The first clue would be the 4 wet spots in her cot, but brush it off with "oohhh, she drooled a lot last night" and think nothing of it. The second clue would be when after changing her nappy she spits out a whle lot of phlegm but without retching so brush it off as "I know she's had a runny nose she must have swallowed a lot of slime during the night to spit it out now, I hope she doesn't get nauseous from it".
Begin to start suspecting something when your daughter who normally gobbles her milk down starts pushing the bottle away after only drinking 2/3 of it. Know there is something wrong when she vomits said milk back all over you. Enjoy a long cuddle from the girl who normally is too busy to spend more than 10 seconds cuddling you. Start going into uh-oh mode when she continues to retch even after only bile is coming up. Go into oh-shit mode when even the rehydration solution comes back with interest.
We've given Ciara an anti-emetic and will see if she can hold the rehydration solution down after her nap. If not, then hey ho it's off to the doc we go. Enya is still showing no signs of anything but I'm not holding my breath that she stays healthy. Damn it and she had just reached 9.6kg!
I hate it when the kids are sick, I feel so helpless.
28 Apr 2009
27 Apr 2009
Teetering
So much for never getting sick, I'm teetering on the edge of getting Z's cold! He spent the weekend in bed and is still feeling so rotten that he's taking a sickie today! I asked what would happen if I got as sick as he did and his reply was he'd stay home and babysit. What I want to know is, would he make me hot lemon and honey
;0).
Thankfully the girls are not showing any signs of the cold and even Ciara's red ear was gone by the next morning. We have to be all healthy for our holiday in 7 WEEKS! I can't wait!!
Yesterday was Sunday shopping in our city, isn't it funny how I now get excited about shops being open on a Sunday. In South Africa and England it was normal, in Germany it is a huge deal, the radio reported that they had more trade yesterday than on any single day in the christmas shopping season. Madness, I tell you! I met up with friends in Ikea to get the girls out of Z's (non existent) hair. Ciara and Enya were a bit scared of the slide they had in the kids area but were fascinated by the soft toys lying around, as they still tend to slobber over toys I had to keep them in the pram for most of the visit which was therefore quite short. I have however discovered they really like fruit smoothies and almond tart (even if they then don't eat dinner!).
Enya is still walking around with the remenants of her black eye, it's amusing in a very sick way to see the double looks she (and we) get when we are out in public, yet no one (apart from friends) trust themselves to say anything to us about it. I would probably have been a bit embarrassed if someone did ask us about it, but given what a whopper she had, I would have understood why they did. I'm just going to have to buy her a helmet I guess.
;0).
Thankfully the girls are not showing any signs of the cold and even Ciara's red ear was gone by the next morning. We have to be all healthy for our holiday in 7 WEEKS! I can't wait!!
Yesterday was Sunday shopping in our city, isn't it funny how I now get excited about shops being open on a Sunday. In South Africa and England it was normal, in Germany it is a huge deal, the radio reported that they had more trade yesterday than on any single day in the christmas shopping season. Madness, I tell you! I met up with friends in Ikea to get the girls out of Z's (non existent) hair. Ciara and Enya were a bit scared of the slide they had in the kids area but were fascinated by the soft toys lying around, as they still tend to slobber over toys I had to keep them in the pram for most of the visit which was therefore quite short. I have however discovered they really like fruit smoothies and almond tart (even if they then don't eat dinner!).
Enya is still walking around with the remenants of her black eye, it's amusing in a very sick way to see the double looks she (and we) get when we are out in public, yet no one (apart from friends) trust themselves to say anything to us about it. I would probably have been a bit embarrassed if someone did ask us about it, but given what a whopper she had, I would have understood why they did. I'm just going to have to buy her a helmet I guess.
25 Apr 2009
miscellaneous
All is continuing as per usual in the House of Z. Z is sick again (a cold, knocks him for 6 at least twice a year) but so far the females in the house are all healthy. I hope Ciara and Enya inherited my immune system as I'm hardly ever ill (watch out, it'll be a case of famous last words). That being said Ciara has a bright red and waxy right ear at the moment, she has no other symptoms so we will just have to monitor her for now.
As I was homebound for the day I decided to make my own pasta- thai inspired chicken tortelloni (thnak you Jamie Oliver). You lucky souls get to admire the fruits of my labour.
It was really tasty and very filling. The dark sauce is a dipping sauce which just made the tortelloni, we'll be eating it for at least the rest of the weekend. I even made the leftover pasta into tagliatelle, which I'm drying and will eat sometime this week.
Last but not least the promised pictures of the fish tank, we even have the first occupants! I think Z did a fantastic job even if he is being very german about the whole setting up and has even started a diary where he can record everything he does with the aquarium in.
The girls love to stand and watch the fish playing peek-a-boo in amongst the rocks, the trick is going to be stopping them from banging on the glass(C and E, not the fish!!!)
As I was homebound for the day I decided to make my own pasta- thai inspired chicken tortelloni (thnak you Jamie Oliver). You lucky souls get to admire the fruits of my labour.
It was really tasty and very filling. The dark sauce is a dipping sauce which just made the tortelloni, we'll be eating it for at least the rest of the weekend. I even made the leftover pasta into tagliatelle, which I'm drying and will eat sometime this week.
Last but not least the promised pictures of the fish tank, we even have the first occupants! I think Z did a fantastic job even if he is being very german about the whole setting up and has even started a diary where he can record everything he does with the aquarium in.
The girls love to stand and watch the fish playing peek-a-boo in amongst the rocks, the trick is going to be stopping them from banging on the glass(C and E, not the fish!!!)
23 Apr 2009
Preemie followup reports again
They arrived this morning in the post and for once were better than I expected. Ciara's says she has slight speech delays for her adjusted age, while Enya's said she had slight delay with fine motor coordination but she is on track with her gross motor milestones. Considering that we are back in physio due to concerns about her walking ability (definitely a gross motor ability) I was very surprised to read this.
We are still battling through with physio at home though I had (ahem) dropped back to once a day. Today Mrs W. suggested I do the harder technique only once a day and the easier technique twice a day, since Enya doesn't cry or fight the easier technique I probably will do it. I was hoping she would say we could think about stopping again but although there has been definite improvements in Enya's foot positioning and stability when walking she still has very obvious truncal deficits. They are only really noticable when Enya runs around nekkid as she is able to compensate for them very well. I sometimes wonder if it is possible to "fix" this or if she will always have this weakness, perhaps to a lesser degree though.
After our weekly physio screamathon we went to visit Z at his work. He didn't see the girls this morning as they were up at 6 am for breakfast (due to Ciara going to bed without solids last night-she didn't like what was on offer!) and as he had a very unsettled night's sleep, I let him sleep in and did the breakfast battle alone (aside: it is so much easier than it was with feeding them at the same time, now that they both hold their bottles themselves). We had lunch in the work cafeteria, Ciara tried green beans and even chewed on some pork, Enya nearly choked on some potato and then refused everything except yoghurt. Dinner will just have to be extra healthy tnight to make up for lunch I guess. Z's colleagues were amazed at how much the girls have grown and were suitably impressed by their walking skills and Enya's still present black eye. Z enjoyed the surprise so we may have t repeat the experiment at some stage.
We are still battling through with physio at home though I had (ahem) dropped back to once a day. Today Mrs W. suggested I do the harder technique only once a day and the easier technique twice a day, since Enya doesn't cry or fight the easier technique I probably will do it. I was hoping she would say we could think about stopping again but although there has been definite improvements in Enya's foot positioning and stability when walking she still has very obvious truncal deficits. They are only really noticable when Enya runs around nekkid as she is able to compensate for them very well. I sometimes wonder if it is possible to "fix" this or if she will always have this weakness, perhaps to a lesser degree though.
After our weekly physio screamathon we went to visit Z at his work. He didn't see the girls this morning as they were up at 6 am for breakfast (due to Ciara going to bed without solids last night-she didn't like what was on offer!) and as he had a very unsettled night's sleep, I let him sleep in and did the breakfast battle alone (aside: it is so much easier than it was with feeding them at the same time, now that they both hold their bottles themselves). We had lunch in the work cafeteria, Ciara tried green beans and even chewed on some pork, Enya nearly choked on some potato and then refused everything except yoghurt. Dinner will just have to be extra healthy tnight to make up for lunch I guess. Z's colleagues were amazed at how much the girls have grown and were suitably impressed by their walking skills and Enya's still present black eye. Z enjoyed the surprise so we may have t repeat the experiment at some stage.
22 Apr 2009
Well..
.. I would post pictures of how wonderful the aquarium looks now that the water is clear and the plants are in, or of the fantastic shiner Enya gave herself on Sunday when she fell and hit her head again on the sandpit (seriously when she gives herself such a whopping shiner, does she seriously need to go the next day and flirt with the neighbour who works for the child protection services!!), but Z snuck the camera out this morning so instead you can just take it on faith that they are as great as I say they are.
Life is meandering on in the House of Z, I managed to get both girls to eat ham yesterday- usually if meat is not pureed they spit it out (too much work to chew it, you know) but this time they ate it in omelette and then took bites of my ham matzos. Another case of "if it comes from mommy's plate, it's better than what is on ours". I have however given up and will be taking the blender stick with on our holiday, we'll try feed them table food but for my own peace of mind I want the blender there if they don't eat normal food.
Also in preperation of our holiday I'm trying to get them used to sleeping when their room is not completely dark. Up to now we have had their room pitch black for naptimes and nights (roller blinds outside the window, great insulation and makes the room nightlike) however we won't have the luxury in Turkey so they need to get used to napping when it is light. Naptimes now start with a half an hour to an hour playtime but eventually they do fall asleep, the plus is naptimes are now longer which gives me more time to get chores done but also means we have less time to play together.
ON the mobility side, we now definitely have 2 toddlers, neither girl crawls much anymore. In fact Ciara never crawls anywhere and Enya will crawl if she falls down a lot but usually only for half a meter before standing up and walking/running off again. Both girls have mastered the step up from our patio, we can trust them to go up and down it alone with only the occasional mishap (hence Ciara's grazed elbow and Enya's grazed knee). They love to be outside on the grass, playing in the sandpit or on the swing and slide set (no, we haven't spoilt them, our nextdoor neighbours have all these toys for their granddaughter and have generously allowed us use of them, not that we could really stop C and E from using them as there are no fences between the backyards in our block).
Talking about the lack of fences, Ciara and Enya escaped my watch on Monday and managed to get outside without me being aware of it. I thought I'd closed the patio door when I brought them inside to change their nappies but I hadn't. After the nappy change I set them free to run inside while I finished cleaning the fridge, gradually it dawned on me that they were way too quiet (quiet=danger), I went running through to the lounge to see that the patio door was wide open and they were nowhere in sight. I ran outside and immediately saw Enya playing with the washing line but Ciara was not in sight- my heart was pounding! Thankfully the wind set the washing flapping so I then saw Ciara playing with the swing seat, before I totally flipped out. I have already joking suggested we fit lines to their harnesses and peg them in the backyard so they can't get away, like people do with dogs. Surprisingly enough no one else finds the idea very good ;0). I'm dreading the day they learn how to open the doors (particularly our front door) by themselves, as we have no fences or gates or secure areas without direct access to a road!
Life is meandering on in the House of Z, I managed to get both girls to eat ham yesterday- usually if meat is not pureed they spit it out (too much work to chew it, you know) but this time they ate it in omelette and then took bites of my ham matzos. Another case of "if it comes from mommy's plate, it's better than what is on ours". I have however given up and will be taking the blender stick with on our holiday, we'll try feed them table food but for my own peace of mind I want the blender there if they don't eat normal food.
Also in preperation of our holiday I'm trying to get them used to sleeping when their room is not completely dark. Up to now we have had their room pitch black for naptimes and nights (roller blinds outside the window, great insulation and makes the room nightlike) however we won't have the luxury in Turkey so they need to get used to napping when it is light. Naptimes now start with a half an hour to an hour playtime but eventually they do fall asleep, the plus is naptimes are now longer which gives me more time to get chores done but also means we have less time to play together.
ON the mobility side, we now definitely have 2 toddlers, neither girl crawls much anymore. In fact Ciara never crawls anywhere and Enya will crawl if she falls down a lot but usually only for half a meter before standing up and walking/running off again. Both girls have mastered the step up from our patio, we can trust them to go up and down it alone with only the occasional mishap (hence Ciara's grazed elbow and Enya's grazed knee). They love to be outside on the grass, playing in the sandpit or on the swing and slide set (no, we haven't spoilt them, our nextdoor neighbours have all these toys for their granddaughter and have generously allowed us use of them, not that we could really stop C and E from using them as there are no fences between the backyards in our block).
Talking about the lack of fences, Ciara and Enya escaped my watch on Monday and managed to get outside without me being aware of it. I thought I'd closed the patio door when I brought them inside to change their nappies but I hadn't. After the nappy change I set them free to run inside while I finished cleaning the fridge, gradually it dawned on me that they were way too quiet (quiet=danger), I went running through to the lounge to see that the patio door was wide open and they were nowhere in sight. I ran outside and immediately saw Enya playing with the washing line but Ciara was not in sight- my heart was pounding! Thankfully the wind set the washing flapping so I then saw Ciara playing with the swing seat, before I totally flipped out. I have already joking suggested we fit lines to their harnesses and peg them in the backyard so they can't get away, like people do with dogs. Surprisingly enough no one else finds the idea very good ;0). I'm dreading the day they learn how to open the doors (particularly our front door) by themselves, as we have no fences or gates or secure areas without direct access to a road!
20 Apr 2009
It's been a week!!
I haven't had a lot to say so just never got around to posting. I really enjoyed having my baby sister here for a fortnight. The girls adore her (so much so they were going to her for cuddles instead of me!!) and she was fantastic with getting Enya to eat including getting Enya to use the spoon to feed herself. Quick aside here: Enya hadn't vomited in a while and Z happened to mention this on Saturday evening during dinner, not more than 5 minutes later on the 3rd last spoon she spewed the entire meal back at him. The old motto from NICU still applies never praise my girls where they can hear it!! I kept trying to convince Ren that she really wants to stay as a fulltime Au Pair for board and lodgings but she wouldn't be convinced ;0).
Enya got her first two molars in the last couple of weeks and looks to be working on the third, Ciara has her first four and I believe may be working on more as she is drooling which is very unusual for her. The last 2 days she has also been very whingy which may be due to missing Ren or due to teething although up to now teething has had no effect on them behaviourly. We have stopped sticking our fingers into their mouths to check for budding teeth as they now bite down and those baby teeth are VERY sharp.
Ren left early on Saturday morning and Saturday day itself was spent getting things ready to put the aquarium together, Saturday night was spent actually putting it together. When I agreed to the aquarium I was thinking of the normal little tank with pretty fishes in it, Z had other ideas! We now have a huge 350l tank taking up one corner of our living room. It is going to be a Malawi tank with fish from Africa, something from my home contienent. Hopefully the first fish will be swimming in it by this weekend. I'll post some pitures when it is all finished!
Enya got her first two molars in the last couple of weeks and looks to be working on the third, Ciara has her first four and I believe may be working on more as she is drooling which is very unusual for her. The last 2 days she has also been very whingy which may be due to missing Ren or due to teething although up to now teething has had no effect on them behaviourly. We have stopped sticking our fingers into their mouths to check for budding teeth as they now bite down and those baby teeth are VERY sharp.
Ren left early on Saturday morning and Saturday day itself was spent getting things ready to put the aquarium together, Saturday night was spent actually putting it together. When I agreed to the aquarium I was thinking of the normal little tank with pretty fishes in it, Z had other ideas! We now have a huge 350l tank taking up one corner of our living room. It is going to be a Malawi tank with fish from Africa, something from my home contienent. Hopefully the first fish will be swimming in it by this weekend. I'll post some pitures when it is all finished!
13 Apr 2009
Happy Easter
I hope everyone had a wonderful easter, our's was very quiet. We've discovered Ciara loves chocolate, Enya not so much. In fact Enya tends to spit it straight out again, DARN another potential calorie bomb bites the dust!
Z arrived back at 2 am this morning and after briefly surfacing to help with breakfast, has returned to bed. Before he collapsed again he did say that Enya appears to be walking better than a week ago! They were so excited when they heard his voice, squealing like little pigs but Enya needed a few minutes before she would cuddle him, Ciara jumped right into his arms and wouldn't let go. Z really missed his little girls, his comment was a week and a half is too long to be away from them (and me). Poor thing, he has another week away next month, this time for work though!
In honour of his return we (my sister and I) are baking him rye bread for brunch, I forgot to buy bread last week as we've been baking our own this week. Almost everyday a different sort, we've had wholewheat banana bread, beer bread, naan bread , russian potato bread and chocolate twist bread. This has not been a good week for dieting!! At least we haven't started on making biscuits yet.
Z arrived back at 2 am this morning and after briefly surfacing to help with breakfast, has returned to bed. Before he collapsed again he did say that Enya appears to be walking better than a week ago! They were so excited when they heard his voice, squealing like little pigs but Enya needed a few minutes before she would cuddle him, Ciara jumped right into his arms and wouldn't let go. Z really missed his little girls, his comment was a week and a half is too long to be away from them (and me). Poor thing, he has another week away next month, this time for work though!
In honour of his return we (my sister and I) are baking him rye bread for brunch, I forgot to buy bread last week as we've been baking our own this week. Almost everyday a different sort, we've had wholewheat banana bread, beer bread, naan bread , russian potato bread and chocolate twist bread. This has not been a good week for dieting!! At least we haven't started on making biscuits yet.
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