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Sarah 11:15 am on August 30, 2008 | 1 | # |

Rose is turning into a major mimicker these days. Lately she’s been copying words we say, but not always in a way that makes us think she knows what the words mean. A few mornings ago she came over and looked into my coffee cup while I was holding it. I told her it was “coffee”. She distinctly said, “cof-fee” back. But she hasn’t said it again, so I’m sure it’s mimicking. Her toy door has a song about opposites, and the other day we heard her listening to the song and copying, “up and down.”

She’s hugely into mimicking sounds from her books. When we read The Tiger Who Came To Tea she loves making the “Owp!” noise the tiger makes when eat eats all the sandwiches on the plate. She also loves to come over to you when you’re eating and make the same noise, “Owp!” She loves copying you when you sneeze, and she’s also been known to sneeze, and then copy herself. She mimics me blowing on her hot food, and making Scarface Claw’s yeowling sound whenever you pick up a Hairy Maclary book (Scarface Claw is Hairy’s nemisis, and features significantly in a number of the stories). She also has a funny and slightly embarrassing habit of farting and then making a farting noise with her mouth.

This week we’ve also had a dramatic increase in the number of wild mood swings and outbursts of emotion. Meal times have become particularly fraught – she often squeals loudly, pointing at things around the room and refusing to eat particular foods. Her appetite has definitely diminished lately, something that’s quite normal for toddlers as their growth starts to slow down. But what she’ll eat and won’t eat is erratic. Some days she’ll scarf down steamed broccoli, other days she’ll throw it around. Chris and I are really starting to wish we didn’t live in an apartment with carpets and dream of the days when we won’t have to hose everything down after a meal.

The girl is absolutely bursting with energy and excitment, and can tear around the apartment getting into and destroying stuff with amazing capability. She’s hugely into climbing at the moment, and gets up onto chairs, the couch, and small tables. I’ve resorted to turning the TV on in the mornings while I’m getting everything ready to go out, just so I won’t come into the living room to find her standing on the coffee table. When Sesame Street is on she’ll stay still watching it for ten minutes while I get the bags packed and my makeup on.
Sarah 3:41 pm on August 24, 2008 | 0 | # |

We had a lovely Sunday morning at the Australian Museum with Stephen and Delwyn. Rose loved running around looking at Dinosaur bones and taxidermied Australian animals. She particularly loved a computerised exhibit called “Surviving Australia” where you could “touch” all sorts of dangerous animals and learn more about them. She just loved the fact that your hand made ripples in the “water” even though there was no water there (it was a computer projection). We ended up joining the museum so that we can go back as many times as we like. It feels good to support the museum, and it seems to work best to make short visits with Rose.
Sarah 3:30 pm on August 24, 2008 | 2 | # |

We definitely couldn’t have got through this week without my friends in the mothers group. Tara and Petra looked after Rose, and Jody made a dinner for us and brought it around mid-week. Chris has taken a lot of time off work, too, to look after Rose so that I can rest.

I’m feeling a lot better, the high temperatures have completely disappeared and the headaches have pretty much gone, too. But I’m still feeling incredibly tired. Actually, I found out in the hospital that I’m seriously anemic, so that might be why I’m feeling so tired. I asked the doctor what else I could do – I’m taking iron pills twice a day and trying to eat as much meat as possible (which is difficult given that I hate eating meat and we just can’t bring ourselves to cook it at home). She said I’m doing all that I can and that I should just make sure I keep up with the tablets.

Tomorrow I’m back to Rose-wrangling on our usual schedule. Just have to hang in there for the weekend!
Sarah 6:10 pm on August 19, 2008 | 10 | # |

The last two days have been a real blur. I’ve just spent two days in hospital and it’s really great to be finally at home. Let me start at the beginning. On Sunday I started feeling really unwell, all shivery and shaky and with a cracking headache. I started taking Panadol (acetamenophen) and it wasn’t making the smallest dent in my headache. It got so bad I couldn’t stand up without feeling an incredible sharp pain in my head, and by the evening my temperature hit 39oC (102oF), and I’d taken all the Panadol I was allowed to, so we decided to go to hospital. I thought that perhaps they’d give me some more pain relief and send me on my merry way, boy was I wrong!

At the hospital they checked me out, a doctor came to see me, lots of questions, some blood tests, checks on the baby’s heartbeat, urine tests, etc. The midwife thought I probably just had a virus of some kind, but the obstetrician resident wasn’t so sure. They called my private obstetrician and she wanted me admitted overnight to keep a check on me. Unfortunately they didn’t have any beds available in the antenatal ward, so I spent the night in the labour ward, in one of the admissions rooms. I didn’t sleep too well; partly the weird sounds of women going into labour, the sounds of very young babies, plus the disconcerting noise of medical alarms and beeps and doors opening and closing. I also didn’t sleep well because they’d had trouble putting the IV cannula in, the first two attempts didn’t work and so the third went into the crook of my arm. I was told to keep my arm straight all night, and not to put any pressure on that arm. (Not very comfortable for a good night’s sleep and getting up and down to the toilet!) My temperature stayed high all that night, even with the pain relief, and my headache was still really bad, so they gave me codine as well.

The next morning some test results came back, there was nothing to suggest a bacterial infection, so that suggested a virus. Again, the midwives weren’t too worried, but the doctors were concerned that it wasn’t more serious (the word meningococcal virus got mentioned at one point). The whole day was a blur of waiting: waiting to see a doctor, waiting to hear what they thought, waiting for them to consult with my obstetrician, waiting for a room, waiting, waiting. I started counting the various signs around the room. I kept getting told I was probably going to go home, but then someone would come and give an opinion that I should be checked for something else. I guess they are very cautious with pregnant women!

In the late afternoon my obstetrician came to see me – she told me that they were worried because a headache and fever are not common together with no other symptoms, and she wanted me to go for a neurological exam. I finally got a room in the antenatal ward after she left, and it was like arriving in a hotel. I could see the outside! It was quiet and peaceful! Hot food (they only have sandwiches delivered to the labour ward)! I was still waiting on my neuro assessment, and then was finally told that they wouldn’t be coming in the night, it would be the next morning. I had a much better night’s sleep, although I had to be woken up 6-hourly for my intravenous antibiotics, and at midnight yet another cannula failed. Taking this one out was really bad and I bled profusely everwhere. They had to change my sheets and wipe everything down. I had another one put in (it was my fourth in the left arm!). My temperature seemed to really drop down over night and I felt so much better.

In the morning an obstetrician came to visit and saw that I was looking and feeling much better. She told me she didn’t think I need to see the neurologist because I was doing so much better, I could probably go home, she just needed consult with my own obstetrician. Of course there were a few more hours of waiting around and getting scripts for my at-home antibiotics, more checks on the baby, etc, but I was finally out of there at midday.

Meanwhile, Chris has been juggling Rose, work, and coming to see me. He’s been doing an absolutely amazing job, although he does have the air of someone who hasn’t had enough sleep. Rose has coped without her mum amazingly well. Delwyn’s been looking after her a lot, and Petra and Paul have helped too. (Petra wrote about it in her blog). It’s times like this that we really wish we had family members nearby. The juggling won’t stop for another few days as I’m still pretty weak and won’t be up to looking after Rose. But still – I’m home!

One last thing – the best thing about my hospital stay was hearing all the newborn babies. It made me so excited to have our own little baby in a few months! Those soft little cries and mewls from newly born lungs are heartbreaking. I can’t wait!
Sarah 8:21 am on August 16, 2008 | 3 | # |

For the last two or three months I’ve had the worst insomnia. Mostly I’ve been waking up early – some days at 5am, some days at 4am. It seems unrelated to how tired I am or whether I have commitments the next day. Being pregnant magnifies the feeling of being tired a thousand-fold. Consequently, I’ve felt wracked with tiredness over the last few months. Days that I’m looking after Rose are a weary trudge, and days that I’m at work are the worst. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen every night, but at least once a week I’m struck down.

Anyway, I don’t know why it’s been like this, I felt so great in the last pregnancy, had no sleep problems at all. In fact, I haven’t had sleep problems for at least a few years. I guess it’s the fact that there’s a lot of things to think about these days. Also, Chris and I don’t get many breaks from the constant slog of parenting and working. The worst part about it is knowing how much I need my sleep right now, and not getting the rest I need. I know that sleep is going to be a scarce commodity once the next baby comes along, and it’s frustrating not to be able to store up some rest.
Sarah 6:26 pm on August 13, 2008 | 5 | # |

Rose tends to cycle round her playground interests. For a few days she’ll like the slide (unbelievably called a “slippery dip” in Australia); then a few days later the ride-on bouncer toys are her favorites. For the last few days she’s been obsessed with the swings.

Today at the park she was on the swing for a while when a little girl and her dad came over. I slowed Rose down and told her it was time to share the swing with the other little girl. Rose didn’t like it. When I took her out she cried and flailed around, and even fell backwards and rolled around on the ground in her despair. The dad said, “let your little girl stay on the swing, she seems to love it,” nervously. I responded, “No way! She needs to learn to share!” (thinking, “that’s EXACTLY what we’d do if we wanted to create a monster”).

The dad then said to Rose (still hysterically lying on the ground, kicking her legs), “Have you tried the slippery dip?”

Rose said, “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssss!” with an antagonised tone, not unlike a teenager.

The thing is, I didn’t know that Rose knew what a slippery dip was (we never use the term). We didn’t even know she knew the word, “Yes”! Could she be playing dumb? Little minx!

Also, Chris and I are trying a new tantrum strategy. We’re ignoring* her as much as possible during the tantrum, and then giving her attention when she’s calmed down, on the principle of praising positive behaviour and not rewarding negative behaviour. Apparently, any reaction you give during a tantrum (even negative, such as saying “no” and whatnot) only encourages the behaviour. I’ll let you know how we get on!

* UPDATE: In hindsight I realise that “ignore” is a strong word and it’s not what I mean, exactly. We’re being as matter-of-fact as possible during the tantrum, then giving her cuddles once she’s calmed down. During the tantrum, cuddles seem to make her more upset.
Sarah 5:31 pm on August 11, 2008 | 3 | # |
On the weekend we discovered that Rose knows a few tricks:
- When you ask her “What do sheep say?” She replies “Ba! Ba!”
- When you say, “He can sound like a hand on a door” She makes a KNOCK KNOCK sound with her tongue and lifts her hand up to pretend to hit a door. (The line comes from one of her favourite stories, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr Seuss)
- When you ask her where her nose is she points to it
- When you say, “Jump!” she bends her knees and jiggles up and down, but doesn’t actually leave the floor.
I know you’re not supposed to treat your kids like trained monkeys… but she is so cute when she does her tricks!
Sarah 3:20 pm on August 7, 2008 | 3 | # |

I’ve been wondering a lot lately where our baby went. She’s gone from being a passive, easy-going, take-it-as-it-comes sort of passenger to an independent person with her own feelings, will and beliefs. She used to be pretty content to do whatever we wanted to do. Before she could crawl and walk she couldn’t make many choices or go anywhere by herself. But locomotion has changed her life, our lives, and has brought about the most startling change to her personality.

She now has an opinion about everything. She likes? Going to the park, unimpeded walking, eating toast, listening to music, playing games, and learning how things work. She doesn’t like? Going anywhere we want her to, being put into the stroller, getting into the car, putting her coat and hat on, being told what she can and can’t do, being made to eat food she doesn’t like, holding mum or dad’s hand while walking, and having things be taken off her. She’s started running away when you get her shoes or jacket out. And we’ve had some serious tantrums lately when we’ve tried to take things off her (cell phones, wallets, dangerous objects, etc). Arching her back, flailing her arms, kicking and yelling. The most serious transgression happened this week when I was trying to put her coat on – she actually bit me. Her tantrums, while startling, come and go very quickly. One minute life is unbearable and we’re being so unfair. The next minute she’s laughing and giggling.

The big question is how to deal with all of this. We’re doing our best to avoid tantrum situations – givng her lots of warning when we’re going to go out, and giving her the illusion of choice where possible. But this stuff is tricky! Sometimes you just have to get things done and there just isn’t any room for her to have a say. Fortunately, her tantrums have generally been happening at home. But I know what’s coming: public tantrums. Shudder.
Sarah 5:35 pm on August 5, 2008 | 0 | # |

Chris took Rose to the doctor this morning – the doctor wanted to see her 6 weeks after her last ear infection to check that everything was going okay. So it turns out that Rose’s left ear is a little inflamed. It’s not infected, but it could cause her discomfort, wobbliness, and general ill health. At least we know we weren’t imagining these symptoms on the weekend! The doctor said that we should use a saline nasal spray whenever she gets slightly cold-y; this will help stop her from getting congested and infected ears. She also said that Rose’s top canines are coming down, and that her gum was slightly inflamed and might be bothering her. So, all good reasons why Rose was cranky this weekend!

The lesson we learned? Only go to those weekend medical centers when you’re desperate. When it comes to kids, it’s good to see a doctor with pediatric speciality.
Sarah 8:33 am on August 5, 2008 | 2 | # |

I took Rose for her first proper haircut yesterday. You might remember that I’d trimmed her fringe before, but it was getting really long and shaggy. She was very well behaved in the salon. Anyway, the results aren’t radically different, but she is looking super cute.

First proper haircut

So those mysterious signs of illness from the weekend? All gone. On Sunday we were a bit worried about her. We’d gone to a parents group barbecue in the morning and Rose kept spontaneously crying and was very clingy – most unlike her usual self. (If you’re wondering why we were at a barbecue on a Sunday morning, just remember that we’re all parents of small children. We do things at strange times.) So we took her to see a doctor in the afternoon at a drop-in medical center. The doctor said her ears were fine, but that her glands were up and her throat was a little sore. He said just to dose her up on paracetamol (Tylenol) and monitor her.

Yesterday she was totally fine: no crying, sleeping well, happy playing. It’s weird how these things come on so quickly – like a Summer tempest – and go just as quickly.