365 Photos - Jan 6

Wednesday 6th Jan 2010

There's some crappy virus in our house today. We're all tired and cranky, I definitely have an upset stomach and a mild fever. Zeke isn't himself quite either Zeke was exhausted, he went to bed at 7.30 pm and didn't wake up till 8.30am! I passed out on the couch not long after he went to bed myself. He had two naps as well today instead of one, and I slept through both of them as well... so yes, this virus is taking it all out of us!

We had some fun in the evening though, finally got around to setting up the little tricycle that Granny gave Zeke for Christmas and took him for a little walk, he loved it, but cried when we came home! I've had to hide it in Ryan's office so he doesn't scream about it when it's time for bed... speaking of, why is he still awake?

Today's photo...



Zeke absolutely worships Ryan, and wants to be a part of whatever he's doing. Especially when it comes to playing guitar! He's twiddling the volume knob at the moment, and about 2 seconds later went over and clicked one of the pedals... I suspect there's going to be another musician in the house.

You Know You're A Parent...

When you get excited about poo!

Specifically your baby's first normal poo after over a week of gastro. That's right, the stomach bug came to visit Zeke & I... no fun at all. Needless to say we are very relieved to have things heading back to normal after a week of vomit and diarrhoea.

He had really bad gastro, and then every time he seemed to be getting better, he'd throw up again... and wow can that boy puke! After many discussions with various health professionals, the ER doctor at the local hossy FINALLY told us it was normal for a baby to go up and down in health when fighting a virus, because their body fights it in waves, rather than all at once like an adult would.

I'm glad someone finally told us what was going on because, he was getting better, and then almost exactly 12 hours later would start up vomiting again... and it scared the daylights out of him... poor little guy didn't understand at all. :(

Now I'm catching up on all the cleaning that needs to be done. When you're playing shortstop to baby vomit, everything that does not have puke on it tends to get ignored in favour of mopping up.

Now that he's well I hope to have a better update soon!

Don't even have any new pics... I fail!

Back again...

We've been sick - then got better briefly, then got sick again. It has been a vicious cycle! Anyway, here's an update of the last couple of weeks.

The week before Zeke's party we were all sick. I had gastro, a cough, sore throat the works. Zeke was snotty and generally cranky, turns out the poor baby had a double ear infection. Anti's cleared it up quickly enough, but oh my god - upset tummies from antibiotics make for the WORST nappies. Ryan had some respitory/cold thing as well... we were a sick bunch!

Then, just as that was clearing up Fri night before his birthday party Zeke developed a slight fever, but seemed okay on Sat morning, so we went ahead with his party, although of course once everyone arrived he was obviously not 100%, and was very tired - he didn't even have any cake!

By Sat evening he was feverish again and started refusing bottles, he was also restless and sleeping poorly though some paracetamol had helped lower his fever. He woke up around 2am and cried non-stop, absolutely nothing we did could settle him, so we decided his ears might be infected again so we took him down to the ER of the children's hossy where he had his op.

Of course he turned into Mr Personality again once we were there, smiling and flirting, but the Dr said he was obviously not well, his throat was a bit red, his ears were a little sore, and generally everything was a bit off. She Dx a general virus and told us to take him home and to push fluids, and lots of love, and to go to the GPs on Monday if he was still unwell.

Sunday was generally sleepy as we'd gotten back from the hossy at 6.30am, not to mention being pooped from his party, and he was fairly good that night. However when he woke at 7.30am Monday, had a bottle & went straight back to bed, I knew he still wasn't better. He woke again at 10.30, had 3oz, a nappy change, and then picked up hs dummy, laid down on my lap and went to sleep - just like that, after only 20 mins of awake time. He woke again at 12.30pm, and repeated the same routine and was very lethargic & dopey, not to mention hot, so I decided I wasn't happy, especially with how out of things he seemed, and to skip the GP and head back to the ER.

This time he was definitely sick and a nurse saw us right away, and said he'd try and get us seen ASAP, when he saw that Zeke was spiking at 39.8 (103.6 F). Zeke just flopped on our chests, and did almost nothing. The Dr who saw us was lovely, & said we'd done the right thing to bring him in, as lethargy + fever can be very serious.

Thankfully it wasn't serious, still a virus, which had to get worse before it got better and a big dose of paracetamol began to ease his fever almost immediately. The Dr also wanted a urine sample, so we had Zeke without a nappy on for over an hour, bribing him with Pedialyte, chocolate milk, gatorade and cordial to try and get him to produce something. He got pretty cranky being in the little cubicle, so we thought we'd test out karma for a little, giving Zeke the chance to pee on us in public - we walked around the ER station for 20 mins with him only in a onesie, Ryan following along with a cup just in case and nothing!

However the Doctor decided that given how well he was responding to just the paracetamol that there probably wasn't a UTI as well, and sent us home, saying if he wasn't improving in the morning to persevere with the sample & take it to the GP for testing & ABs if needed.

Fortunately Zeke went straight to bed when we got home & barely woke the whole night, waking late on Tuesday morning & acting like a new baby! He's been steadily improving ever since, but of course I promptly came down with a head cold, which I spent the last week recovering from, too zonked to post here.

And now... his birthday! I haven't uploaded pics yet, as there are a lot of other things I need to do here, so many unread blogs and emails! It was great, a lot of work, but a huge success, lots of fun & laughter. The cake looked AMAZING, I am so proud of myself. We of course have enough toys to start a toy store & enough books to start a children's library, but I am trying to space out discovering them, so there's something new for Zeke to do each time he gets bored with something he has had for a while.

And now an update on Zeke seeing as I've been lazy and not done a proper update - he was weighed on his 1year birthday.

Weight: 9.8kgs (21 lbs 9 1/2 oz) but just 10 days later when he was weighed in the ER has stacked up to 10.3 kgs (22 lbs 11oz) still a lightweight, but gained 500g so fast!

Height: 75cms (29.5 inches - my baby is almost 2 1/2 foot tall!)

He is running almost everywhere, I don't think he crawls anymore unless it is over the top of Ryan or I when we are playing! He picks things up and carries them too. We got him a push along toy thing for his birthday, and he only just worked out how to push and walk along behind it today - until now he's been carrying it everywhere! I think there's a photo somewhere on my camera.

Zeke has learned a new word and he is obsessed with it - "duh" which means duck. He has a few books with ducks in them now, and he will keep bringing the books to us demanding "duh duh duh!" until we open it to the right page to show him. He even knows which book has ducks on 3 different pages, and won't stop until he's seen all 3!

There's even a book which I was convinced didn't have one on it, and yet Zeke was pushing the book on my lap, slapping it and going "duh duh duh!" and I'm trying to divert to another book that I know has a duck in it. But Zeke was smarter than me, finally he takes the book over to Ryan, who looked where Zeke was pointing (and I thought he was just banging the book, bad mummy!) and there it was, his precious "duh!" barely an inch high on the back cover!

When the TV had some white geese (which for all intents and purposes are just big ducks) & goslings, which if I hadn't known better would have thought were ducklings, on it this morning, his proud "DUH!" and pointing was just too cute for words! I think it's time to rug up & head to a lake to see if we can't find some "duh" for real to feed. Zeke's good at throwing things, so I expect will be great with bread - as long as he doesn't eat it!

There are so many more smart things my baby is learning about that I want to share with you as well. I think I need to do a separate post, not to mention upload some photos of his birthday! I'd better get busy!

Mama Bear Never Sleeps

The last few days have been a deluge of earaches, snot and general crappiness. Poor Zeke has had a massive ear infection, as have I, and now Ryan.

Anyway, this has meant Zeke has been restless and crappy, and spending some of the night in our bed. Last night was no exception other than we were all feeling a bit better and we were generally peaceful.

Zeke had woken, and I was giving him his bottle lying down. I must have dozed off because Ryan had taken the bottle from me, and when Zeke had finished, Ryan asked if I wanted him to put Zeke back to bed.

Zeke by now had taken his dummy back and was snuggling into me. So I cuddled him and said to leave him. Zeke and I both drifted back off to sleep peacefully. Not so Ryan, Zeke is a kicker and takes up an amazing amount of bedspace for such a tiny person.

Ryan decided to take Zeke back to bed and tried to take him from me (I was asleep with Zeke snuggled to my chest, one hand over him resting on his tummy) and I - without waking - told (and fought) Ryan off, and held onto Zeke... he tried a few more times with the same result, and eventually slept as much as he could with Zeke's little feet pummeling him!

So it turns out Mama Bear never sleeps. Even when I am half dead with exhaustion and death gunge, my baby belongs with me and you'd better not try and argue that fact!

Urgh!

Well not the most cheerful post for finally updating, but Zeke is sick and Ryan lost his job.

Zeke has a definite cold and the Dr said maybe bacterial in his lungs/throat. We have Demazin for the snot, ABs for the bacterial and panadol for the fever and likely sore throat. (Dr said it was inflamed and red.) I am also hoping that the Demazin gives us a good night rest as I am exhausted and stressed!

Ryan hurt his back at work just on a month ago and has been off ever since. He was fired this morning because "he was costing too much" let me tell you this is utter freakin shit... but because they've stated financial reasons and company downsizing as the reason they fired him, we can't do anything even though he was off with an injury he got at work.

I promise I will try to do a better update that is more cheerful soon... however let me see if I can at least find a photo to share...

Here's Zeke after a painting session at Mum's Group!

6 Months old!

That's right, Zeke turned 6 months old last Wednesday! I would have updated sooner but we've all been sick with a horrible flu virus that made everyone totally miserable. Lots of runny noses, fevers, aches & pains, sore throats and general misery.

My poor baby boy was feeling so bad. He wouldn't nurse properly because his throat hurt, then he wouldn't burp because of it - you could see him grimace and swallow the burp when he tried because it hurt - then because he had air in his tummy he'd vomit what little he had eaten. Meanwhile, I'm feeling like death and trying to look after Zeke and give him all the extra TLC he needs while doing everything else as normal... it was not a good few days.

Wednesday (his offical 6-month birthday) started out awesome! I can't believe he's so big already... what happened to that soft beautiful little boy who'd snuggle on my chest and not move for hours? The morning started out great, I took him to have his picture taken with Santa, and it turned out beautifully. (I have to go get it scanned, so I can't show you just yet) He was so awesome, he didn't cry a bit! I got heaps of spares of photos so I can give them to the numerous rellies who will no doubt want one! We had coffee with a friend who I haven't seen since before I was pregnant, and generally had heaps of fun.

On Wednesday night Zeke got really hysterical, SCREAMING, running a fever (even an hour after a dose of paracetamol) all flushed and sweaty, he hadn't eaten in about 3 hours, and was throwing up a little, so I decided to take him to the ER, nothing I was doing would soothe him, and the GPs were closed. He screamed there for the first hour and a half, although he wasn't running a fever by then, and finally fell asleep. He was so deeply asleep that we had to wake him by the time the Dr saw us. (4 hours after we'd first gone in) and of course he was fine. The doctor was lovely and said it was just the virus getting a bit worse and to keep an eye on him.

We went back to the GP again the next day (Thurs) who told me to keep giving Zeke paracetamol every 4 hours thru Thurs & Fri so that he wouldn't realise his throat hurt and get all worked up again,, which seemed to work, and now we're both feeling much better!

On Friday we had a checkup with our new pedi, who is at the Children's Hospital where Zeke will be treated next year. It was more of a meet & greet than anything, but she said he was doing 'perfectly'! We also had him weighed and he is now 15lbs even, which is double his birthweight! He's absolutely stacking it on now that we're supplementing him. He's still 10%, but he's ON the line, rather than just touching the bottom of it.

He can help hold his bottle now too - if you let go for a few seconds he will even hold it himself if it is the thin ones. The fatter bottles are too big for his hands still. He eats apple, peach, pear, mango, canteloupe, apricot and banana for fruit, potato, sweet potato, carrot, zuchinni, broccoli, spinach and pea for veggies, and rice and oats for cereals. I'm planning to introduce a little bit of chicken and plain yoghurt over the next couple of weeks as we still want him to gain as much weight as possible and having some protien or dairy will really help him do that. He also LOVES LOVES Baby Mum-mums, which are a rice biscuit of sorts, he will eat two in under 5 minutes!

He's gotten rolling down to a fine art, and if there's something to the left or right of him when he's on his tummy, he can spin around so quickly to get it! "That's not where Mummy left you!" is becoming a frequent catch cry in this house! He can also sit up for a few seconds if you put him there, and he tries to sit up by himself, but doesn't get far, even when you pull his arms, because the size of his head means it is very heavy for him and difficult to lift, but he is still doing awesome. He's chatty, and loves to coo, squeal and generally make a lot of noise... I'm trying to convince him that he wants to say "Mama" but he's not doing consonant sounds regularly just yet!

Here he is a couple of days before 6mos in his ROCKING Metallica onesie Ryan bought!