Airports

Dropped Z off at the airport this morning, he's off to his beloved Scottish highlands for a bit of a mountain fix. Poor darling hasn't climbed any mountains for over a year and was starting to get very jittery!

While he is off hopefully destressing and rejuvernating (is that even a word?), my mother is here from England to help with the terrible two. The girls and I picked her up from Cologne Airport last night and had an enjoyable run around the airport while we were at it. Apart from the fact that all dogs in the terminal had to flee from the terrible two, Ciara and Enya were surprisingly good. We didn't even have the obligatory rolling around on the floor screaming temper tantrum which has become expected when we venture into public places just recently.

In her luggage my mother brought a very important book which will hopefully give me some guidance on how better to handle Ciara. Right now we are fighting a battle of wills with her and I'm very afraid at present she is winning. Everything we do or say, she tests/pushes the boundaries and it is wearing me down. I don't want to be one of those parents who always is threatening or yelling but right now I feel that is exactly what I am. I'll read the book and then post more on this topic.

What is going on?

I've mentioned in the past that I'm very rarely sick, however since February (the Kur) every week has been something different. Last week it was a sore neck, as in pill popping so that I could function sore neck. It's finally on the mend but it's left an impression on Ciara and Enya. Both girls watch me and if they see me rubbing my neck or wearing the warm pad, they'll say "sore neck, kiss sore neck" and then of course I have to lift them up or bend down so I can get a soft gentle kiss on my neck. It is the sweetest thing out and I love it. They can be so gentle and caring some of the time, when they not hitting; scratching or biting one another!

Ciara and Enya have also learnt to fill in words in songs, our latest (to give you some idea of our weather at present) is:
it's raining it's pouring,
the old man is snoring,
he went to bed,
and bumped his head,
and couldn't get up in the morning
I sing it and they fill in the last word in the line. Both girls also sing to themselves when they are playing, although that is more like humming, without any words. They also try and sing the songs they've learnt in play group but as they only know two or three of the words, it's guess work what they are trying to sing. In fact I usually guess the song by the actions they are trying to do rather than the words.

Sshhh

I took this after play therapy on Friday. Little Enya was so tired she couldn't even finish the biscuit and believe me this child loves her biscuits!

Photo time again!

Photos taken this morning while waiting for the roller blind repairman to arrive- the second roller this year (the third in a year) broke and has been replaced. Only another 6 to go!
PS Not such good photos of Enya as she was very camera shy this morning

Sisterly love

As well as the usual sisterly abuse that abounds in our house (isn't sad when the most common words out of Enya's mouth are "naughty sister hit you"- both girls use "you" when they mean themselves) there have been some flashes of sisterly love too.

Today Enya choked on a piece of fruit bar and I landed up laying her over my legs and whacking her on the back to get it out, I asked her if she wanted something to drink. Ciara standing nearby and watching all the action turned around and went to the kitchen and fetched a cup from the table and brought it back to her sister and gave it to her. After Enya had had a swallow, she gave the cup back to Ciara who then took it and put it back on the table, with the comment "cup on table". This interaction was so sweet (and unfortunately so unlike most of the recent interactions between them).

Both girls are also fascinated by tissues since they had that nasty cold last month, if they see a pack of tissues lying around they empty it and then wipe their noses on each tissue one by one before throwing them in the bin (ok throwing them on the floor- I can dream can't I). Today for the first time I saw Ciara wiping Enya's nose, complete with supporting the back of Enya's head to make sure Enya stayed still. Thank goodness Enya thought this was a big joke the 3 times Ciara did it, but methinks we're going to have to start hiding the tissues again!

No photos today as I'm only slowly getting back on my feet after my darling daughters shared their bug with me. A truly nasty tummy bug and having experienced it myself I'm surprised how well both girls handeled it.

Oy vey!

Things got a little suspicious when Ciara asked to cuddle repeatedly this afternoon after we'd been to the carwash. She even came and lay on me when I went to sit (okay lie) on the sofa. However she didn't have a temperature and had eaten the same as Enya had all day so I wasn't worried. Things got a little more interesting when she got a wicked case of hiccoughs, but she still was smiling so I wasn't too worried.

Then she started puking.....projectile vomiting and retching so hard my stomach muscles were aching in sympathy. Poor baby cleaned her system out and then just wanted her bed. I'll probably have mattress duty again tonight!

I really had hoped all the sick bugs had left the house, we need a couple of healthy weeks now!!

Brrrrrmmmm brrrmm!

We really enjoyed the first warm sunny day this spring. After play group yesterday morning (did you recognise the girls' version of the word "playgroup" -it was the title of yesterday's post ;0)) and a lovely long midday nap, we spent yesterday afternoon outside in the garden and riding bobby cars on the patio.




It is such a pity that today we're back to cold, gray and wet again!

Grayploop!

Today we had our first playgroup session at the local Mother Centre (Mutterzentrum). It is childcare offered once a week for 3 hours run surprisingly not by a professional childminder but by another mom (we had a lovely chat before I entrusted my darlings to her) and her 2 helpers for 7 children. All the children were around the same age which is a huge bonus.

The girls had a ball playing with the other children and didn't miss me at all, I'll take that as a sign that my girls are secure enough in themselves and trust that I will always come back to them. They were happy enough to see me when I came to pick them up but also looked like they had had a fun morning.

I enjoyed the free time and had a wander around the shops (finally a chance to do some shopping with out the accompaniment of whinging). Next week though I'm taking a book and going to have a nice long read in my favourite coffee shop! I'm also planning to leave them there longer, as this week because it was the first time and I wanted to get a feel for the place and people, I only had an hour and half free.

Needless to say Ciara and Enya crashed as soon as we got home and I think, today, it might just be an extra long nap ;0)

Spring is in the air.....lalala (finally!!)

We've finally had a touch of spring, on Friday the temperature is even supposed to reach 17 C.

I can't wait until the thick winter coats and stockings are no longer necessary. I have high hopes for this summer so it just better be a warm one! In the meantime the preparations for easter have begun!

Will I ever learn?

We've had to start Ciara on the eyedrops! Thankfully the infection has barely started so it won't turn as gunky as Enya's but I really thought Ciara had managed to escape this one.

We had this problem in the NICU as well, if we commented that something was going well, it would come back and bite us in the butt!

Lesson now will be learnt. Keep my mouth shut!

So far so good

I wish I had lots of new stuff to write about but we have been in hiding pretty much the last week as we don't want to spread our germs around (what can I say we're selfish that way).

Thankfully it looks like our sick period coming to an end and so long as Ciara doesn't develop the eye infection (which is looking increasingly unlikely) we will have a jam packed week, next week.

I did get an evening out last night (thanks Z, cabin fever was biting deep!) and have started summer preparations- Ciara now has a summer hat and some capri leggings. I even got to go to the movies, I watched Agora which I thought was brilliant- I love historical films. I just wish I had had a chance to watch Avatar
on the big screen as everyone has been raving about it.

On the up

So I went out and invested in a disinfectant conditioner so all the bedding and more importantly all Enya's bed companions (the soft and fluffy ones) can be washed. I've also, for the first time, bought hand disinfectant so that we can hopefully keep the eye infection from spreading to Ciara, although the Eye Guy wasn't very optimistic yesterday. Thankfully even with the few doses of eyedrops Enya has had so far, we can already see a huge improvement. No longer copious amounts of green secretions we need to clean away every hour or two, although when she wakes from naps or sleeping her eyelashes are still glued together. The one disadvantage of her disgustingly long eyelashes, they are really difficult to clean properly!

Brighter news is, I've found a weekly play group being run at our local Mother Center. It is on Thursday mornings, children between the ages of 1 and 3 can be dropped off for 3 hours and supervised by a qualified adult while the parent has some time off. Since we've got back from the Kur the girls have been asking me everyday about "grayploop" (their word for play group) as they loved having other kids to play with and really enjoyed the playgroup in the clinic. This bodes well for a successfull Kindergarten start in August, but I was looking for a short term substitute to keep the enthusiasm going in the meantime. I'm going to have a look next week (we have to rearrange the play therapy appointment to allow this) but hopefully it will all go well and the girls will begin the week after. The woman at the Mother Center said that they apparently do lots of singing and crafts during the group as well as that they have a small garden attached where the kids can play outside in the warmer weather.

And the next one bites the dust

So we have the next one on antibiotics!

Enya developed a raging eye infection over the weekend and now is on AB eyedrops and eyecream for the next week. I won't post photos of how she looks, just picture Enya with 2 black eyes swollen to slits and with green secretions glueing her eyelashes together. Like I said not a pretty picture! And I won't even describe the what we had to do to get an appointment at the Eye Guy.

In the meantime Ciara and I are feeling much better, although my best friend, Doxy (AB), has a heck of a kick to it- for about an hour after I take it I have to lie down as I'm as nauseous as when I was pregnant with twins.

Continuing that train of thought, I was warned by both the doc and pharmicist that the contraceptive pill doesn't work reliably when taking my AB, so Z and I need to "take extra precautions". I had to smother a grin both times, if only they knew it takes a lot more than AB to get me pregnant!

Ciara now leading 2:1

for visits to casualty (ER).

While getting her ready for her bath on Wedensday we noticed she seemed to be blue, not just in her hands and feet but also her lips. We had noticed something similiar a few other times in the past week but wrote it off to bad lighting as by the time we got to better lighting it was always gone. On Wedensday though, the lighting was good and it was very obvious, so hey ho off to the Children's hospital we went. We were seen right into an examination room and had less than a 5 minute wait before the doctor came in! First question out of his mouth after I told our sorry tale was does she have a congenital heart problem, so I had to mention the ASD. His next comment made me laugh though- "but she had a normal post natal development, right?". So then I had to explain the whole micropreemie born at 25 weeks weighing 690g bit.

In the end he said it was just an overreaction of the autonomic nervous system (due to her illness) that caused the blue colouration and was not unusual and to expect her to do it again for the next few days (which she promptly has done). Yet again an overreaction from me, kids really should come with instruction books- with a large diagnosis of error section! Thankfully she is much better though and not at all cranky in comparison to how she has been.

I, on the other hand, have a new best friend called Doxy, as after feeling better for a few days things have gone rapidly downhill. After a horrendous night with the whole left side of my face (especially my teeth) hurting, I have landed up on antibiotics for a sinus infection. The instructions with the AB's was to take things easy which made me laugh (and then wince as all movements hurt right now), but things should get just as rapidly better as they did worse so hopefully I'll get back to happier posting soon.

Home!!

In the end we landed up coming home early from the Kur (it was supposed to end today, we've been home since Saturday), it just wasn't worth the stress anymore. By Thursday I was coming down with a humdinger of a cold/flu and so wasn't able to participate in many of my therapies/activities. Then on Friday Ciara spiked another 40C temperature (3rd illness in 3 weeks) and the decision was made to come home early.

I'm really glad we came home when we did as the last few days have been horrendous with Ciara repeatedly spiking 40+C temperatures and refusing to stay in her bed at nights (me playing baby mattress as Z still wasn't being allowed near her). It is just so much easier to manage everything in our own 4 walls, where we are master of our own timetables and don't have noisy neighbours waking up the sick angels just when we've finally gotten them to sleep.

We did land up seeing our paed yesterday as it had been suggested to me at the Kur clinic if things got worse to get a second medical opinion. While things were not much worse, they were also no better so off to the paed we went- "viral infection" was the diagnosis and "we're doing everything right, just keep on going, it should be better tomorrow".

Ciara of course blew that out the water by throwing such a temp spike last night that we landed up doing cool calf swaddles to try bring her temp down (we had a 2 hour wait before we could give her her next dose of anti pyretic). Today as the day wears on she is creeping up again into the 39C range which means tonight is probably going to be another mess.

I feel an absolute mess too with a sexy deep Marlene voice, a foghorn cough and sinuses 10 seconds before implosion, but hey at least I don't have anyone lying on my chest right now for the first time in days (I managed to convince Ciara to nap in our bedroom without me!).

So in summary: all still sick as dogs but very happy to be home. There really is nowhere as good as home!

PS Enya still surprisingly chirpy with no fever although she too has the foghorn cough. She's also lost her appetite and found a donkeys, which can only be good since both girls have lost about half a "hard fought for" kilo in the last 3 weeks.