This one's for Mea...

I'm extremely blessed to have wonderful friends and even more blessed that five of us have been pregnant together. Just before I was supposed to write my next post a few weeks ago, I learnt that one of my dearest friends, Tanya, was having trouble with her pregnancy. 

She went into premature labour and then developed pneumonia so she was in hospital for some time. At that point, I didn't feel right about writing about Wren-Lee when I was so worried about Tanya and baby Mea. 

Fortunately, Tanya recovered well and eventually was discharged. A mere 24 hours later, she was readmitted and Mea had to be prematurely delivered at only 26 weeks of gestation. Sadly, Mea deteriorated rapidly after birth and passed away a few hours later. 

Our circle of friends is heartbroken for Tanya and Louis. We were also excited for the little girl who would be the youngest of our brood. Many tears were shed at Mea's beautiful memorial service and we continue to keep Tanya and Louis in our prayers as they slowly process and recover from this tragedy. 

Mea, you were and are still loved by so many. You left this world completely pure and innocent and we hope you are happy and safe. 

We miss you...

Un-fun

Like most things in life, parenting has its ups and downs. We've had a pretty good up run with Wren-Lee so the down had to come along eventually...we just didn't think it would be quite so steep a slope.

Sending out an SOS

On Saturday night, Wren-Lee decided she just wasn't going to sleep after her last feed. I left her to babble and laugh in her cot which she did for almost 3 hours. Eventually, I figured I'd just top up her feed seeing as it had been so long since her last one. She had her fill and I held her upright for a burp. Instead of a pleasant belch, I was drenched with milky puke. It was down my chest, over my shoulder, all over my fluffy winter gown and even my PJ bottoms were soaked on one side. Totally freaked out, I had Trev grab her and get her cleaned up while I ran around looking for clean PJs and generally trying to stay away from the precipice of a small nervous breakdown. She, of course, was happily laughing as Mommy ran around trembling like a flower in the wind while Daddy smiled and got her into fresh clothes. 

When I need order in my life, I clean. In a desperate bid to calm down and process the volume of milk my small child had just vacated from her tummy, I got stuck into hanging up laundry. Dumb, I know, but it helps me get a grip and I was trying not to hide in a corner and sob. She vomited again not half and hour later. This time it's all over Trevor and thankfully missed her clothes. I took charge of clean up this time and we ended up staying up till almost midnight to watch over her as she went back to sleep. The next morning, she's all fine and we have no problems all day. We also chose to not give her the medication she usually has for her reflux as it had made her vomit a few days prior. 

Monday afternoon comes along and we get a call from Trev's mom who informs us that Wren had been throwing up again and it's mostly slime. We rush over to get her and manage to sneak in an appointment with the paediatrician. Kiddo didn't enjoy having her ears and nose checked out but the diagnosis is good: A sinus infection which we caught right before it went down into her airways. It was all the infected mucous heading down into her stomach that made her so sick. The doc also says it's ok for her to go off the meds for her reflux and we can see if she no longer needs it. 

So, the following day, what do you do with a sick baby? You take her to work! It made sense seeing as my mom was in the office and we could keep an eye on her. Wren-Lee helped with filing, learnt how to do a bank account recon, read my e-mails and played with GD's new iPhone cover :-) All in all, it was a good day and we figured our little person was feeling much better. 

Well, she had other ideas. I let her fall asleep on my chest or in my arms straight after her last feed for just a few days. That night, I put her to bed when she was tired but awake and she was not having it. With my patience tested to the absolute limit and lots of deep breathing, I sat next to her cot and waited as she fought against sleeping. Please note; I'd come home, fed her, cleaned up the house, made dinner, went straight to Pilates and endured a killer workout, came home and fed her again and was now dealing with this. I hadn't eaten and I hadn't taken a break in hours. And so I waited and watched. Eventually, she figured out what her comfort blanket was for and nodded off. 

As I forced myself to eat dinner at 22:30, still sitting next to her cot because she kept on waking briefly, I knew that this was the start of the not-so-nice part of parenting: The exhaustion from a busy day, a small child who's sick and can't tell you what's wrong, having to exercise an enormous amount of patience and by far my least favourite, being puked on. 

I knew when we got into this that it wasn't going to be all moonshine and roses. I don't mind all the other stuff and it was kind of nice to feel like a real parent. This story does have an upside though. After a solid night's sleep, I woke up before Wren-Lee (for a change). As I woke her up, she turned her little face to mine and greeted me with a big smile. I could see she was content and I knew all the drama before was worth it. There's not much that could dampen how much I love my kid and how much joy she brings. As long as we can keep the puke to a minimum, I'll go through all the sickness, the tiredness and the tantrums for years to come. 

Momma's gotta work

After 4 fabulous months, I have returned to civilisation and can now add "Working mom" to my CV.

For most people, this transition is really difficult but our family is adjusting with only minor hiccups. We're still getting the hang of leaving on time but that's going to take a while to perfect. Packing Wren-Lee up is a bit of a mission but we get better at it every day. Also, we've been spoilt with days where she's been at work with us. It's been great having her at the office and fortunately it's quiet enough for us to get on with our tasks and spend time with her.

Trevor's desk became a changing table 

Her transition hasn't been altogether smooth. She has a bit of separation anxiety and doesn't really like going to other people, even her grandparents. So, Day One was quite a drama with lots of screaming and crying and it took a bit of walking around with her daddy and a chamomile tablet to calm her down so we could leave. The next time we dropped her off was much easier and we slipped away while Granny changed her diaper. Hopefully, she'll continue getting better and I'm praying she'll grow out of the "stranger danger" fearfulness. Everyone wants to hold her and play with her and she goes off like an alarm with almost everyone the instant she realizes we aren't holding her anymore.

I have to admit that being at work does make me feel more normal. I'm not stuck in Mommy mode 24/7 and I can feel other sections of my brain coming back to life after many months of rest. Getting through the day isn't bad but I do start to miss her really badly at about lunchtime and she ends up getting massive hugs and kisses when we pick her up. Thankfully, Trevor can share my sentiments. The fact that we work together also means we've suddenly got more time together and it's been good for us.

Now the fun bit is seeing how long her grandparents will let us go through a day without asking for her to come pop in at the office.

Chips! My blogging time is up; boss man just got into the office after 2 weeks away.

Momma's gotta work....

Daddy, oh Daddy...

Camp Drayton was incredibly excited for Trevor's first Father's Day. Sadly, Trev's father passed away many years ago and I know he thinks of his dad particularly on Father's Day so, I wanted to make the day special for him.

First up was getting the right card. Knowing Trevor's love for Winnie the Pooh, I managed to find a Winnie card that looked like it had been written by a child. All Wren-Lee had to do was add her own little message and the card was sorted. (Yes folks, she can write *wink*) 

Next was spoiling him with a lovely lunch. He'd been wanting to go to Beluga for weeks and we managed to get a booking on one of the busiest days of the year. It was really great for us to be out for a meal. Trevor was extremely proud to show off his daughter to fellow patrons and staff and she happily babbled while we enjoyed our food. 

Of course, we had to go wish her GD. Buying a gift for my dad is usually a nightmare. The man literally has everything and the things he wants nobody can afford. Fortunately, I had a rare brilliant gifting idea for my dad and found him a great scarf. I didn't think he'd be all excited about a scarf but he was. Subsequently, he wore it every day this past week and even wears it with his PJs and gown while watching TV. My mom says he's all sentimental about it because the gift is from Wren. Shame, he can be so cute sometimes. 

Every year, my dad delivers what I call the Father's Day Gem. He usually says or does something hilarious and I share it on Facebook or Twitter. This year's one was definitely a classic: As we were leaving my folks' house, he went to say greet to Wren-Lee with this line, "Good-bye you little mothersucker." 

Yup, that's my dad. 

But the following day, we heard that Trev had to go to Jo'burg on business and he would miss Wren-Lee's 14 week shots later in the week. I'm really glad he wasn't there. 

She was tired, miserable and cried bitterly. I had to calm her down after she was weighed and measured and she wasn't happy about being undressed for all that. Obviously the injections were painful and she screamed but calmed down pretty quickly once I had her in my arms. The rest of the day was fine and I let her sleep a bit longer before her last feed so she could be awake when Trev arrived home that night. One would think that a baby her age wouldn't be too bothered if she didn't see her father for 24 hours. Well, Trevor woke her  and her face lit up with the biggest smile I've ever seen when she realised who was holding her. Needless to say, she was awake till much later than usual, playing and babbling to her father. 

As much as he'd deny it, Wren-Lee's got her daddy wrapped around her finger. When he's not promising her ponies, he's telling her how he's going to take her to visit Uncle Sandro and Aunty Nicci in London and then they'll going snowboarding in Switzerland before doing every possible ride at Disneyworld in Orlando. But, even if he never gives her a pony or takes her overseas, I already know that she'll never say he didn't give her all the love in the world and that's what matters most.