Where there's a will.....

There's a way, hopefully!  

So Emily and I headed back to The One's house yesterday for another attempt at a visit.  This was after we had been to the doctor and confirmed that Emily has hand, foot and mouth disease... great!  But she is on the mend and it's not serious - totally different disease to the one which affects animals, what a weird thing it is! 

We visited once the other little baby The One looks after had been picked up so as not to infect her.  And actually, it was much, much better than previous visits!!  Emily was a different baby!!  Oh it broke my heart on Friday to see her so distraught, but now we know that she was ill and couldn't tell us, because yesterday, while she did clasp her tiny little hands together (her classic sign of stress/discomfort), and she made a little whimper when being handed to The One, she held it together the entire visit and I am so proud of her!  So much so that when we came to leave, she seemed rather cosy snuggled up with The One and I kind of had to prise her away even!  Now that's an entirely different feeling I felt when I saw that, but rather that than the unstoppable tears of last Friday, any day!

So, we seem to be making some good progress.  We go back again today for another visit like yesterday when it is nice and quiet so Emily can bond with The One, and will see how the rest of the week goes regarding visits, Emily's level of contagiousness, as we may only be able to go in the afternoons, but it's better than not at all.  With heading back to work on Monday, I'll take what I can get to make sure my little girl is happy!

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it's off to work I go....

Well, I officially have just ONE week left of my amazing, incredible, fulfilling maternity leave!  I can't believe how the time has passed!  I have loved it so much more that I imagined I would.  I always knew I'd enjoy not working - obviously this is the only thought I had pre-Emily... I mean, who wouldn't want to be off for ages :)  

It was strange, I finished work and was sad actually... I left in tears haha!!  It was such a mixture of feelings, overwhelming really, mainly anxiety of not knowing when the baby would come, not knowing what I would be doing day to day, and what being on maternity leave would actually be like!  

Thinking back, I don't think I realised that I actually knew NO ONE who would be on leave with me and how I'd spend my days.  It's amazing how little you know!  And then, I met one of my closest friends through my midwife when Emily was 2 days old, and things snowballed from there really!  My neighbour introduced me to another good friend, and my Plunket nurse put me in touch with another 2 mums in my suburb.  Plus my parents' neighbours' daughter (there's a chain for you!) had her baby at the same time as Emily and I got to meet her and her lovely coffee group, and soon enough, I couldn't keep up with the social engagements and appointments we had going on!  The calendar has been so full these past 8 months, and I could never have imagined it would be that way!  

What an incredible time we have all had..... I have adored the simplicity of life.  The organising of the household, and the old-fashionedness of running and managing the household.  Not really knowing too much of what is happening in the outside world.  And, actually, not caring either.  It is incredible how your life changes for the better.  You actually only want to be with your family and care for them and think about them.  Nothing else actually matters.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to care about others soon as I head back to work next week!  It will be great to be paid again that is for sure, and exciting to continue to plan our future and look forward to what it has in store for us.  I am also going to be able to work 2 days at home a week, so Emily will have maximum Mum and Dad and family time, which is wonderful and I am so pleased to be able to do that, so it's definitely not all bad.  It's just going to be different.

Transition Time...

Emily and I have recently started the sad task of helping her settle into being with her carer, The One, so she can get used to her and her home etc before I go back to work.  Unfortunately it hasn't gone as well as expected.  We had a visit last week where I fed her the bottle and lunch and just visited with The One, and Granny came too which was really nice.  This particular visit was pretty good but they went downhill from there!

The next day we went back and I had planned to leave Emily with The One for an hour so they could bond, feed her the bottle and lunch etc.  I had to go back after 40mins as Emily was soooo upset and wasn't drinking!  While I was internally distressed, I think I was quite calm on the outside, and as least I could get Emily to drink and eat with me, and then we came home for her lunchtime sleep - which I might add was 2hours (yay!), whereas it's usually 1.5hours!  I think she was very tired from the excitement / stress of it all.

Then 2 days later we went back again for another visit, because the previous one wasn't so great, and oh my goodness, was Emily upset.  From the second we arrived till the second we left.  She wouldn't take the bottle from The One, and hardly from me, and once she had calmed down enough I could get her to have a little lunch, but she wasn't herself.  She just seemed to be so extremely upset, even with me there... It was really hard seeing her so upset when she is usually so happy, all the time!  So we decided to do a whole lot more visits this week to help her settle in.

Later that day after Emily's lunchtime sleep (a short hour, this time), she just wasn't herself and seemed very quiet.  When I touched her forehead, she was really burning up, and had a temperature of 40 degrees!!  Wow, that was a terrifying moment!  We hotfooted it to the doctor who reassured us she was fine and had a viral throat thing.  She took a bit of medicine and was soon happy and calm again.  So I am hoping like mad that she was that upset at the visit as she wasn't feeling well, and not just because she was unhappy.

I have a feeling she may have baby hand, foot and mouth disease!  She was in contact with one of her little baby friends recently who had it, and she is definitely showing the symptoms... temperature, spots around mouth, on her hands and legs.  Oh dear.  The timing is pretty spectacular if it is!  We go to the doctor tomorrow to confirm it, and then will have to see what The One will want to do regarding our visits as she looks after another wee baby and of course, wouldn't want her to get sick too.  So watch this space on what happens!!

Pawprints on our hearts...

We had the unfortunate luck last week of having to put down one of our kitties and although I am still getting over the shock, I felt I should write a little tribute to our beloved Maxie.  

You know what the deal is when you get a pet ... they get sick.  Stuff happens.  You can handle it.  At least that's what you tell yourself anyway.  We have had to put down 2 cats now, and wow, it is just the most awful thing to have to do. 

Relaxing in the sun!

What made it worse with Maxie was he was very healthy and young, only 6 years old.  But he had a blocked bladder which was going to be too costly for us to pay for right at the moment, with me being on leave from work.  

Sneakily snoozing on the brand new lounge suite!

He was the most amazing cat.  I don't think he ever scratched me, or bit me once, and was so sweet with Emily.  He would give us cuddles, smooches and head-butts galore.  He was always so happy to see us and wanted to be a part of everything we did, often rushing in past me, through the laundry door and running round the house to see what was happening.  Of course 2 seconds later the microwave would go on, he'd get scared and would want to go outside, much to our annoyance!  But that was Maxie.  

Ahhh there's that little smooch!

A one in a million kitty, very loved by us all, and his pawprints will forever be on our hearts, along with Tom's.  I love you Maxie.

A true cat - loved his sleep!