Week 9

20th - 26th February 2005

Caroline's Entry

It's been quite a week this week. On Tuesday Evan had to go get some jabs done and usually I would go along with them but I had to stay in and wait for a delivery. I heard all about it when they got back and mummy and baby were both rather traumatised.

Do you like my new hat?

To make matters worse it was on this day that Emma realised that Evan was actually constipated! Because I am at Uni a lot I don't change him all that much so I didn't really notice that he'd not done a poo in a while. Sometimes Emma can be a little overly dramatic and something that seems rather minor can suddenly be blown out of all proportion. This was one of those things! Once she realised that Evan hadn't actually been for three days she got really worried and phoned the GP (note, this was after she'd come back from the check-up!). I was changing him while she was on the phone and I noticed that he had some redness and a little swelling in one of his legs where he'd had the injection and that was it - Emma panicked, totally overreacted, burst into tears and was quite inconsolable for a while!

Not only that but of course her panic came across to the nurse on the phone (the tears came after the phone call) and she made out that Evan was having some major allergic reaction to the injection so of course they advised her that we take him back in straight away. He was soundly asleep within about 30 seconds of getting him in the car so I felt a little embarrassed at the doctors so I kind of just shuffled around in the corner and let Emma do the talking!

With the aid of a little baby Calpol and Orange Juice we had both problems sorted out by the evening. Not a day I would particularly like to repeat!

Caroline

Emma's Entry

Jump to Caroline's Entry

This week was probably one of my worst weeks so far. We were due for our checks with our GP and if Evan was all healthy he'd also have his first dose of injections.

We had both been given the all clear from the GP and Evan had his routine injections. The nurse was very nice and had prepared both injections beforehand to give to Evan as quickly as she could to make it less traumatic for us both. It was horrible having to watch, he was a very brave boy and it wasn't until the first injection was almost finished that he finally let out a cry. He pulled his usual down-lip face that looks ever so cute in its own special little way. He stopped crying but soon started again almost immediately after the second injection was started. This was too much for me to bear and I let out a little "Oh baby, don't cry" and my eyes filled with tears too. As soon as the plasters went on and my baby was once again in his mummy's arms we both felt so much better. I cuddled him and soothed him, for too long I suspect as the midwife had to ask me to get him dressed because she had other patients to see.

Yes, my trousers are far too tight, and No, I'm not happy about it!

We had a slight bottom issue this week after our successful endeavours last week with formula feeding. I had earlier read that breast milk is very easily digested and breast fed babies tend to want feeding more often and Evan demonstrated this by following that pattern. Formula milk is harder to digest and this really messed around with Evan's digestive system by making him constipated. It was heartbreaking to watch him strain and struggle and by the third day he was now crying with each attempt and he was trying to relieve himself regularly so it seemed like he was crying all the time. I do things totally backwards and it wasn't until after we had been to the Doctors for our 8 week checks that I became more concerned about Evan's constipation! After a conversation with a nurse on the NHS-Direct helpline she advised me to contact my GP. Whilst on the telephone to the Doctors Surgery Caroline was in the process of changing Evan and she noticed that one of his legs was swelling after the injections. This tipped me over the edge and I became a bit of a drama queen (I must grow out of that because I am a mum now and I need to act like one!) I became overly concerned for Evan now and was crying myself and I was just glad Caroline was around to look after us both.

We went to see the nurse and she recommended watered down orange juice to ease his constipation and some baby Calpol to make Evan feel better after the injections. Her recommendations seemed to do the trick, the Calpol made him less grumpy and cool flannels made the swelling reduce. We fed Evan the orange juice which was the first feed he has had that wasn't milk. Whilst sitting at the table eating dinner I could hear Evan straining in the push chair next to us and a minute or so later we heard several explosions coming from his bottom region! I smiled sweetly to Caroline and said "hmmm your turn mummy :)" Bless him, he didn't like to leave me out (such a sweetie) so he did another humungous poo later on that evening for me to deal with. We've decided to leave off the formula milk for a while and we'll ease him into it slowly when he's a bit older. For now we'll just use it as a top up for when my boobs are feeling drained.

Emma