Tiny Dancer

Rose is back to her dancing ways. Here’s a short video:

Feeling good!

Growth Scan

We had our growth scan/ultrasound today. The great news is that the baby isn’t big after all! He or she is around the 50th percentile, which is strictly average in size. This is great news and increases my chances of having a natural birth. Everything else was really good, too. The operator checked the placenta, it’s in good shape (placentas can start to degrade late in pregnancy), and measured the amniotic fluid, all is normal and healthy. I have no idea why my fundal height is measuring large, but my obstetrician did say that it’s only a rough measurement.

It was great seeing the baby all curled up and getting ready to be born. We’re getting really excited!

As for Rose, she’s doing much better, although is still not 100%. Yesterday she went to see her family doctor because she was still running temperatures. She thought Rose might have a urinary tract infection, so asked us to get a urine sample. Can you imagine the absurd theatre that happened back at our place? Imagine Rose running around starkers from the waist down with Chris chasing after her with a sample cup. (I was definitely not up to running around in a crouched position.) Chris said, “Will it come out the front or the back?” (My answer: “It’ll probably run down her legs.”)

When the big event finally happened Chris was about a metre away and lunged at her with the sample jar, resulting in a very triumpant grin. Poor Rose. However, she seemed to find it amusing more than anything. We’ll get the results in a few days.

She slept well last night, and today has been pretty good. She’s still pale, and not herself personality-wise; today at parents group she sat on my lap for the first hour and wouldn’t play with the other kids until her mate Percy arrived. Percy always cheers Rose up.

The other funny moment from yesterday was Rose running down the hallway into her room yelling, “Noooooooo!”, then slamming the door. I thought that wasn’t supposed to happen until she was 13!

Giving up

I’m giving up on saying that things are about to get better. Rose had another terrible night with lots of waking up and a return of the high temperature. The worst thing was that she woke at 2.30am but wouldn’t go back to sleep. We were up with her for several hours, which was awful. Lots of screaming. Like a band saw. She was up at 6.50am for good. I reckon we’ve all had about 4-5 hours.

So, if you don’t hear from me for a while it’s because I’m waiting until things get appreciably better or worse, or I have some news of some kind. I’m sure it can’t be interesting listening to all this whining.

About last night

Last night was bad. Rose was very unwell and the paracetamol (acetaminophen) didn’t make a dent in her high temperature. After we put her down she woke up every 10-20 (!) minutes crying and very hot. Fortunately things calmed down by midnight and she only woke up three more times until morning. We did get her up and gave her a tepid bath at one point, out of desperation more than anything.

Anyway, she woke up this morning and her fever had broke. She’s still pretty unwell – pale, tired, cranky, not eating much – but Chris and I are holding out hopes for a more restful day and night.

The unwellness continues

Sadly, that brief illness has decided to linger. Delwyn reported that Rose was “sad and quiet” most of Friday, and in the evening her fever came back. The paracetamol didn’t seem to be working, and she was waking every 40 minutes to cry and need reassurance to get back to sleep. She tries so hard to be a big girl most of the time, but the last few days she has seemed like such a little girl. She’s still our little girl.

Overnight there were quite a few wakings, and more doses of paracetamol. Still had the fever all of today, and all she wanted to do was be cuddled. She’s been shaking and trembling from the fever, and she just looks very unwell. The scariest symptom is that while she’s been having a raging fever, her hands and feet have been cold and her lips blue. (An aside: why is it that small children get the scariest symptoms? I’ve never vomited anything green or had blue lips in my life.)

So after deliberating about whether to go to the hospital we called our family doctor’s after hours service, wondering what to expect. I spoke to an operator, described our situation, and they advised that a doctor would be with us as soon as possible. My mental reaction was “You mean a doctor’s going to come to our home? I wonder what that’s going to cost? What the heck, it’s better than going to the hospital.” Sure enough, a doctor was buzzing up to our apartment within an hour. He pronounced that Rose had a throat infection and needed antibiotics, gave us a script, and told us that the service was covered by medicare (the Australian federally funded universal health care system.) I honestly can’t believe that the Australian government pays for doctors to visit you in your home for after hours care, but god bless them for it.

So hopefully we’ll be on a better path soon with a much chipper little girl.

Rosie unwell

Poor Rose has been a bit under the weather the last few days. Yesterday she had a temperature of 39.4 (102oF), and was listless and not eating well. We took her to the doctor in the afternoon. She checked her ears and her chest and didn’t see any signs of infection, and told us it might be either a virus or a UTI – if it was a virus it would get better by itself in a couple of days, a UTI will not get better. We left the doctors rooms, my mind boggling over how we’d get a mid-stream urine sample from an 18 month old toddler.

She had a sad afternoon, falling asleep in my arms three times. We put her down for a nap at 4pm… and apart from a few wake ups for paracetamol and reassurance she didn’t get up for good until 8.30am this morning. That’s a mammoth 16 1/2 hours sleep! The distressing thing was that there was green gunge on her sheet this morning, and a green stain on her cheek. So Chris agreed to take her back to the doctor this morning in case she had some kind of infection.

The good news is that Chris just called me – the doctor says that Rose is doing really well – no temperature or other signs of infection – and that she thinks that the green gunge was bile. Apparently when kids don’t eat much their tummies can fill up with bile, which they can vomit up. While it sounds horrendous, it’s not a sign of illness. So, Rose is definitely on the mend and feeling much better.

TeeVee

Rose doesn’t really like watching television. On the odd occasion that we put it on she’ll watch it for a few minutes then move on to other things. As Chris jokes, “I want her to develop her concentration so that she can watch TV… which will further on down the track give her a short concentration span.”

The other morning I put on Play School because I needed to do a few things in a hurry so that we could get out the door. She watched for a few minutes… then looked behind the TV set. I guess she was wondering where the little dancing people were!

Procession of Horses

There’s currently a public art project running in Erskineville celebrating the history of horses in the area. Part of the project involved a procession of horses through the suburb, which happened yesterday. Chris and Rose joined our friends Petra, Paul and Percy on their doorstop to watch the fun. I wish I could’ve been there! Here’s a few photos:

Resigned, but a little grumpy

What a week. It’s been very busy around here! Here’s a few of the highlights:

• On Monday I drove to a playground and the car wouldn’t start when I got ready to go home. The worst thing was that I didn’t have a stroller in the back of the car, and Chris was in the middle of lecturing, so I had no option but to walk home with Rose. To be sure, it could’ve been worse – we were only about 30 minutes away. But still, Rose still can’t walk all that far so I had to carry her for parts of it. Fortunately the car problem was minor and everything’s working again.
• Chris has been working night and day. He’s been working all day, coming come to give Rose dinner and put her to bed, then working in the evenings. We’ve hardly seen each other.
• Rose seems to be going through another developmental thingo – she’s been super grumpy, lots of tantrums, throwing things. Fortunately these moods have been interspersed with supreme sweetness and cuteness. Also, today she learned how to open doors. Uh-oh!
• I’ve been continuing to sort things out in time for the baby’s birth. I’ve been moving bits of furniture around the apartment, organising and washing clothes, washing and cleaning, etc. Also, I’ve tried to get a jump on Christmas presents, but I’m thinking about resorting to book vouchers this year.
• I had a check-up with the obstetrician yesterday. Everything is going well, however my fundal height is measuring big (fundal height is size of the uterus used to assess fetal growth and development). This might mean a few things: the baby is big, my due date is wrong, or there’s an underlying medical problem, such as excessive amniotic fluid (rare). I don’t have gestational diabetes, and I’ve put on a minimal amount of weight. So she’s ordered another ultrasound for a few weeks just to be safe and reassured me that everything is most likely okay. We have another opportunity for finding out the sex of the baby… but we’ve decided to spurn it! We figure that we’ve made it through 34 weeks without knowing, we might as well make it through the last few weeks.
• I’m working tomorrow (Saturday) for the extra cash. My mood could be characterised as resigned, but a little grumpy.

That’s all for now!

What do bunnies say?

Rose’s favorite sheets will soon have to retire for the season because they’re made out of flannette. How do we know they’re her favourite? Because when you get her up after her nap or overnight sleep she’s often pointing at them babbling, “Blah, blurgh, chuckle, expound, weee!, gurgle, chitter.”

It’s the cutest thing, I hate to take them off her. (Or is it “take her off them”?)