Francis Is Poorly

Last Tuesday Francis went for his latest set of immunisations. As Graeme and I have decided that Francis won't be having the MMR, the nurse decided to give Francis both Pneumococcal jabs at the same time to save us going back in four weeks. I'd been dreading him having his jabs, but it was far less traumatic than I expected. There was some crying, but Francis calmed down within a minute or so and quickly forgot what I'd subjected him to. As with previous jabs Francis slept for quite a while once we got home and for the rest of the day was a bit grumpy. It wasn't until Wednesday that things started to go horribly wrong.

Francis seemed his usual self on Wednesday morning. He woke, had a feed and then I took him downstairs for his porridge. He was yumming it up as usual, but about halfway through the bowl, Francis started retching, then promptly projectile spewed the whole lot back up while I watched in complete disbelief. I'd never seen anything like it. I gave up on his breakfast, cleaned him up and put him back to bed. He went to sleep straightaway, but about 20 minutes later was crying. I went in to his room to find him lying in a pool of sick. As I was cleaning this up, Francis seemed to perk up a bit so I brought him back downstairs and he happily ate a banana.

It wasn't long before he was tired again so I put him down for a nap and he slept for three and a half hours. I was worried out of my mind because this is so unlike him, so I was checking on him all the time. By the time he woke up it was 3pm so I thought he must be starving. He was full of life and smiling so I guessed it would be OK to give him something. I was wrong. A few mouthfuls in and it all came up again and more besides. He accepted a few mouthfuls of yoghurt, but refused the rest and wouldn't entertain the kiwi fruit I offered him, so I gave up on lunch at that point.

About an hour after lunch I'd started wishing I'd not bothered to give him anything! I was sat on the sofa with Francis standing beside me and he started retching again. I didn't think there was much left on his stomach, but my god was I wrong! It just kept coming. We were both covered in sick, as was the sofa. I had to strip Francis off and get changed myself. It felt like no sooner had I sat back down in my clean clothes, he was being sick again. He got so upset because his stomach was virtually empty and it must have really hurt him. At this point he started to get really lethargic and spent much of the rest of the day laying on my lap watching telly, when usually he won't stay still for 30 seconds.

On Wednesday night before we went to bed, we popped in his room to check on him and were immediately struck by the most foul disgusting smell; I knew instantly I was about to change a very nasty nappy. To make matters worse, Francis was lying in a pool of sick. I have no idea how this didn't wake him up. The nappy was full to the brim with most disgusting poop ever and the smell was overwhelming; I had to open the window. How there was no leak I will never know - Pampers obviously have very good quality control.

The following day Francis went rapidly downhill. His temperature shot up, he couldn't keep any solids down at all, though he was managing to keep down breastmilk and water. I got quite scared when he started shaking despite being red hot, so I rang Graeme at work who managed to get Francis an emergency appointment at the GP. The GP assured me that Francis wasn't having a bad reaction to the jabs (though I remain unconvinced), but was suffering from gastroenteritis. He prescribed paracetamol and ibuprofen to bring Francis's temperature down and dioralyte to replace any lost fluids. The GP told me that if Francis developed a rash (i.e. suspected meningitis) or if we had any concerns at all, to take him straight to A&E at Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

That evening Francis took a turn for the worse and I really thought we might have to take him to hospital. He started bring up fluids too and was so lethargic he could barely move. I didn't dare put him to bed on his own so he stayed up with us until we went to bed. I wanted to keep a close eye on him so he slept in the bed with me while Graeme had the sofabed. I couldn't bring myself to close my eyes and just lay there staring at Francis making sure he was OK. I eventually fell asleep in the wee small hours through sheer exhaustion. It was a restless night for me as Francis woke several times for a feed and thankfully he kept the milk down.

The overnight breastfeeding obviously helped because he seemed a bit better by Friday morning, and each day since we've seen tiny improvements, but he still has a long way to go. He didn't vomit today and is tolerating small amounts of solid food, but is still very lethargic and extremely irritable and tearful. I'm finding it very tough going. Francis wants to breastfeed a lot and I'm only used to two feeds a day. As a result I've been really sore and physically drained. I'm ashamed to say that the thought crossed my mind of quitting breastfeeding completely as I reached the point where I couldn't bare to latch him on because of the pain. Thankfully, I got through the pain and am now happy to feed Francis as much as he wants, but I'm exhausted - probably because my body is working overtime to produce all the extra milk.

I really wish I could make Francis better, but unfortunately I'm not Supermum. I hate seeing him like this. It's funny to think that when he was tearing around the house I'd have given anything for him to keep still for 5 minutes, but now that he is I hate it! I miss my happy, live wire and can't wait to have him back.

Lisa xxx

Happy Birthday Francis!

I can't quite believe it, but today was Francis's 1st birthday! I have no idea where the time has gone and it is still sinking in that we now have a one-year-old!

We were up at 7:30am and after Francis's feed we went downstairs to open his presents. Francis wasn't that interested in the gifts and I ended up opening most of them myself, but we did manage to pursuade him to tear the paper off one of them. We didn't get him much because he got loads of things at Christmas and we really don't have the space for any more toys. We bought him a toybox, clock, steering wheel for his buggy, a couple of books and a t-shirt.


Once the presents were open and we'd got ourselves organised, we went to the Blue Planet Aquarium for the morning. The place was packed with families and overrun with buggies! Francis was absolutely fascinated by the fish, though he did get a bit bored at one point so we decided to break for lunch. I'm glad I took something along for Francis because the food in the restaurant was worse than McDonalds. After lunch we walked through the underwater tunnel to get a closer look at the sharks - we were glad to get out of there because looking through the distorted glass made Graeme and I feel rather queasy. We then headed outside to look at the otters. I think the otters thought we were going to feed them because they came very close to us and were chattering away! For me they were definitely the highlight of Blue Planet and Francis obviously loved them too!

By this point Francis was pretty tired because he'd only had 15 minutes of sleep all morning, so we left Blue Planet and went to a retail park for a wander about. Francis fell asleep almost as soon as we put him in his pram and didn't wake until we left! Our final stop off was to a cake shop in Liverpool to pick up Francis's birthday cake for his party on Saturday.

Graeme and I are pretty tired because it's been a busy day, but we still have to pack and get organised for another early start tomorrow. We're driving back to South Shields to celebrate Francis's birthday with family, so we're in for another busy couple of days.

I'm not sure what Francis will make of his party as he's too young to understand the whole birthday thing, but there'll be plenty of food which I'm sure he'll appreciate!

Lisa xxx

Are You Ready For Children?

I found this on one of my messageboards today and it made me chuckle, so I thought I'd share.

Preparation for parenthood is not just a matter of reading books and decorating the nursery. Here are 12 simple tests for expectant parents to take to prepare themselves for the real-life experience of being a mother or father.

1) Women: to prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front. Leave it there for 9 months. After 9 months, take out 10% of the beans.

2) Men: to prepare for paternity, go to the local chemist, tip the contents of your wallet on the counter, and tell the pharmacist to help himself. Then go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office. Go home. Pick up the paper. Read it for the last time.

3) Before you finally go ahead and have children, Find a couple who are already parents and berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appallingly low tolerance levels, and how they have allowed their children to run riot. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and overall behavior. Enjoy it - it'll be the last time in your life that you will have all the answers.

4) To discover how the nights will feel, walk around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 lbs. At 10pm put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, till 1am. Put the alarm on for 3am. As you can't get back to sleep get up at 2am and make a drink. Go to bed at 2.45am. Get up again at 3am when the alarm goes off. Sing songs in the dark until 4am. Put the alarm on for 5am. Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

5) Can you stand the mess children make? To find out, smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains. Hide a fish finger behind the stereo and leave it there all summer. Stick your fingers in the flowerbeds then rub them on the clean walls. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

6) Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems: first buy an octopus and a string bag. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this - all morning.

7) Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a pot of paint turn it into an alligator. Now take a toilet tube. Using only scotch tape and a piece of foil, turn it into a Christmas cracker. Last, take a milk container, a ping pong ball, and an empty packet of Coco Pops and make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower. Congratulations. You have just qualified for a place on the playgroup committee.

8) Forget the hatchback and buy a big Volvo estate. And don't think you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that. Buy a chocolate ice cream bar and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there. Get a quarter. Stick it in the cassette player. Take a family-size packet of chocolate cookies. Mash them down the back seats. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There. Perfect.

9) Get ready to go out. Wait outside the toilet for half an hour. Go out the front door. Come in again. Go out. Come back in. Go out again. Walk down the front path. Walk back up it. Walk down it again. Walk very slowly down the road for 5 minutes. Stop to inspect minutely every cigarette end, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue and dead insect along the way. Retrace your steps. Scream that you've had as much as you can stand, until the neighbors come out and stare at you. Give up and go back into the house. You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk. Always repeat everything you say at least five times.

10) Go to your local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a pre-school child - a fully grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroy. Until you can easily accomplish this do not even contemplate having children.

11) Hollow out a melon. Make a small hole in the side. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side. Now get a bowl of soggy Weetabix and attempt to spoon it into the swaying melon by pretending to be an aeroplane. Continue until half the Weetabix is gone. Tip the rest into your lap, making sure that a lot of it falls on the floor. You are now ready to feed a 12-month old baby.

12) Learn the names of every character from Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When you find yourself singing "Postman Pat" at work, you finally qualify as a parent.

And remember: Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your children and be nice to your kids, they'll be the ones picking your retirement home!

I probably could have done with this advice before we decided to have Francis, because even now I'm clearly not ready to have children!

Lisa xxx