The start of the end of maternity leave

Just over 9 months ago I said goodbye to my students and colleagues, packed up my classroom, and carried my beautiful gifts home. At 36 weeks pregnant I was more than ready to finish work, and nervously awaiting the arrival of our precious Turner syndrome babe. All these months on, I'm now getting ready to return to work. What a roller coaster 9 months! I'll certainly be returning a changed woman.

A part time return 

Yesterday I had my first proper day at work in 9 months. I say proper day, but what I mean is more of a settling in day. A day of sewing in fact, with some old and new students. It was fantastic to be warmly greeted by staff and children alike, and knowing that G was at home with daddy meant that I had no feelings of anxiety. I have 4 more settling in days between now and Christmas, with a view to make a full (or should I say part time) return come January.

Daddy day!

As G is still to have further settling in days with the childminder, Tim took the day off work yesterday to look after her. Can you believe it was his FIRST ever time looking after her for more than an hour?! He has joked many a time about me not having the house clean or dinner on the table when he returned from a hard days work, so what would I be returning to? Well, a happy baby, a roast chicken dinner prepared, and washing up done. A clean house I did not find, but let's face it, a seasoned pro like myself doesn't have time to clean so I let home off. He had a super day, and I'm so pleased that daddy and grace were able to have some bonding time. He even introduced her to a new food-tuna sandwiches!

Out of hours fun

Yep, you guessed it, ears AGAIN. Within 48 hours of finishing her antibiotics, G had dramatically turned. She was back to hours of screaming, yanking her ears, refusing milk and food, and staying awake all night. Thankfully yet again we had a super service from 111 and had an appointment scheduled with the out of hours GP within two hours. It took less than a minute to confirm what we already knew, and we left clutching yet another prescription. I won't even say that I hope this is the last of it. It won't be!

In other news...

*We saw the dietician today to try and make sense of the long and bizarre list of foods that aggrevate G, and left none the wiser. Our dietician is going to liaise with our paediatrician to possibly look into further testing regarding foods/allergies/intolerances, though it may just be that G has a ridiculously sensitive stomach and bowels.

*G is spending more and more time with the childminder and whilst she isn't 100% happy, she didn't scream for all of the hour that I left her! As I've mentioned before, we're really lucky that our childminder is a close family friend of my family, so we know that she will be very well looked after.

* G had her barium swallow test just over a week ago. It was a traumatic experience for her. I don't mean in the sense that it hurt her, but she had to be held down and virtually force fed a thick mixture which went everywhere and even resulted in her wetting herself so badly that it covered the x ray table. Oops! Still, it needed to be done. Awaiting results.

So, December is fast approaching and we are super excited about our first Christmas with Grace. We've even managed to shoe horn a few early decorations into the house, for Grace's sake of course! 

A B C ....

A is for..... Aversion

Food aversion, or to be more precise, spoon aversion!! Feeding is a huge problem at the moment. G is extremely stubborn and will fight tooth and nail when it comes to being fed from a spoon. She was baby led weaning, but wanting to get more calories into her, I started making soups and dinners that she could share with us. Only she is refusing anything from a spoon. Back to melon, roast chicken and toast....

B is for .... Barium Swallow

On Monday we'll be taking G for her barium swallow test. In particular they will be checking the extent of her reflux, for signs of aspiration (liquid going down the 'wrong tubes' and to the lungs) and that her general upper GI anatomy is all correct and present. The worst part will be starving her before the x ray. Mind you with the little amount that she is taking food and milk wise at the moment, maybe that won't be such a problem.

C is for ...... Car

Yes, you guessed it, our evenings are once again being spent driving around to settle little moo. Not much more to say on this subject. Hmmmphh

D is for........Drooling

We may have some more toothy pegs to accompany the bottom two. Though we are hoping that they do not appear in the next week or so. Poor monkey has enough to contend with for now thank you very much!

E is for..... Ear infection

Again :( And it's swapped back to the original ear this time. So that's 3 infections in 7 weeks, no wonder she's been so unhappy and we've needed to resort to the A14. At least I managed to get her seen to today instead of spending a third weekend at the out of hours surgery. I might set up camp there soon! 

The above aside, G has still had plenty of smiles and giggles for us. She had her 7-9 month check today, and apart from not being able to pull herself up or crawl yet, everything else development wise is perfect :) And she's put on some more beef! Just shy of 19lb now, which means the milk and food issues aren't affecting her weight gain for now. Now time to beat these ear infections once and for all! 

Good riddance October!

This evening's post marks my 40th entry for the Turner Syndrome and us blog! It has been looked at over 19,900 times, and has audiences as far as the US and Oz :) I've still not managed to crack the task of enabling my blog to show up on a simple google search for say Turner Syndrome, or Turner Syndrome stories, but I'll persevere. So before I start I wanted to thank all of my readers, both new and old (so to speak!).

Nice November??

October was an absolutely pants month for G. Last week, another trip to the out of hours doctor after a full night of screaming, led to G being diagnosed with her second ear infection of the month. The other ear as well. Can you believe that she picked the night of the clock change to pull an all nighter? We saw 1am and 2am twice. Felt like Groundhog Day!
Initially, things got worse before they got better, with G reacting badly to the antibiotics. Two days later and a phone call to our GP resulted in a different antibiotic which seemed not to disagree with her quite so much.  Thankfully a week on and she is getting back to her smiley little self. October has truly been horrible. I think I can count the amount of sleep I've had all month on two hands, ok and maybe two feet aswell!

Weaning ups and downs

Up until two days ago, G had been totally off her milk and solid food. In total she was off it for around 3 and a half weeks, which is pretty much the entire time of both ear infections. She wouldn't even entertain the idea of putting her favourite melon near her mouth, or drinking more than 2oz per feed. Since feeling slightly better, she has gone back to her usual milk feeds (around 25oz per day), and back to sucking and nibbling on small amounts of finger food. In fact today was her best day yet. She polished off toast and jam for breakfast, and at at my brothers birthday lunch a mountain of turkey accompanied with a few licks of parsnip.  Let's hope it stays that way.

Paediatrician update

Last week saw our three monthly visit to Dr R's clinic. After speaking to Arlene of the TS society, I went armed with questions, and wanting referrals for G-at the very least seeing an ENT consultant-but came away dismayed. Not only was the appointment an hour late, but G had lost weight for the first time ever, and as always we were told that she'd grow out of all of her 'issues'. True to form though G screamed the department down, and Dr R could at least see that she's still often a very unhappy child. We are due back in January, and if G so much as has a sniff of another ear infection, I'll be demanding that referral! As for her other issues (reflux, permanent congestion, prolonged screaming in pain, food intolerances) I will continue to monitor them. In terms of actual Turner Syndrome related issues, none were spoken of. At the very least I had expected an initial discussion on growth hormones, but this isn't an urgent matter just yet.

Is the clinginess subsiding?

Yesterday me and Tim travelled to Essex to attend a wedding. We had a fabulous day, enjoyed the company of old and new friends, and to top it off G was fantastic for my parents. Yes she had her 5pm meltdown and needed a drive in the car to settle her, but what's new?! She even managed to send us a selfie from my sister's phone :)

In other news

Pumpkin carving is a tradition in our household, and this year a third pumpkin appeared in our window. Can you spot which one is little moo?

Last week I had to enlist the help of my neighbour, who's a nurse, to unravel a tightly wound hair from Graces second toe. It was wrapped so tight that her toe had gone red. Teamwork enabled us to remove the hair with minimal fuss and before it had caused any damage. Oops! Since then I've had a fair few inches lopped off my hair, so hopefully it won't happen gain.

Grace adores several of my friend's children. We spent a lot of time this week with 2 year old Olivia, and 6 year old Lucas who adore Grace just as much. Maybe she has some best friends in the making, just like the respective mummies!


So.... the nights are drawing in, the babe is now 8 months old, and a return to work is an ever looming prospect for me. I'm meeting Grace's childminder this week. Though as she is a longstanding friend of the family, we know that she is most definitely our best option.

Hopefully November will be full of smiles, new developments and more to the point EAR INFECTION FREE.... We can but hope.