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2005-06-11 - 8.08pm previous entry next entry
Arthur's cold again
Another entry! I just posted the mammoth one that I wrote last night and had to post in my pregnancy journal because of Diaryland being stoopid. But here I am again.
Thank you so much for the well-wishes for my little one, and the advice about cold remedies, etc. I have been checking his temperature really frequently with our ear thermometer, because he feels so warm, but he never has a fever. He is just hot and stuffy with cold.
One thing though - is it normal that he is being sick so much? He hasn't really kept down his feeds today. I think his tummy is so full of junk, and when I feed him I am starting to get annoyed that the poor little love gets no choice but to gulp down gallons of fast-flowing milk. This is a wonderful gift, I know. But right now it is working against Arthur I think. This afternoon a few hours ago, Neil went out to get some food because we have like a packet of frozen peas in the whole house (!), and he left me nursing Arthur in bed, hoping he would nap as he seems so tired out. He fed well, but then made some faces which I am beginning to recognise as "I feel sick" faces. Poor boy. I burped him and then I put him back down, as he really wanted to sleep. As he rolled over he vomited so much stuff that it didn't disappear into the sheets, it just puddled and rolled into me down my full body length! Ew. I picked him up and he just kept on throwing up. This is the 5th time now since he started his cold, but it's not like a gastric bug where they throw up frequently to flush a bug out. He did a big poo during the night which we had been waiting on for a few days (!) but it was normal and fine, no diarrhoea. He is getting a little more distressed now about the vomiting.
Anyway, no clean sheets as we had changed a sicky bed twice in the past 12 hours, so I didn't really know what to do with him when he finished being sick. We were both covered so in the end I got in the shower with him. He has never had a shower before! He seemed like he would have been interested if he wasn't feeling so poorly. I got out and wrapped him snug in a huge bath towel, and tucked the edges under him so he couldn't wriggle free, and then laid him on the bath mat while I hurried to wash in the shower. He watched me from the bath mat till I was done. Only his face was peeping out from the towel, even the top of his head was covered, but he didn't move at all. Only his eyes moved and he never smiled. He is so not himself and it breaks my heart :(
After that I got us dressed and took him downstairs. He quickly got inconsolable and I couldn't soothe him from crying no matter what I tried. He was biting his fist and shaking with the effort his was putting into the biting, and at the same time he was screaming out and sobbing :( Poor little guy. To be teething so bad on top of such a nasty cold. Well I nursed him just a little on the sofa in my arms, and then I rocked him upright, dancing to music again, until he went to sleep.
Okay I just took a break from writing this for an hour or two, because Arthur has just been inconsolable. I never heard him cry like this before, and it is almost making me tearful myself because I just do not know what it is that is hurting/bothering him. I mean, he is teething and has a bad cold, but I wish I knew specifically what is upsetting him so much.
We just spent like 2 hours this afternoon rocking him downstairs until the one rocking him got too tired, and then the other one took over. He cried so hard, and only stopped when he fell asleep without realising :( I don't know what is wrong. To be honest I am starting to feel a bit scared to see him like this. I don't know why. I just want it to stop.
He seemed in so much bother with his poor teeth, gnawing and screaming, so eventually we gave him Calpol for some pain relief. I was worried to give him any because of the goopy quality of the stuff, and how his tummy has been, but we managed to get it down him, and then Neil held him upright for 20 minutes. Good thing too, because he dozed off, and when we took him upstairs to change him for bed, he woke and cried so so hard. We just couldn't console him :( Then he threw up again on the bed. He is starting to find this really distressing, and cries quite frantically when he even burps now. Poor love. I wish I could know exactly what is scaring or hurting him, so that I could reassure him on it or make it go away. I just don't know exactly what it is. I feel so helpless.
He would not calm down and his sobs were getting kind of out of hand, like he would throw up again if he carried on, and he was sweating a lot with the effort, so we stripped him down completely, even the nappy, and I nursed him on a pillow on my lap. I took him off the breast twice when my milk let down strongly, which he was upset about, but I feel it was the right thing to do to let that milk go into a towel and not surging down his throat into his poor spasmy tummy. After that he pretty much just latched on and gave the occasional flutter suck. He did calm down very fast when I nursed him. Such a huge relief to have this to fall back on! I almost cried with relief when I put him to the breast and he calmed down. I was beginning to think nothing would calm him ever.
We brought him downstairs and he perked up and became happier and more like himself than he has all day! Yay! He even giggled a bit when I pretended to be a doggy biting his fingers off (!! this does sound a bit drastic, but he LOVES when I bark like a doggy and snuffle his fingers like I'm eating them!). Then he played for a while on the fleece blanket with his stacking rings and his bead cube. I just about cried to see him so normal again.
After that he got sad again, so we took him to bed. I nursed him (nervously!) lying down in bed, and surprisingly he went straight out like a light. After 10 minutes or so he woke and Neil rocked him till he was asleep again. He hasn't stirred since, and it's 7.30pm now, so hopefully a "normal" evening ahead, one where we can catch our breath and rest our aching backs (Neil's back is hurting him today too), and Arthur can get some good "mending" sleep. I think we may be in for a bit of a bad night, but we'll see.
Here I am with my poor Boo this afternoon, during a brief patch of unconsciousness. I just watched and watched him. I hate seeing him so poorly. He woke 3 minutes after this photo was taken, and cried :(
Poor sausage. See my red bitten fingers? I chew them so much more when I am stressed or nervous about things. I almost ate my knuckles today!
I am hungry. Neil is making dinner. He is a wonder man. I have photos of my two boys all naked, heh. They are cute and do not contain any pendular soft parts, but I still won't post them online. Arthur is reaching for Neil's face with all his arms and legs as Neil leans over him whilst changing his nappy after they took a bath together. And Neil is mid-smile/complimentary chatter with Arthur. The look on his face is wonderful. I love how he loves Arthur so much. The photos just look so lovely. My boys :)
I am attempting to catch up a bit on emails and messages, but gosh I am so behind, it might take me a while! I also updated my Fertility Friend homepage! Yay! I am excited about that, even though it will be a while before we are TTC and charting and all that stuff yet. I *am* charting though, just because it's so much fun! And I want to see what my cycles are doing. I want that luteal phase to lengthen out. It is making me antsy, watching it sit there all short and no-baby-for-you ish. Also I changed my 6 month breastfeeding goal blinkie to a 7 month one! Yay :)
Dum de dum. How lovely that suddenly the day has come to a point where I can sit here saying dum de dum! It has been the most demanding and chaotic day ever. I need to ice my back. But I just finished setting Neil up downstairs on the sofa with the ice pack behind his back. He is such a wuss about it! Wincing at the cold, etc and saying how he doesn't want any ice! He has low back pain today like I've been having, and I know from my osteopath that you need to ice it when that happens. So I set him up with no nonsense! He is watching the tennis highlights and bearing the pain of the ice, hehe! After he's done, I'll refreeze the gel pack and then do my back. I don't care about my back pain one bit. It is worth it for how I have been able to hold my baby today when he has needed me.
Oooh Wimbledon tennis is starting soon! Yay! I love Wimbledon. I can't wait for it to start. Most other tennis tournaments bore me, but I have always loved Wimbledon. It's very local to me so maybe that's why? But nope, I think it's more than that. I just love it. Except that Neighbours and Doctors take a hiatus while the tennis coverage is on for 2 weeks, humph. They are my favourite TV programmes, but I don't always get to watch them these days.
Arthur loves it when I clap my hands! He likes to hold them while I clap, sitting up facing me on the floor. I sing "Wind the bobbin up" with him (an actions song for little ones that I learnt when I volunteered at a hospital playgroup for a while once). He loves that song, because he likes me to do the actions with his hands on mine, and then I hold his hands and make them do the actions, and he likes that too. When I clap his hands together, he makes his fingers straight now and tries to help me clap his hands. He used to just make fists!
Okay I guess I have run out of things to say. Ohhh but I actually sewed some nappies recently!!!! I finally set the sewing machine up in the kitchen so I can sew during the evenings without disturbing Arthur upstairs. I had so much fun actually sitting at the sewing machine again and creating a nappy from scratch for Arthur to wear! I always loved doing that, and I haven't had the chance in so long. I made him another one of my successful night nappies (the only things he wears at night now) - the pocket stuffables made from terry towelling on the outside and microfleece on the inside. And I have sewed a Cuddlebun!!! Those are hard so I am proud of myself. I need to hammer on the snaps and sew the label on now, and then it's finished. I will be sure to post a photo, because it's been so long since I posted a nappy photo and I love this nappy! It's hemp :) And cute. Oh yes.
Okay I will go and ice my back now. It's 8pm and Arthur is still sleeping peacefully. He is breathing quietly too which is good. I hope he will start to improve in leaps and bounds now. He hasn't sneezed at all today, so that sneezy ill part of the cold is over with. Now just the gunky stage, and then the drying up, watch-out-for-ear-infections stage (oh joy), and then he'll be ALL BETTER!! Yay! Thank you all for thinking of my little one. Please pray for a good night for him and no more vomiting. xxx
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