Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Yaaaah feeling better

Thank goodness I am feeling a little better! I have progressed to the chesty cough disgusting stage of this infernal infection. Gross, gross, gross. But I am not feeling sick anymore so I can get some stuff done around the house.

I have my happy smiley baby back! She must be feeling a lot better too, as we have lots of smiles, giggles and chatting. Lord knows what she thinks she's saying, but it is too cute! She's trying - quite hesitantly, which is very endearing - to make the 'bah' sound that we've been mouthing at her. I'm sure she'll catch on soon! She still thinks it's hilarious when I say 'mum, mum, mum' to her.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Feral Beryl

I'm thinking about renaming Romily. Her name should be changed to Beryl after this morning's little performance. Why Beryl? Rhymes with feral.

She got off to a bad start with me this morning. I wasn't quite ready to get up when Romy woke after a short sleep at 8.30. We had already had her first feed at 5.50am and Carl got up with her for an hour to let me get a bit more sleep after another cough-interrupted night last night. (I've been sleeping in another room to let both Carl and Romily get some unbroken sleep.)

So, I brought her into bed with me where she proceeded to go crazy! She reached over to touch my face (very sweet I thought) and then grabbed the sensitive cartilage of my nose - the bit between the nostrils - and twisted hard. Yeeeeouch! Oh my god that hurts. She didn't mean to do it so I tried to not to react too much and just moved out of her reach after saying 'no' quite firmly.

She just went ballistic on the bed, waving her arms and legs around and squealing her lungs out. Hmm, thinks me, it looks like she isn't quite ready to be up - these are tired signs. So I gave her another feed and put her back in her cot, wrapped up tight.

I checked on her after about 20 minutes because I could hear manic laughter emanating from her bedroom - she had managed to kick her feet out of her wrap, but her hands were still secured. I wrapped a bunny rug around her feet and left the room to go and have some breakfast. All went quiet, so I assumed (wrongly as it turned out) that she'd gone to sleep.

Just as I was finishing my breakfast I heard loud squealing coming from Romy's room. I went in and not only had she broken out of her wrap completely, but she had rolled onto her tummy and was doing laps around the cot. She had obviously been on her tummy for some time, as the giant poo in her nappy had decided to go with gravity and leaked out onto the sheet. There was also a huge wet patch, which was either a spew or a wee. Delightful!

So after a wipe down with a cloth, a change of nappy and complete change of clothes and bedclothes, I took my little miss upstairs to have a jump around in her Jolly Jumper to burn off some of this crazy energy that seemed to have possessed her.

After 15 minutes I took her out and she started rubbing her eyes rather vigorously. Yippee! A tired baby! I gave her another feed and put her to bed and now hope that a good long sleep will sort her out.

May I have my cute little munchkin back some time soon please?

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Like death warmed up

Well I'm still sick. I haven't been this sick for more than a year - and that was before I had a baby! I have been coughing up my lungs for the past 24 hours.

I finally got to the chemist today to get something to help stop the constant coughing. The chemist recommended a cough suppressant, which helps a little, but does nothing to get those razor blades out of my throat. My husband had a similar lurgy last year, so has developed a little sympathy for me and has been doing an admirable job of looking after me last night and today.

Romily is a lot sparkier today - she hasn't had as bad a dose of it as me. Thank goodness for the antibodies in breastmilk that are protecting her from the worst of it.

So, I'm feeling pretty sore and sorry for myself and completely useless. What a sad sack! I hope I'm feeling better soon - this is not a fun way to spend the weekend with my family.

Friday, January 27, 2006

We sick

Somehow both Romily and I have managed to pick up a chest infection. I hardly ever have chest colds – I usually succumb to disgusting head colds – so I am feeling awful and not a little sorry for myself.

Romy doesn’t seem to have it as badly as me. She’s not complaining much and only has a little cough every now and then. No doubt she’d let me know if she was really suffering! I’ve been giving her Panadol when she’s been quite unsettled, but she seems to be sleeping through most of it.

As I’m still breastfeeding, I need to be careful in what medication I’m taking to relieve my symptoms. I’m steering clear of cough medicine, etc. as most of it contains a decongestant, which can affect milk supply. This is the last thing I want to happen, so I’m putting up with most of it, apart from reducing my temperature by taking Panadol and sucking on lozenges to take away the razor blades that appear in my throat each night.

I’m also sleeping a bit more, which is helping greatly. Let’s hope this doesn’t last long. Being sick is bad enough, but looking after myself and a sick baby (and trying to keep her entertained) isn’t much fun.

Good old Telstra

Good old Telstra. Mid-morning Monday our phone went dead. I had to go out, so hoped that the phone would be working again by the time I got home. Nope. Totally dead. I disconnected the modem, to check that it wasn’t the ADSL broadband causing problems. Nope. I checked both handsets to ensure they were on the hook and that it wasn’t the phones causing the problem. Nope.

Looked for the phone book to find the Telstra fault reporting number. Couldn’t find it (still haven’t found it!). Found an old invoice and called the number on our pre-paid mobile phone. Before the call connected the phone told me I had $3.20 credit remaining. Fabulous.

Half-way through call to report faulty line my mobile phone went dead. Beautiful. Lovely lady at Telstra had fortunately taken down my number and was able to call me. I told her we’d better keep it short as the battery was nearly flat too and I couldn’t find the recharger – she said some days are just like that.

The phone line was fixed by mid-morning Tuesday. Excellent. Went to check my email and couldn’t. Broadband internet connection down. Not excellent. Spent 25 minutes on the phone to Telstra trying to get them to fix it, only to be told I wasn’t an ‘authorised person’ on the account and that my husband would have to call them. Argh argh argh.

Wonderful husband called them. Then phoned me with instructions. Which did not work. Argh. Rang Bigpond technical assistance and spent another 15 minutes on the phone with them. Not fixed. Not happy Jan.

To top it all off, it turns out there is a problem on their server but it will take them two working days to get to it. Not my fault, but somehow my problem. Che?

Good old Telstra.

As you can see from this blog entry, we’re back on line. According to Telstra their software turfed us out of the system for no apparent reason…

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Still no fang...

Well the desperate sucking of fingers, tugging of ears and whingeing has disappeared and our happy smiley girl is back. No sign of any teeth. Looks like it was a phantom after all. Several of the girls in my parent group have had a lot of phantom fangs with their babies too. Who knows when her teeth might make an appearance? At least she's getting off to sleep a little better now.

Friday, January 20, 2006

She sits!

Romily can now sit on her own. She's only 5 1/2 months old *sob*. This is a bit on the early side, so I secretly think how fantastic it is that my clever daughter can sit unaided. But I also know that we are in BIG trouble - she's going to be on the move soon!

I met a cheetah!

Well three actually. My wonderful husband bought me the most amazing Christmas present: a Meet a Cheetah experience at the Canberra National Zoo & Aquarium. I went into the cheetah enclosure with the keepers and got to pat and scratch under the chin two of the cheetahs today.

It was so exciting! One of them was purring as I scratched her neck and it was just gorgeous. We spent 15 minutes with them and they were just fantastic. I've never been that up close and personal with a wild animal before - they are lovely big pussycats!

We also had a lovely walk around the zoo and saw all of the animals - Romily even took notice of some of the very brightly coloured and noisy birds there. She hasn't really worked out animals yet, but she's interested in anything that moves. This includes fish apparently - we went into the aquarium and they have the most amazing maori wrasse - it's huge and came up to the tank wall to take a closer look at Romy. She looked fairly non-plussed!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

There goes the gummy grin

It's official - Romily is teething. According to our maternal and child health nurse, there are at least three bottom teeth trying to make their appearance.

I've suspected this for the past week or so, as Romy has been tugging at her ears, rubbing her jaw and sucking on her fingers like there's no tomorrow. While there's no medical proof that teething makes babies more susceptible to illness, I'm guessing the fact that Romily had a slight temperature and vomited in Launceston last week has something to do with the action in her bottom gum.

The Bonjela has been getting a workout, with Romily sometimes unable to put herself to sleep until her gum is numb.

I'm a little bit sad that teeth are coming - Romy's beautiful gummy grin will be a thing of the past and it's just another sign that my baby is growing up. There's no doubt though that she will look cute as ever with a couple of pegs!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Learning to crawl

Poor Romy! So much effort for so little return. Romily has been rolling onto her tummy every time we put her down on a flat surface and trying desperately to get moving.

She lifts her bottom up into the air and buries her face into the floor and pushes as hard as she can with her feet. Unfortunately her belly and chest are firmly planted on the floor and she gets nowhere. She tries so hard and gets so frustrated that she can't move.

She gets stuck on her belly and gets quite upset. We have to roll her back over onto her back, as she has apparently forgotten how to do this. Thank goodness we have the Jolly Jumper to distract her! We put her in there for 10 - 15 minutes at a time and she has a lovely time - giggling and grinning and generally making us laugh.

Although she's only 5 and a half months old, she's dead keen to get moving. We can't stop her and we can't help her - she'll have to work it all out on her own. Part of the joys and frustrations of being a baby, I'm afraid! And of being a parent!!

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Our Tasmanian travels

Well we've just returned from two weeks in Tasmania. We had a lovely holiday, spending time with family and visiting friends, but also travelling around just the three of us. Our first family holiday!

We caught the Spirit of Tasmania car ferry overnight from Melbourne. First stop was Adventure Bay on Bruny Island, which is an island to the south west of Hobart. You also reach this island by car ferry, but it only takes 10 minutes, not 10 hours! We spent a week with my parents, as well as with my two brothers, sister-in-law and nephews. There were 12 of us in our parents' two-bedroom beach shack. It was chaotic but fantastic that we were all there together.

After our week on Bruny Island, we spent 3 days in Hobart just mooching about and meeting up with my friend Kate and her partner Pete. It was lovely to see them. We had hoped to catch up with some of our other Tassie-based friends, but they were away and we ran out of time!

From Hobart we travelled up to Cradle Valley in the heart of Tasmania. The feature of the valley is Cradle Mountain, a craggy peak that stands over a very picturesque Dove Lake. We had fantastic weather (a first for both of us) and took Romy for a walk part-way around the lake. I strapped Romy into the Baby Bjorn and carried an umbrella to protect her skin from the sun - we looked like we were on safari!

After two short days we headed east to Launceston. The weather was great when we got there but the next few days saw clouds and rain descend upon our holiday. Maybe this was a sign from the gods that it was time to go home, as poor little Romily came down with a temperature and did a huge vomit at Seahorse World in Beauty Point - of all places!!

Launceston's main attraction is the Cataract Gorge and we took a boat trip up part-way and then walked up the side of the gorge to have lunch at a restaurant at the head of the gorge.

Our planned catch-up with friends Mike and Kim was cancelled, but fortunately we were able to have coffee with Mike the next day before we headed back to Devonport to take the ferry across to Melbourne. It was my brother's 30th birthday, so we went straight from the ferry into town to shout him lunch. After a sinful plate of pancakes each, it was off to Bendigo for the three of us for a night before the long drive back to Canberra.

Romily's granddad was thrilled to see her and loved having his only grandchild in the house for the third time this trip. He bought her a Jolly Jumper for Christmas and by the time we got back to his house in Bendigo after our Tasmanian trip Romily had worked out how to jump high in it! She is an absolute crack-up in it and she just cacks herself laughing. We only let her jump around for 10-15 minutes at a time otherwise she would jump herself to the point of exhaustion. She just loves it.

Romily travelled really well, although after 5 weeks on the move she was becoming a bit fractious and was sick of being strapped into her carseat. We decided that one of us would sit in the back on the way home and that helped Romily sleep better on the way back. It took us 9 1/2 hours from Bendigo to Canberra with 3 stops, instead of the 11 hours and 4 stops it took on the way down. We'll be able to turn her seat around to face forward soon, which will make travelling a little easier for all of us!

We had a fabulous time - loved Tassie and reconfirmed our desire to settle there eventually. We also loved coming home. There really is no place like it!