Boy on a mission!

Harry is becoming more mobile now.  Still no crawling but lots of rolling and wriggling.  He generally manages to get to where he wants to get and has in the last 24 hours started to comando creep - not quite comando crawl yet, but can creep a good foot or two.  On Friday lunch time we went to the Red Rooms (a large bar with a kids area) for lunch with Kate and Henry.  The boys were on their tummies facing each other and Harry kept trying to stroke/grab Henry's hair, so I pulled him back a foot or so, so he couldn't reach and watched amazed as he comando crept forward so he could grab Henry's hair and face again!  Clever but naughty boy!

On Friday afternoon he was at Grandma's and in the space of an hour, had (1) broken into the  TV cabinet to play with the DVD player, (2) tried to roll under the coffee table to get access to the Sky TV remote, (3) rolled under the curtains to play with them and (4) removed all the DVDs from the shelf at the side of the TV cabinet.

On Saturday morning, he had rolled over to the (electric) fire in the front room, removed half the coal from it and started to try to eat the coal and also pulled over a side table with a full glass of water on it.  So conscious that I now sound like I should be reported to social services for being a negligent parent, I should say that on Friday at Grandma's we watched him do all this because he was in no danger and whilst he's a monkey I do want him to develop his curiosity and ability to move around and be independent.  On Saturday morning, he was left on the floor with toys to play with for 1 MINUTE whilst I made his breakfast, over 1.5m away from both items (which are in opposite directions BTW)!

My little monkey is getting too clever for his own good!

How time flies!

As my maternity leave comes to an end, I have been reflecting on how my life has changed over the last 7 months.  Before having a child you can never fully comprehend how your life will change.  I commented before Harry arrived that when you plan major life events, you are often able to picture in your mind how your life will be - for example, going away to university, getting married.  But during pregnancy I could never imagine how life would be with a child.  So here are a few things I have learned along the way that I wanted to capture:

• being a mother is a 24/7 job.  Whilst it is not currently as mentally challenging is my other vocation, it is physically and emotionally draining and you can't just take a break when it suits you!
• the first few weeks of motherhood are a shock to the system as you adjust to working your day and life around this little person who relies upon you 100% to keep them safe, clean and fed.  The real challenge is learning to operate on limited amounts of sleep.  Once you get used to that and fall into a routine, life becomes much easier.  As the baby gets older, you find you have to adjust again and life becomes harder because now baby as well as wanting you to keep them safe, clean and fed also wants you to entertain him - and he doesn't nap every 2 hours!  My house was spick and span for the first 3 months and has slowly deteriorated!! ha ha!
• My nursery rhyme repertoire is severely lacking and there is a limited period of time that peek-a-boo keeps Harry amused for!!
• I was always a deep sleeper and was renounded for sleeping through burglar alarms sounding in Barclays Bank Sports Club (as it was premises owned by a Bank it was as alarmed as a Bank!) - those alarms were LOUD!  Now, I sleep incredibly light and even if Chris is in the spare room with the monitor over night I will often hear Harry before Chris does with the monitor on the highest volume right next to his head!
• Mothers and fathers bring different qualities to parenthood.  Many years ago, we used to talk about Chris maybe taking some time out of work to look after any children that we had. I think it is a fair admission that in reality, that would  never have worked out!  I think mothers have different patience  levels, multi-tasking abilities and instincts to fathers.  There will of course be exceptions to this and I am not trying to judge all mothers and fathers, but this is generally what I have experienced so far in my own family and friends.
• I never knew that I would be so interested in poo (move over Gillian McKeith!).  With Harry's digestive problems I find myself opening each nappy and carefully examining it before disposing of it!  
• I have only retched once at a dirty nappy - whilst I appreciate that they smell (really bad) the smell doesn't bother me that much. 
• Motherhood can be a lonely place at times.  We were unlucky in that our ante-natal class only had 3 couples, all of whom live in different towns, so my social circle was far more limited than I had expected it to be.  Living in Nuneaton, the range of mother and baby groups are limited to "SureStart" centres (parenting centres set up by government in areas of economic deprivation to encourage parents from socially deprived backgrounds (although anyone can attend) to interact with other parents and learn from play leaders in how to raise and play with their children).  I have been to a few sessions, but without wishing to sound snobby, did not find any mothers there that I had much in common with.
• I think that the limitations of my mummy friendship group will not have been helped by Harry's reflux.  I never felt confident enough to take him to anyone else's house as I was too worried he would be sick on their floor/furniture etc. 
• I am slowly coming to accept that my body will never look the same again!  Whilst I am pre-pregnancy weight, I am definitely not pre-pregnancy shape!
• You need to make a real effort to ensure that you get some "me" time and also some quality "couple" time.  This is something we haven't been very good at doing.  The lack of me time has been a result of Harry going through a phase of not going down at night for Chris and only wanting his Mummy, thankfully this is something he has now grown out of!  My parents moved to Nuneaton this week so hopefully we can also address the "couple" time issues!!
• I love being Harry's Mummy but if I am totally honest, I am feeling ready to go back to work.  I feel that Harry needs a bit more variety to his days to keep him occupied and because he loves to watch people and other children, I think he will love nursery.  I just wish it was possible to have a better balance than having to go back to work full time.
• When your baby has medical issues, you need to arm yourself with all of the information you can possibly get your hands on so that you face medical professionals with all of the information that they need (and possibly don't know themselves) and be ready to fight battles for your baby.  Medical professionals are quick to dismiss first time mums as being neurotic but I had been telling them since Harry was 6 weeks old that I thought he had a milk intolerance and it wasn't until he was 5 1/2 months old that someone actually took me seriously and he was diagnosed.  So instead of my baby vomiting 50 odd times a day (which according to my GP was "trivial"), he is now only sick about 10 times a day and usually because he has been rolling around like an eejit.
• The NHS is no longer a free healthcare system that will look after you "from the cradle to the grave".  It is now "from the cradle to the grave provided you don't cost the system too much money from your GP's budget or take up too much of time".  Sadly, our wonderful free health care system is feeling the strain of the economic climate.
• Babies grow QUICKLY!!!  
• We bought too much "stuff" for Harry - clothes that never got worn, baby carriers that never got used.  
• Baby goods and supplies companies are the best marketeers in the whole of consumerdom.  Even with multiple food allergies and intolerances I have found myself staring at the baby food aisle wishing for something to appear in a jar or pouch that he can eat!  I have even on occassion purchased said jars and pouches (usually because a baby club has kindly sent me a money off voucher) and convinced myself that he will be okay with said food and then found that he isn't okay with it!

On the mend?

Harry has been in and out of doctors offices for the last two weeks now.  I have felt for the last 6 months like nobody wants to listen to me when it comes to how sick he is because he is happy and thriving (for which I am very grateful but still entitled to be concerned about his vomiting!).  So one day in January having had enough of going mad and questioning myself - is he really that bad or am I making it out to be worse than it actually is? - I made a note of every time Harry was sick, noting the time, graded the severity of the episode from 1-5 and noted what he was doing at the time (eg sitting reading or rolling on his gym).  He was sick 42 times - in 12 hours.  So enough was enough and off to the GP we trotted.

I knew that my GP would not take me seriously unless I presented him with all of the facts and when there is so much to say I didn't want to miss anything out so wrote it all down - it ran to 4 typed A4 pages!  I noted the history of his reflux and diet, the number of weaning foods we had tried, what he was "safe" with and what seemed to aggravate his reflux (at the time we only had 3 safe foods - brocolli, swede and sweet potato and 7 foods that he couldn't tolerate).  I also obtained quotes from articles from the american association of paediatrics and the archives of childhood diseases and illnesses which point to the link between reflux and cows milk protein intolerance.  I suffered with this as a baby as did my mum and one of my cousins and it is known to run in families.

The GP agreed that we needed to be referred to a paediatrician.  The waiting list for the NHS was running at 4-8 weeks and since I knew that whatever would be recommended would need to be trialled for a few weeks, we decided to pay privately so he could be seen immediately and we could get him on the mend before I return to work in April.

As luck would have it, Chris's fabulous HR manager was able to persuade BUPA to register Harry on his medical cover the same day and they agreed to pay for the consultation.

We saw Dr Nathavitharana who specialises in gastroenterology paediatrics with a particular interest in allergies.  His advice was to take Harry off the Gaviscon and comfort formula and to put him on normal formula with carobel (a thickening agent) and a drug called Omeprazole which stops the stomach from producing acid.

That Saturday we started Harry on Cow & Gate formula - he was horrendous.  Within 3 oz he was arching his back, writhing around, crying.  After two bottles we put him back on Comfort formula and emailed the paediatrician's secretary to seek advice on what to do.  That night at bath time, we noticed Harry was covered head to toe in eczema.  My poor little boy.  The paediatrician agreed to see us that week (rather than wait to see him the week after at our scheduled appointment).  One thing he had commented on at the first consultation was how clear Harry's skin was.  He was glad to see him quickly and see the effects of the milk himself and said that Harry had a cows milk protein intolerance and should be put on fully hydrolysed formula where the protein is broken down so that the body does not recognise it as an allergen.

Our GP doesn't do a surgery on a Friday so knowing we would have to wait 4 days we decided to buy the milk ourselves from the chemist - it cost £17.28 from Tesco pharmacy for a tin that lasts 2.5 days!
Today we saw the GP and after a battle he agreed to put the formula on prescription.  He doesn't seem as sick on his new milk but is still in a lot of pain with bowel wind and has been suffering with diarrhea.  Here's hoping that his new regime will start to sort him out soon, poor little Harry.

On a happier note, we have been doing baby led weaning where we let Harry feed himself rather than spoon feeding him purees.  He is loving it and his hand-eye co-ordination is coming on leaps and bounds.  I am still giving him some purees but he guides the spoon in himself.