Catch Up!

It's the 11th of the month already and yet this is my first blog post of December? Poor show, i know but things have been so hectic! I'm sure it's the same for every family in the lead up to the holidays but possibly more so with all the bugs that have been flying our way.

Shortly after my last blog entry, in fact, possibly the very next day, i got mastitis. Which was predictable in many ways, as Rudy's feeding had been all over the show, with him feeding round the clock when he was poorly and then showing very little interest once he was well again.  Then we went out for the day to mooch around the Christmas markets and meet up with some friends of Chris's who we hardly ever get to see, and Rudy was in and out of the sling but basically didn't feed the whole day from morning until bedtime, by which point i'd started to feel a bit unwell.  I was headachey, and generally achey, and generally feeling meh and wondered if maybe i was coming down with the mother-of-all migraines so called in sick to work.  Then around 1am i woke up with what felt like a boulder of red hot molten rock strapped to my chest and flu symptoms and knew with absolute certainty what i was dealing with.

I tried massage and hand expression in a vain attempt to 'nip it in the bud' and by 1.30am i was leaning over Rudy's cot waking him up (the irony!) to get him to feed.  He had a sleepy, half-hearted kind of feed that did precisely nothing to resolve the situation and by the Monday morning i was at the doctors, feeling rotten and hot, and distinctly lopsided.  I'm not sure if it was the flucloxacillin, the ibuprofen, the expressing, the feeding, the resting, the combing (yes, combing), the hot showers, or what, but the duct did eventually unblock and normal life resumed...

...until last week when we had a visit from the D&V fairy (again! She was only just here a few weeks ago)

It was the usual- Rudy got sick, i got sick, Toby got sick and then eventually, just as i was beginning to think i might possibly be able to move somewhere other than between the bed and the toilet, Chris got sick and there was no one to look after any of us.  We're all now recovered but the house may need some time yet to get over it.  Our kitchen has a definite "Halls of Residence" quality about it just now.  You know, when you need to move the washing up bowl full of dirty dishes to fill the kettle up? But there's no available surface to move the washing up bowl to? So you just give up, and half fill the kettle at some weird angle, spilling most of your water back out as you try to navigate it back out of the sink? Yeah.  That.

It's all good.  Chris has an assignment due on Friday and once that is handed in he no longer gets dodge his contributions to the housework and has to resume normal dish-washing duties.  Which i just know he will be thrilled about ;)

Toby isn't quite right to be fair, i took him along to the GP this morning as i thought he might have a UTI (random spiking temps, lethargic, tearful, unsettled during the night when he'd normally  sleep through, complaining of his tummy hurting, not peeing much and you should have SEEN the colour of his pee last night- or possibly not) but then i caught a midstream sample from him just before we headed out to the appointment and it was concentrated but clear and not even remotely resembling the crazy cloudy stuff we'd found in his potty.  I took both samples, even though the potty one obviously wasn't sterile, but they both came back dipstick clear, and clinically he's well, with pulse, temperature etc all normal and not complaining of abdominal pain on examination...so either he did have a UTI and it's cleared, or he didn't, and i'm just a crazy neurotic mother ;) Either way he did seem brighter today, which was nice to see, but also meant he had slightly more energy to put in to his "threenager" strops ;)(which are varied and plentiful these days!)

I love that photo!

It absolutely captures perfectly what they're like at the minute.  Rudy is adorable.  He is a handful and a half, and that's putting it politely.  I must say his name more times in one hour than i eat hot dinners in a month! Every time i look away i turn back to find him doing something he really ought not to, like climbing furniture, pulling things off shelves, eating things that are not in any way edible, bopping the dog on the head with toys, bopping his brother on the head with toys, turning electrical items on/off, opening and closing doors/drawers, stealing the toilet brush, dangling off the toilet flush, unravelling reams and reams of toilet paper like a bloody andrex puppy.  Fortunately, just like an andrex puppy, he is so gosh darn cute! He's an imp.

And then Toby, getting his sulk on, pretending to be surly because he's three, and he's too cool for school.  But he's still somewhere between a baby and a boy, and him being poorly last week was a real reminder of that both for us and him i think, and i've been appreciating the extra cuddles since.  He's such a little worrier, very cautious and thoughtful and takes his big brother role Very Seriously.  A bit too seriously at times and i have to remind him who the parent is as some days he really gets on Rudy's case.  He's so funny though, he makes me laugh every day.  Yesterday we were at a shopping precinct, and i was musing...
Me: "I wonder what Nana would like for Christmas...what do you think Toby? What does Nana want?"
Toby: "Umm...maybe Nana would like to buy me some toys"
Hahaha.