Category: Useful Things I did Today

Through Liz from playgroup, I found out about a parenting course that has government funding through the schools as communities project. I enrolled yesterday, and started the first of three sessions today. Childcare is provided on site, so Inigo had his first taste of childcare today.

I was right next door (in an old building), so I could hear if he screamed. And after yesterday, I was understandably nervous about leaving him with strangers.

The training is on a system called 1-2-3 Magic, and I really can’t tell you much about it because you can’t cover much in 2.5 hours. Especially when you have a sick kid in the room next door.

Yup, the raised temp is back. During the break I went in to check on him and he felt a little warm, but I decided not to panic as he was still acting pretty happy, and the class would be over in less than an hour.

After class we went to the cheap chemist and I blew the better part of $100 on a high accuracy ear thermometer and some nurofen (which the doc at the hospital recommended if we need to re-dose before we can give more panadol). At 4pm his temp was 38.5, so I dosed him up and put him to bed.

Usually he has trouble going to sleep for his afternoon nap, but this afternoon he slept for more than 2 hours and had to be woken for dinner. He was drenched in sweat, but his temperature was back to normal.

And yesterday I weighed him on the new scales I bought last week. He was 9.1kg – up 300gms from last week, and squarely above the 50th percentile line on the WHO growth chart for the first time.

I could cry.

Urinary reflux, not the other kind…

He was very good during the test. It was horrible having to put him through that, but at least now we have an answer. We know WHY he got the infection, and we know what we can do to prevent it from happening again. He’ll have to be on antibiotics for about a year, and that should keep the infections away. If it doesn’t, then we’ll deal with that later.

He’s now asleep, after a huge feed. He had a breastfeed, then he ate all the pear and rice cereal I gave him some sweet potato for dessert. I feel like I could sleep for a month.

Apparently, human breastmilk is digested readily, in around 90 minutes. Which is funny, because Inigo can vomit undigested milk up 4 hours after a feed. I’ve told the doctors about this, and of course I get ignored.

But yesterday, Inigo spewed just before a feed, and the vomit was pink – the same colour as his antibiotics, which he had before the previous feed. One of the nurses witnessed this, and now all of a sudden they seem to think that he might have an absorption problem. No shit…

So today I’ve been dealing with the possibility of that, and again today he seemed to be allergic to sleep. And then there’s the spewing.

When he is feeling OK, he seems to be a good sleeper, but the last few days he’s looked like he is in pain, and not been able to sleep through the day. If I lay him down in the cot on these days, he screams until I pick him up, then he takes a little while to settle, then he burps or spews. Once he is calm, I put him down, and the cycle starts again.

This morning Mark and I spent nearly two hours with the social worker, giving a detailed (and very personal) life history of the new Nettle family. Apparently the doctor wants to see a complete picture of us to examine any underlying issues that might be contributing to Inigo’s weight.

Of course I’m thrilled to have a doctor that is so thorough, and I am confident that if anyone can get to the bottom of this, she can – but at the same time I am living under a microscope. Nurses watch every feed, shining a torch at my nipple to examine the shape, colour and texture after a feed. They watch him attach, get right up close and breathe down my neck to examine his sucking reflex. If I had any dignity left after childbirth, it’s all been used up this week. They’ve even weighed his nappy to see how much he peed!

I keep telling myself that it’s worth it, that this scrutiny serves a purpose, and that my privacy is inconsequential in comparison to the health of my child. But it still sucks to be me right now. Which I mention because I am trying to give an accurate record of my days, not because I want sympathy, or pity. I am sure there are a lot of people who can empathise though, especially in that special form of torture that is having a sick child.

So tomorrow we’ll do another urine test, we’ll see the doctor, and we’ll find out if she’s worried about the absorption thing, and if she’s worried about how much he spews, and why he can’t seem to sleep when he is having a spewy day. Does he spew a lot? Is the spewing normal?

Lots more questions, and still no answers. Yet.

Another two days to get through. At least Mark will be here with us.

We have antibiotics. After the first dose, he slept better than he has in months. I had to wake him up for his next feed, which hasn’t happened in months.

Maybe it’s working?

Child is off with my parents, so I can go out and get drunk. Hallelujah.

P.S. 4.97kg again today.

Unlike Hotblack Desiato, who spends a year as a corpse in a tax evasion scam, I am spending a year week five days in Tresillian, in order to prove that I am not an incompetent parent.

There are two groupings of slow weight gain (also called failure to thrive). Organic reasons include metabolism issues, asthma, and an undiagnosed infection, for example, a urinary tract infection.

Non Organic reasons include neglect and abuse. Apparently our Tresillian referral states that the paed is investigating an organic explanation. Thank FSM. But even though we’re looking for an organic cause, non organic causes still need to be ruled out. That’s just common sense.

My darling friend Josephine came to spend the day with me today, to stop me falling into a vat of self pity (they are lying around everywhere), and then Inigo and I went to visit the Auburn Botanic Gardens. We had a chat with a black faced wallaby, saw peacocks (and BABY peacocks, too cute!), and this very regal swan came to greet us as we wandered near the lake.

I was fairly reeking with serenity by the time I got home.

Until the phone rang. The paediatrician rang to tell me the results of the latest urine test. Looks like the sprog has a bladder infection.