Fatty

Elizabeth is a porker - it's official! Another 5oz on today and she's back on the second centile. here's a cute photo to celebrate.

J
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Hooray

Well, things are starting to look up after our shaky start to the year. Elizabeth lost weight this week but has today had her weigh in and put on an a fantastic 9oz! The health visitor and I concluded that last week's weight loss was caused by dodgy scales and that she has actually put on a respectable 3oz per week over the last couple of weeks. Also the physio, the lovely Sylvia, came to see Elizabeth and is very pleased with how she is doing - Elizabeth is definitely catching up now that her bump has gone.

I have an appointment with the dietician at the RVI next Monday to see whether we can get Elizabeth's weight up. It's still low and as she gets more and more active the danger is that she'll lose the gains she HAS made. Frankly, if we could just stretch that little tummy so that she could sleep for more than 2 1/2 hours without a feed I would be a very happy woman!

So, I am still a busy bee and now know half the health professionals in the North East (and they're all lovely and wonderful without exception).

J
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Curses!

Well, we went to see Mr Jaffray and the news is mixed.

The good news is that Elizabeth's scar is looking good and he expects it to heal nicely and lose its redness over the next few months. The bad news is that it doesn't matter how well that scar does as Mr Jaffray will need to operate again before Elizabeth goes to school. Here's the science bit: The muscles joined together during the op were not very good quality after all. As she gets older the extrusion (bulgey bit) will get bigger and more prominent and there is no chance (as we had hoped) that it will fix itself as sometimes happens with normal hernias. When she is four or so she will need to go back to the RVI for another op to fix that and her 'disappointing' bellybutton.

Mr Jaffray was concerned about her current failure to put on weight and has referred her to Mrs Bunn (gastro-enterology consultant). No-one could ever accuse the NHS of neglecting our child!

So, not the "Everything is wonderful, go away and never come back!" we might have hoped for, but at least Anna Elizabethwon't be operated on again until she is really strong. After the appointment I got very moist eyed in Marksies in Newcastle which was a tad embarrassing, but I've recovered now.

J
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Party Fears Two

Chloe's second birthday party was great and we were all thoroughly entertained by Charlie the Magician. Here's a shot of Cinderella and La-La!

Recovery

Well, we are all 'well' again although I still feel like I have been run over by a 10-tonne truck!

We go the the RVI on Monday to see Mr Jaffray for Elizabeth's post-op check. We've been trying to come up with a gift idea for him, but nothing seems quite good enough. A card and a box of chocs doesn't seem to quite cut it in these circumstances. We could offer him a liver if he ever needs one or pledge Elizabeth's first-born child to him!

J
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A finally succumbs

It's taken me nearly a week but I've finally managed to infect A with this very nasty bug. He is having to stay off work which is the last thing he needs, frankly.

I have added a new level of disgustingness to the tummy upset with revolting 'eggy' burps and, for some unknown reason, very red eyes. What a gorgeous creature I am!

Luckily, Chloe and Elizabeth seem really well again and Chloe's school reopens today so we have just the one child to cope with until 3pm.

Yours in despair,

J
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Chloe is six

Well, Chloe is six. It's unbelievable!

Unfortunately we have been hit by a nasty tummy bug and Elizabeth and I have been really unwell, so this morning we had to make the decision to scale down Chloe's birthday party from 17 children to a more modest 2 (cousins who had already been exposed to the dreaded lurgy). Chloe was very sweet and grown up about it.

We have rescheduled her big party for the 15th. She received lots of lovely presents today and enjoyed her "teeny weeny" party with Hugo and Georgie.

J
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PS: Later addition - Chloe spent the evening of her birthday in A&E as she developed a horrible weird-looking rash and felt awful. We were told to take her in 'just in case' and it turned out to be an allergic reaction to a throat bug she had been harbouring!

Happy New Year!

Well, we scooted down to Hartlepool yesterday to see Marg and Trev. We were sorry not to stay for the party (I do love a good party!), but it was a very sensible decision as Elizabeth did not settle in the evening. We did however try her purely on breast milk last night and she slept wonderfully well and is very happy today. So, it looks like formula milk is the culprit as opposed to solids. Hopefully, we will all get a bit more rest now.

Happy New Year to all of you. We drank a bottle of champagne, watched a great film and cuddled our youngest daughter, so it was a good evening.

As you can see from the shot of Elizabeth, she found her first New Year's Eve very thrilling. That's A's hairy chest in the shot not mine, by the way!

J
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