Sickly Mommy = Sickly Monkey

It comes as no surprise that Wren-Lee is sick. Being around my germy germs isn't exactly good for a kid who no longer has the protection of Supermom's awesome antibodies. But what did come as a surprise was just how sick Wren-Lee is.

I was booked off work for two days with flu and told to be careful around kiddo. That meant little contact and having my hands drenched in sanitiser. We sent Wren-Lee off to my mom in law for the day so I could rest and recover. Unfortunately, she didn't have a good day and was miserable when she came home. She hadn't slept well, was struggling to drink her milk and burst into tears for anything and everything. Fortunately, we planned ahead and made a doctors appointment for the next morning just in case. And then came the puking. We all know how much I love the puking.

We did the best we could to try to help her but sleep just wasn't on the cards. I was up till sometime after 3am and spent that time singing "Incy Wincy Spider" and "Jesus loves me, this I know", rocking back and forth and I even turned the bathroom into a steam room to help with decongestion. By 5:30am she was unhappily awake. I looked and felt like the walking dead and Trev wasn't much better either.

We called the doctors office and had her appointment moved up by 2 hours because there was no way she could endure any more lack of sleep, coughing, sneezing and being unable to keep her food down. Doctor told us she has a really bad cold. Thankfully nothing to be concerned about. However, her symptoms were so bad because this was the first time her immune system had to fly solo. It was over-compensating slightly.

With meds in hand, I fed Wren, bathed her, got her comfy and she's been sleeping for over 2 hours now. I, on the other hand, aren't sleeping at all. I'm on cortisone and the medication keeps me awake. Not great for someone who's had like 2 hours of sleep. My brain literally doesn't know what to do with the mixed "Sleep" and "Awake" signals. So please don't be alarmed if my eyes start fading, my heads starts drooping, this keyboard starts to look awfully comfy and then vgsgrw4rfewr4efesw4erewvgftftr3wfew4rweftrwszdx...zzz...

Uh oh, Mommy's not feeling so good

Somebody really needs to write a book called "Stuff about being a new mom nobody bothers to tell you" 

For example, nobody tells you how stinky baby poo becomes as they get older. Nobody tells you when you should take your kid to the paediatrician or when a trip to the GP will suffice. Nobody tells you that sometimes you and your husband will fight over whether or not the baby's bottle is the right temperature. This  is important stuff. Why don't they tell you this?!

I think Chapter 3 of "Stuff about being a new mom nobody bothers to tell you" will be dedicated to what happens when mom gets sick. The internet and my baby books are filled to the brim with info on what to do when the baby is sick but there's nothing about mom taking ill. There's no paragraph on feeling guilty because you're sick. No subsection explains how to deal with relying on hubby to do the evening feeds, settling baby down to sleep for the night and then prepping the bottles for the next day. There isn't a little footer for hubby saying what he should and shouldn't pack in the baby's bag and he can't ask wifey because she's sleeping already. 

Come on man, why didn't anybody write about this before? 

I shall break the chapter down into "You're sick. Just rest and get better" and then for the dads there's "How to multitask like Mom" and a blank section called "Mom's emergency notes, use only in case of Mom illness" where I'd write down all the little details Trevor wouldn't know. 

I'm writing all this in a bid to make light of the situation. I genuinely feel awful and I'm headed off to the doctor as soon as I'm done typing. 

My heart is heavy because I'm torn between needing to care for myself and wanting to care for Wren-Lee. The time I spend with her in the evening is precious and I don't give it up easily. But it would be unfair of me to handle her when I'm not healthy and I risk getting her sick too. 

Trevor did some heavy persuading to get me to make an appointment to get checked out and he's assured me he can do Daddy Duty so I can take it easy. I suspect I'll be fielding many questions but rather that than eventually ending up in hospital with something that started off as just a sinus infection (at least that's what I think I have). 

I really do wish a book had told me that something as silly as a little cold could bring up so many conflicting emotions. This moment of vulnerability reminds me that even Supermom has kryptonite. Mine happens to be my sinus and an unwillingness to accept that sometimes in putting my needs first, I'm actually doing what's best for Wren. 

Chapter 4 of "Stuff about being a new mom nobody bothers to tell you" should be, "You're human. It's ok." 

Grow, grow, grow the kid...

Oh.My.Shattered.Nerves.My.Kid.Is.Growing.Up.Waaaaaaay.Too.Fast *proud crying face*!!!!!!!!!!

The little monkey that I feel was born just yesterday is now 5 months old. She grabs things, stands up, baths sitting upright, sometimes sits by herself with some support from the couch, holds her own teething toy and has worked out that her milk is in the bottle.

Soon she'll be holding her own cutlery and literally throwing her toys around and there will be teeth. It's too cute!

The last few days have seen some massive changes. She's not gaining enough weight despite getting the maximum feed so we started mixing formula into her milk. Well, we were supposed to gradually change the ratio of breast milk to formula over 2 weeks but she just took the formula as is after 3 days. Coupled with that, she's been showing all the signs of being ready to start solids so Trevor and I made her first taste of rice cereal her 5 month birthday celebration.

I was so nervous about giving her cereal. I was still Googling and reading my baby books about 20mins before her feed. Honestly, hosting a live TV show was less stressful than giving a small child mushy food. Anyhoo, she had her milk and thankfully didn't drink the full amount so I used the leftover bit to mix into the cereal.

Trevor stood ready with his phone (I must have everything in a digital format for posterity. Nerd!), we got her into her bouncing chair and I made sure the cereal was runny so she could just taste it. She was pretty confused at first but kept on accepting little spoonfuls although most of it ended up outside of her mouth. She tried getting her hand into the cup I had the cereal in and also tried to take the spoon from me because she doesn't know what on earth it is or what it does. All in all, it went quite well and she will officially be getting her little dose of porridge before bedtime.

"I'm happy about this food stuff"

"I wanna hold the spoon Mommy."

Now all this will contribute to her increased growth and prosperity. The downside is the effect all this has on me. Besides being super proud to see my girl grow, it also means I'm no longer breastfeeding. Let me tell you; having one's boobs decommissioned isn't pleasant. I'm pretty sure my bra size changes by about four cup sizes during the day and I wake up in the morning looking like I got silicone implants from the night before. Ja, it's quite something.

Also now that I'm no longer the milk machine, I can officially drink again. Woohooo!!! It's Woman's Day tomorrow, we're going away for a few days and there's a braai tomorrow night with friends. Guess who'll celebrating her kid's independence with a glass or two of vino :-)

Here's to you Wren-Lee!!!!!!!!!!

*Being 5 months old is tiring*

Baby BFFs

Every kid needs friends. Wren-Lee has a few already but the magic happens when they're together...like last weekend at the Morris house.

So our friend Clint had a birthday and our troop were invited to his house. That means 4 little people all in the same place at the same time. Not for the faint of heart. We call it a baby convention. 

When you have an 18 month old, 6 month old, 5 month old, 3 month old and a newborn in the same place, there's a lot of baby swapping, feeding, diaper changing and general madness going on. Car seats, baby bags, blankets, burp cloths and bibs are EVERYWHERE. And surprisingly the non-parent people there still socialise with us and our kindergarten. There was a LOL moment when we saw that Wren-Lee and Sienna were wearing the same dress and had matching dummies for the day. 

Anyway, Wren-Lee loves other kids. It's a fairly new fascination and we were keen to see how she'd react to having her buddies around. Because there's only a 4 week age gap, Sienna is the kid Wren-Lee is most likely to react to and she reacted pretty loudly. She tried every kind of yell she had and Sienna responded by staring blankly back at her and then looked at me as if to say,"I don't get this kid. Why is she yelling at me?" 

The second attempt went slightly better. We had the girls on a mat and got them to sit facing each other. Sienna grabbed Wren-Lee's feet because she liked the multicolour stripes on her tights while Wren grabbed the bow on Sienna's sunhat. Eventually they were on the tummies and Wren-Lee was overjoyed to see Sienna's blue eyes in front of her. Sienna, however, wasn't too keen on being on her tummy and that game didn't last very long. 

Just when we thought we lucked out with miss SJ, a special moment happened. While Natalie and I were standing side by side holding our girls, Sienna reached out and held Wren's hand. Thanks to my and Natalie's  squealing at this tiny gesture of friendship, Trev quickly snapped a pic of the girls although Sienna had let go by then. 

And then there's Gabriella. As the oldest of the lot, she's had to learn how to deal with all these small kids including her own brand new baby brother. Gabs is super affectionate and loves to hug and kiss all the babies. This particular afternoon, the affection was on a whole other level. 

I was sitting on the couch with Wren-Lee seated between my legs. Gabs came running along, gave Wren a hug and hopped onto the couch to sit next to me. She leaned over and I knew she was going to kiss my kiddie. 

What started out as a cute little kiss became Gabs sticking out her tongue and licking Wren's face from chin to cheek. It was hilarious and Wren-Lee just sat there totally mystified by what happened! 

You just don't get this kind of stuff happening under normal circumstances but, then again, there really is nothing normal about my friends and all our kids.