keep Dan’s nose as clear as possible and let him rest. I finally got to bed at about 4am.

Friday:

I woke early to hear Dan crying and when I checked on him, I found that his nose had been bleeding. All the suctioning had left him in a complete mess. The poor boy must have been in so much pain. Thankfully, with the IV in, he didn’t have to worry too much about feeding during the day, so he could rest as much as he liked. We did offer him milk still, because the drip only offers fluids - no real calories to keep him going.

Friday Night:

We finally had a more restful night (relatively speaking), though Dan woke a couple of times with really bad coughing fits. The nurse had to suction his nose again, which restarted the bleeding, but it helped him breathe better. Richard in the meantime, was struggling with Lachlan, who was still sick and had developed a bad cough as well as some vomiting. Poor Richard was up all night caring for him. I was tempted to tell him to bring him in to be admitted, but he was still quite active and happy during the day, it was just the cough at night that was a problem.

Saturday:

I decided to swap with Richard, because I thought he needed a break, so I came home to look after Lachlan and Richard went to the hospital to be with Dan. Dan was a bit more awake and aware in the morning, and the drip was discontinued. The IV remained in his arm in case he needed it, but he was quite playful and happy for short periods in the morning. I went home at lunch and spent the rest of the day playing with and caring for Lachlan.

Saturday Night:

I had hoped that Richard might get some more sleep at the hospital, but it turned out not to be the case. Dan was still in a lot of pain and wasn’t drinking his milk overnight, so Richard was up continuously trying to help Dan deal with his pain. I, on the other hand, only had a couple of incidents with Lachlan, who slept most of the night very well. He went to bed at 7pm, and I didn’t hear from him until around 11pm when he started coughing. He was so tired, that it barely woke him, but it was continuous and quite painful. I did what I could to help him, including suctioning his nose. He cried when I did that, but then fell straight back to sleep. In the end, because I was so tired, I took him into our bed, where he slept soundly until about 5am when another coughing fit struck. He recovered quicker this time and then we both slept in until 8am!

Sunday:

I took Lachlan into the hospital to see Dan today. Richard says Dan’s still pretty miserable, but he (Richard) is getting them a bit more organised with Dan’s pain management and his care. Richard is much more proactive than me, and I think that’s what Dan needs at the moment. I think Lachlan needed a little bit of Mummy time too and I’ve enjoyed my couple of days with him. Still, it was very difficult to leave Dan this afternoon, because he’s still so miserable. I think I’ll stay again tomorrow night. He’s improving every day, but the doctor’s want him to stay in hospital until they’ve reduced the amount of oxygen he requires.

My worry now is what the long term effects of this illness are going to have on him. Is he going to require oxygen all the time? Is he going to need more oxygen than previously? Is he more at risk of developing asthma now? Is this going to happen every time he gets a cold? Richard and I are already debating pulling both boys out of childcare if this is going to be the result. We’ll just have to find the money for a nanny.