Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Just a fluke ?

Molly was four weeks old yesterday and managed to sleep through the night for the first time last night. Obviously, while she slept 'the sleep of the just' we slept 'the sleep of the I'll just check if she is still breathing' spending the whole night dozing fitfully constantly wondering whether she was just about to wake up. Now we shall have to see if that was a one-off or whether it truly is the shape of things to come.

It's funny, you spend the first few years trying to get them not to wake up at night and just when you think you have sorted that out, they become teenagers and suddenly do not sleep at night again and want to sleep all day.

We were very glad that we kept Molly in our room last night. Helen's mum was keen to have her sleep in her room. Just imagine how bad it would have been if Molly had slept through for the first time on her first night with Diane, allowing her to tell us in the morning how superior her babycare skills were. Erm...not that we are competitive in that sphere of course !

Molly came to the Chiltern Shakespeare auditions for The Tempest last night and was cooed over by the assembled masses. She slept through the whole process, apart from one brief moment, when she heckled my attempt to read for Caliban. Emily read for Miranda and did very well, although I do confess to being a little biased.

I am looking forward to another possible fluke this evening - Norwich City beating Reading away from home. Well, if I can't sleep, at least I can dream, eh ?

Monday, January 30, 2006


Duck ! Posted by Picasa


Harry & Trudi with Molly Posted by Picasa

This week...I shall mostly be meeting grandparents

Molly met three more of her grandparents yesterday. Harry & Trudi (honorary grandparents) returned from Tunisia on the predicted date (see previous posts) and spent a few hours cuddling the baby before returning to Bournemouth (pics above).

My Dad could not resist popping in when he came to collect Emily & Charlotte to take them to their drama competition (British Arts Quarter Finals).

Grandad Gareth is arriving on Wednesday and staying for 6 days.

The weather is not quite cold enough for my mum to come over yet - Hell has still not completely frozen over. Apparently, were it not for her fear of flying, she would come at the next blue moon by flying pig, arriving to the tune of "Believe it if you like" played by the Brigadoon Pipers.

Friday, January 27, 2006


Just too tired to blog Posted by Picasa


Still too tired to blog Posted by Picasa

Molly Rose Sendall - it's official

It has been a few days since I have managed to post anything to the blog.

Molly had her kidney scan yesterday which was clear, although she will need another in a few weeks time. Afterwards, we took her to be registered, so she is now officially Molly Rose Sendall. I did make an attempt to add Huckerby and Saffri while we were there but Helen dug me in the ribs to shut me up - she is obviously feeling better.

Molly's weight is improving and she must be well on her way to 9.5lbs now. We are managing to feed her somewhere between 40-50% breast milk topped up with formula.

It has all been rather hectic here over the last week. Helen's mum arrived from the US on Tuesday morning and has done nothing but clean since she has been here (well when we can prise the baby from her grasp that is). The Christmas decorations have been put into boxes and are ready to go out to the garage, cobwebs are rapidly becoming a thing of the past - I was rather attached to some of them - all too literally perhaps. She has dusted and cleaned and tidied the dining room and the sitting room and is planning on doing the whole house before she leaves. Tonight she intends to add cooking to the list, so I have been stood down from kitchen duty. She is amazing. I really wish she and Gareth lived nearer - partly because it would save me from the ghastly task of appointing a new cleaner but mostly because we would like to be able to spend more time with them.

I actually managed a trip to the gym today, the first time for about 6 weeks. I suspect I may ache tomorrow.

Harry and Trudi are expected to return from Tunisia on Sunday afternoon and Helen's dad is due to arrive on Wednesday. There has been no sign of or word from my parents, which is a great pity, but ultimately their loss.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Poo, poo and more poo !

And I am not just talking about this afternoon's football result which was absolute poo with a capital 'S'.

Yes, we actually had the teenagers cleaning up poo this afternoon. Not from dirty nappies either. Real stinky dog poo from the garden. If they can do that, changing nappies should be a breeze. Needless to say, the mood in Teenagerville is a little black this evening, but they have now taken the dogs for a walk, something they should have done first thing this morning.

While on the subject of poo, Molly managed to dirty no fewer than 6 nappies during one single change this week. A truly stupendous feat. Every time Helen thought she had finished and went to slip a new clean nappy on, she just squeezed some more out.

Helen is feeling less like poo today and generally seems much happier, now that she has a clearer idea of what is causing all the pain. Our GP is "very confident" that it is all musculo-skeletal, but did say that a bit like a broken rib, there is not much that can be done and it will take about 6 weeks to get better.

We had some fun today squirting breast milk into Molly's right eye. No, this is not some new and slightly bizarre sport nor a reason to call Child Protection in. She has a slightly gummy eye and the health Visitor says that dropping a bit of breast milk into the eye is the best natural cure, as breast milk is an antiseptic. Mind you, she also believes that the Earth is banana-shaped and that sheep's bladders can be used to prevent earthquakes.

Better go, I think I need a poo...

Thursday, January 19, 2006


Firmly plugged in Posted by Picasa


Ok Mr DeMille, I am ready for my close-up Posted by Picasa


Molly's Winston Churchill impression Posted by Picasa


Is this my better side ? Posted by Picasa


Yummy, milk for breakfast AGAIN ! Posted by Picasa

A new normality dawns ?

Well things have settled down a little in the last few days.

Helen's ghastly pain has still not gone away but it is being masked by drugs at least, so she can move around more comfortably. Sadly, it's back to the doctor tomorrow though to see if we cannot make some inroads into finding out what is causing it.

The US contingent of the grandparental army have finally named the date(s) of their arrival. Diane is being sent ahead as an advance party to be followed a few days later by Gareth. The Bournemouth contingent are still on manoeuvres in Tunisia and we continue to live in hope that they are going to contact us to confirm their return date.

Helen went to her NCT mothers/prospective mothers coffee morning yesterday. Finally got to meet Harry ("not Willow") Patten , Xander (not to be confused with Stizostedion Lucioperca which is pronounced the same but spelled differently, only grows to about 8.5kg and tastes of river mud) Booth and Freddy ("not Sheikh") Spear . Also present were Lois ("not Lane") Emily Strachan/Morris and Harrison ("not Ford") Holbrook. Molly ("not Malone") Sendall contrived to sleep through virtually the whole event. Amy & Carl had their baby yesterday, but we have yet to meet Sacha ("not Lifan") Lim. We still await the arrival of [baby name] ("not B") Weir and [baby name] ("not Crawley") Kirby.

Many of you will have seen the headline on the front page of www.bbc.co.uk yesterday "Large rise in infant sofa deaths". Had us worried for a while, but then we realised that all of our sofas are really quite old. Sorry, the sleep deprivation seems to be affecting my sense of humour.

Molly did not sleep quite so well last night, but she did allow us some respite for a couple of hours on at least 2 occasions. So on balance, as the rosy fingered dawn of a new normality appears above the horizon (or is that just my rose tinted specatacles at work ?) things are really beginning to look up.

Monday, January 16, 2006

A weighty matter

We had visitations from the midwife (her last ?) and the health visitor (her first) today.

Molly was weighed, poked, prodded, declared healthy and 3.82kg, a mere 70g short of her birthweight. She naturally took all of that in her stride, well the stride of someone that is not yet able to walk. We took our eye off the ball a little today as Helen was feeling a bit better and contrived to run out of Floradix just in time for me to cook a meal that had precious little by way of iron content and then she failed to take some of her pills at the right time resulting in more pain. But all in all, not a bad day.

I spent some time this afternoon in front of my pile of admin which was looking even more menacing than it has ever done before. So I had a cup of tea. Then I rearranged some of the admin into piles, put the piles in order of priority, drew up a list of to do items, prioritised the items in that list, but had to take the girls to their drama class just before I had to actually do any of it. I must make an appointment tomorrow to register the birth. I think I might sneak down there on my own and register her as Delia Ashton Saffri Huckerby Sendall, also known as Molly. Although how bad would that be if Norwich do sell Ashton in this transfer window ? Her intials would be DASH Sendall though, which I do rather like.

My overdraft at the sleep bank seems to be a bit more comfortably within the limits of my facility. I appear to have stopped short of succumbing to a direct debit, so repayment can be made as my means allow rather than at the bank's behest. Hmmmm...., having just re-read this post, it is a toss up which is the more exhausted, me or that metaphor.

Time for bed I think. I can probably get about 25 out of the requisite 40 winks before Good Golly Miss Molly wakes for her next feed.

You know, you can't say "Molly" without saying "Mmmm..." [With apologies to Mattesons]

Sunday, January 15, 2006

The Verve were wrong...

... because the drugs do work.

Helen is feeling much perkier already. The use of overlapping doses of the various pills also seems to prevent any breakthrough pain. The only things we do not know are why the pain is still there nor how long it will last !

Molly met her Uncle Nick and Aunty Susan as well as her cousins Ben and James for the first time today. We went for a big family meal with my sister and her family too, as well as some friends from work. Molly was not exactly the life and soul of the party as she slept for the whole time we were at the restaurant, but that was quite possibly a good thing. I put some of the pink champagne supply in the fridge for when we got back from the restaurant, but we did not get around to drinking any. So it is still there chilling, anyone fancy popping around for a drop ?

Guess where we spent Saturday afternoon...

Not at Home Park, watching the football obviously. Nor did we spend the afternoon perambulating with Molly around the sales. No, we thought we might pay a little trip to Wycombe General A&E to see if they were all missing us down there.

Helen's pain had become excruciating by then so that she was finding moving around really difficult. Luckily, no acting skills were required to persuade the triage nurse that Helen should be seen straight away. We managed the round trip in a disappointingly quick 2 hours 30 mins. Last time we went (after Helen's skiing accident) we arrived at 10.30 pm and were not seen until 4.30 am and did not leave the hospital until about 6.30am.

The doctor who examined Helen seemed to think that there was unlikely to be anything seriously wrong and that what she really needed was a jolly good smack or some jolly good smack (ok not smack, but industrial strength painkillers). The trick was going to be finding a painkiller that was strong enough but could be combined with breastfeeding. I think it was the A&E equivalent of 'take a couple of aspirin and if it is not better in the morning, give me another call'. His attempts to explain the cause(s) of the pain were not very impressive. As he suggested each one, he gave at least one reason why he thought it was probably not the cause. The only one not ruled out was "a surfeit of lampreys", but since no one has suffered from this since Henry I and since Helen is no gourmand when it comes to lampreys, this seemed highly improbable to me.

So we came away with a bottle of Myers' Snake Oil, some Tincture of Grimwort, a poultice made of old chicken skin and mercury and a small selection of other products from the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company. Miraculously, they seem to have done the job and have at least masked the pain until it either goes away or become really serious. The doctor was most emphatic that we should come back if her eyes or other orifices began to bleed or if any bits fell off her body.

The puppies are back ! They are full of beans and it is only a matter of time before we find them curled up in the crib with Molly. We have not yet completely banned them from the bedroom where the crib is, but the nursery is still and will remain a No Go Zone. You could imagine how much fun they could have with a bag full of dirty nappies. As avid readers will know, they have previous form for emptying bin bags so a nappy sack is likely to prove irresistible. My sister and some of our friends are taking them out for a long walk this morning so that they will only want to lie in front of the fire and sleep when they return - assuming they can push me out of the way.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Molly packs on the pound(s)

Molly has put on almost 1lb in the last week and is well on her way to regaining her birthweight.

Helen is still suffering a worrying amount of pain in her right side and has been contemplating a trip to A&E if things do not improve this weekend.

The puppies are coming home today having had a few nights with our friends Neville & Claire (who own their mother) as their rather excitable and boisterous nature was becoming a problem for Helen because they could not resist trying to jump up at her whenever she came downstairs. We have been missing them terribly.

I had half a day of filming yesterday for a new BBC3 programme which was great fun although it did mean getting up at 6am after finishing a feed at 4.35am to travel to Southwark for an 8.30 start. I met some really nice people on the shoot and look forward to seeing some of them again on future projects. I have no proper acting lined up at the moment for obvious reasons, but am still thinking about auditioning for Caliban in the Tempest for Chiltern Shakespeare in the summer.

On the trail of a high iron diet for Helen, I cooked beef wellington for the first time last night, wrapping the aberdeen angus beef fillet in a mixture of black pudding and chicken and mushroom pate before adding the pastry. Though I say it myself it was v tasty. Charlotte made a delicious pudding involving industrial quantities of dark chocolate which is also high in iron. No risk of me losing any weight this month.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Chalk one up !

Fantastic news ! We managed one whole day without any form of medical contact or intervention. OK, I accept that the Health Visitor telephoned to make an appointment, but I don't think that really counts.

Molly continues to eat and sleep well. The only other thing that babies of this age do well, she seems to have mastered also. Our eco-friendly biodegradable disposable nappy supply is diminishing with some considerable rapidity. Not long before the eco-intimate (eco-overfriendly ?) washable nappies begin to pile up in the especially acquired bucket. Does anyone know a good supplier of industrial sized buckets ? I am not sure this one is going to be big enough. Perhaps it would be even more eco-friendly to convert the house to being run on methane - I am confident that Molly and I could keep the house going on our own.

We actually made a few steps towards tidying the house yesterday, although I suspect you might not think so to see it. Obviously we have not done anything rash like take down the Christmas decorations - they always go up on 1 December and sometimes stay up until the weather picks up in about March. The house always seems so dreary just after they have been taken down.

While tidying up yesterday I found the scrap of paper on which which Harry & Trudi had written the flight details for their return from Tunisia. For those who do not know, Harry & Trudi are my first wife's parents. Following Christine's death, they are technically no longer my in-laws, but they are far too nice to be referred to as "the outlaws" which might be the obvious term to adopt for this relationship. They have been incredibly supportive of us and even attended court on the day that Helen and I adopted the girls and were photographed with the judge. They have also become honorary grandparents to Molly. So, what is the relevance of their flight details ? They came to stay on New Year's Eve (the day that Helen went to hospital to be induced) and flew off from Heathrow on New Year's Day, not knowing the outcome. As usual they have left their car in our drive and we will pick them up from Heathrow on their return. That's why we needed the flight details. Charlotte wrote them down as I was at the hospital. She carefully wrote down the flight number, the time and the terminal. The only thing that none of us knows is the date that they are coming back ! Provisional inquiries within the family suggest that the best guess is 29 January, but anyone with better information, do feel free to get in touch !

We are also hoping that my mum and dad are going to come to see Molly soon. Well, one can live in hope.

Helen's parents are coming to stay for a few days - but so far their flight details remain a mystery even to them.

So with six grandparents in the race to be first to see Molly, will it actually be the ones who live the furthest (Wisconsin) who make it first ?

Wednesday, January 11, 2006


All this eating is making me sleepy... Posted by Picasa


The Afterbath...following Molly's first bath at home. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Hold the front page !

Helen is home, she has no pulmonary embolism or any of the other nasty things the medics feared and although her haemoglobin is still quite low, provided she gnaws on a few rusty girders and drinks plenty of Guinness she should be fine.

Molly is on top form. She is eating and sleeping well, but doing precious few interesting tricks yet. She provides the odd wet nappy of course, some of them very odd !

Helen's milk flow is still being seriously impeded by her anaemia and although it is improving, we are not going to be in the market to purchase any additional EU milk quota any time soon. She is expressing milk for Molly who is not coping well with taking it direct from Helen's breasts at the moment - too much like hard work it would seem. She obviously takes after her father - shyness for hard work I meant, not unwillingness to suck on Helen's breasts ! We hope to be able to reintroduce her to the breast when Helen is a bit more in the swing of things.

A warning to those of you who might have been planning on using this blog as a revision source for your nursing exams after yesterday's posts: apparently the procedure that Helen underwent today is called neither VK as we thought or V/P as our nursing teacher friend thought. It is apparently called VQ or possibly V/Q. Sadly I am unable to enlighten you all further as to what that stands for either. When I asked at the hospital today, it appears that they had marginally less idea than I did. Anyway, they injected the dye, wheeled Helen in front of the machine that goes 'ping' let it go 'ping' a few times and then a gaggle of ostensibly medically trained people (well they had all the right looking gear on) gathered around the printout and after some whispered discussion, the one they called Punksatawny Phil pronounced that he could see no shadow and therefore there would not be 6 more weeks of winter after all. That reminds me, I have not watched "Groundhog Day" for ages. I could watch that film over and over again. Someone told me the other day that they are planning a "Groundhog Day 2". I know it's an old gag, but this is Give An Old Joke A Home Week.

Time to go and cook a supremely iron-rich supper: Roast beef, really strong beefy gravy, green beans and broccoli, followed by a fruit salad with kiwi fruit and papaya because they are particularly rich in vitamin C, which apparently makes the iron in the rest of the food more accesible. I may try to work in some watercress, spinach and spring onions too. Into the meal, that is, not into the fruit salad. Perhaps some form or starter with watercress, spinach and rocket salad - ideas on a postcard please...

Monday, January 09, 2006

A word from a teacher of nurses...

It seems Helen must have misheard. I have just received this e-mail from a friend of ours who teaches nurses:

Although I'm suffering from vicarious stress reading your blog- also liking keeping up to date-
VK scan - could this be V/P scan - ventilation /perfusion -checking out the lung functions (and hopefully excluding a pulmonary embolus- blood clot as u mentioned in your blog earlier))
-I doubt they would have let her go if she still had chest pain !
(being part of NHS can be very demoralising sometimes)


See you can even learn new things by reading this blog every day !

Helen is back...but for how long ?

Just got back from the hospital, fortunately, accompanied by Helen who has been "suspended" from the ward rather than discharged. She has not had a good day. They persuaded her to stay in hospital last night on the basis that they needed to monitor her condition every 4 hours and watch her like a hawk in case she showed any signs of enjoying herself or getting better in which case they could come in and find some new way to make her miserable and unwell. They also promised to undertake a VK X-ray today. Not sure what VK stands for (Very Killing ?) but it seems to inolve them injecting some sort of dye into Helen and then watching it move around her body.

Anyway, they failed to check on Helen at all in the night - she should have pretended to be dead on the floor this morning - that's undoubtedly what I would have done. That would learn 'em. Then the doctor failed to come to see her until late this afternoon so that she had to miss Molly's appointment on the ward downstairs and then he had the temerity to try to tell her that she had to stay another night so that they could get their act together and do the Virtually Knackered, Violent Karma, Vitals Kicking (or whatever) X-ray. That was the point at which the plot and Helen ceased to be contiguous, and instead a state of contiguity was reached between the faeces and the rotating air-cooling device. The language that Helen apparently used to describe what she thought of the way in which she had been treated was, shall we say, richly colourful. The result was that the doctor went away to lick his wounds for a while and concluded that having her on the ward all night on his case was not in either his or her best interests. Typically, in order to avoid a bureaucratic nightmare of Hieronymous Boschian proportions he came up with the cunning plan that if he stuffed her full of heparin and sent her home for "a rest from the ward" she would neither have been discharged nor would she be treated by the system as having self-discharged. The fact that this meant that her room would remain empty and incapable of use by a more needy patient in the night because she was notionally still on the ward was of no consequence, apparently. Don'tcha just love the NHS and the mysterious ways in which it moves in order to perform its many and various wonders ?

As for Molly, she has managed to put on 210g in 2 days and has been discharged from Wycombe, subject to anything showing up on her latest blood test. She has completely transformed during that period in terms of temperament and behaviour. She is doing very well indeed. She still has to have her antibiotics and will have to have a kidney scan on 26 January, but apart from that she has been given the green light.

Lenny and Lesley-Anne have had their baby, a little girl, Lois Emily - congratulations to them. Thankfully they seem to have had a really easy time of it. About time someone from our NCT group did.

Hopefully, in a few days we will feel sufficiently confident to crack open some more of that pink champagne and be 'at home' to visitors generally.

Parenting: it's just logistics wrapped up in love ?

I said to Helen last night that "the very last thing I must forget when I leave is Molly's antibiotics" and sure enough, the very last thing I forgot as I left the hospital was Molly's antibiotics. That was OK though, I was less than 10 miles away and hey, it didn't matter that I was just about to sit down at my sister's house for my first proper cooked meal for a few days. Oh yes and of course I wasn't driving the car that had the free pass to park at Wycombe Hospital, I was driving the car that I would need later to bring the pups back from my sister's house and there was the small problem that I figured that I had just about enough petrol in that car to get to and from my sister's house and then maybe as far as the petrol station, but probably not as far as Wycombe Hospital. Oh yes and then I remembered that if I went straight to Wycombe, collected the antibiotics and then went immediately back to my sister's house, that would still leave the syringe that I needed to administer the antibiotics sitting on the shelf in our bathroom at home.

But it's all just logistics isn't it ?

The same logistics in fact, that meant that the rubbish bags from Christmas are still sitting under the lean-to and have not been put out for the bin men. Those would be the same bin bags that contained the remnants of the Indian we had on 30 December. As avid readers of this blog (both of you) will recall (for the rest of you, see the archived entry for that date), that was an especially hot curry prepared by our friend Uddin at Bucks Tandoori with the aim of bringing the birth on quicker. So those would be the same hot curry remnants that the puppies found their way into when they raided the bins yesterday. I hope they are regretting their actions, but anyone familiar with Larson cartoons will understand when I say that it is all "blah blah blah, Ginger, blah blah blah Ginger" when you tell the dogs repeatedly not to touch the bin bags. That reminds me, the accumulation of dog pooh in the back garden over the last few days must now be reaching industrial health hazard proportions. I shall look forward especially to picking up (scooping up ?) the ones with aluminium curry tins in them. Still, you have to love them, eh ?

Anyway, I managed to look after Molly on my own last night. In fact, having the 'assistance' of 2 teenage daughters is marginally worse than being on your own. I only really needed them to do 2 things this morning before they went to school: feed and walk the puppies. Tidying the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, putting a load of washing on would all have been bonuses that would have made me smile - although it might have made me worry that they were unwell. But as anyone who has ever had children will understand, not only did they not do any of those things, including the two I really needed them to do, they woke me just as I was passing from REM sleep to deep sleep after Molly's rather long feed that had started at five and after a false start and two nappy changes had finished just in time for me to get the kids up for school, to tell me that I had forgotten to get them things for their lunches, so would I give them some money to buy food at school ?

So that lunch money (essentially all of my loose change) would be the money that I will need for the pay and display car park later and that would have saved me having to carry Molly to somewhere where I can get change and then back to the car before some officious car park attendant with no sense of humour and a jobsworth attitude can give me a ticket that he cannot reverse, but that I could appeal against, if I could be bothered to write a grovelling letter to some similar, but faceless little shit sitting in a local authority office somewhere waiting for his index linked final salary pension scheme to kick in.

Oh God, I have just realised that if I sit here writing this any longer I will not have enough time to have a shower and/or breakfast before Molly wakes for her next feed.

It's a good job I had stint as a single parent when Emily and Charlotte were small, otherwise I am not sure I would not find all of this as much fun as I actually do.

Oh and of course, Emily and Charlotte are nothing like as bad as I have painted them above, they are much much worse - doh ! Did I write that out loud ? Not what I meant at all. They have actually been really really attentive. Except for this morning - but hopefully they had other things on their minds - like their exams.

It's odd isn't it ? But given my time all over again, I would just have more kids and do it sooner.

Parenting is a lot of logistics, but the love that drives you to keep on doing it is such a profound and rewarding love.

Ooops, Molly is awake, coming darling......

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Enough hospitals already....

So yesterday afternoon the midwife came to see Helen and Molly and weighed Molly.

Helen was already concerned that Molly was simply not getting enough from her breasts and seemed permanently hungry leading to no sleep for anyone - least of all for Helen and Molly. The scales revealed that Molly had lost a whopping 650 grammes equating to some 16% of her bodyweight at birth. We all knew that this was not good. Helen was utterly distraught. On instructions from the midwife we hurriedly bundled a bag of clothes together for Helen and Molly and scooted off in the car to Wycombe. On arrival at the children's ward, they took blood samples from Molly and weighed her again. The blood sugars test showed that her blood sugar was at 2.7 when it should have been somewhere north of 3.5. The other blood tests also subsequently showed that she was quite badly dehydrated.

A plan was quickly formulated to give Molly some intensive feeding of formula to supplement Helen's breast milk and for this to be administered every three hours. She needed to consume at least 6oml at each feed. To kickstart it all we administered a couple of small cupfuls of formula right away. At the 8pm feed she managed about 55ml before becoming 'milk drunk' she then slept solidly through until the 11pm feed when she managed the required 60 ml. However, by this time, Helen who had been feeling unwell all day had become really nauseous and was suffering quite unpleasant chest pains. She had also gone a rather ghostly shade of pale yellow. The nurse took one look at her and ordered up a wheelchair and whisked her off to the maternity ward. This was the point at which it became apparent that we should have packed more clothes for me. Suddenly I was faced with a very unwell baby and a very unwell wife in two different wards in the hospital. To say that I was torn as to where I should be is an understatement.

Thankfully our dear friend Claire came to the rescue. She had been out babysitting and when finished drove down to the hospital and she and I alternated between sitting with Helen and Molly.

Just before the 2am feed, Molly's blood sugars were found to have climbed to a very respectable 4.1 and the 2am feed was quite a triumph too. Molly managed a whopping 90ml of formula which earned her the opportunity of a feed after 4 hours not 3. In fact she woke up at 5.30 and and managed a further 75ml of formula - yey, Go Molly! The effect on her was astonishingly quick, she immediately became both more placid and more alert which may sound like a contradiction in terms, but very accurately reflects the effect.

The 9.30 am feed was not quite so good - her system must have been absolutely full by then and she only managed about 45 ml but by then her blood sugars were up to 4.4 and everyone was v happy. When they weighed her just before her 9.30 feed, it transpired that she had already put on a massive 150 grammes overnight. A truly stupendous achievement.

Helen was still v unwell however, her blood results had shown that her haemaglobin was at a level described as "very low" in a tone that was intended to convey a considerable level of concern on the part of the medics without quite spelling out the severity of their concern.

Anyway, to cut a short story long, Molly's Olympic standard formula consumption has allowed her to come home, but Helen has had to stay in. They offered her a blood transfusion today or an iron infusion tomorrow. Helen was dead set against the blood transfusion and went for the iron infusion tomorrow. However, because of an admitted fear that she might have something really nasty like a pulmonary embolism, they strongly advised her to remain in hospital. They conducted an ECG which was normal, but are still very concerned about her chest pain.

Helen at least has Alicia from our NCT class to keep her company. We met Andy & Alicia's new son, Harrison, on the ward this evening and all seemed very well with them, although she had obviously had a fairly tough time in labour too. It is rumoured that Lesley-Anne is also in the process of delivering her baby and may be on the ward
later. Could be quite a party !

Molly has to go back to the hospital for another blood test and to be weighed again tomorrow afternoon and hopefully, by the time that is done, Helen will be free to come home.

I thought I had seen enough hopsitals for one lifetime when Christine was ill.

Still, you have to laugh eh ?

this is an audio post - click to play

this is an audio post - click to play

Saturday, January 07, 2006

this is an audio post - click to play

More drama...

You are probably not going to believe this, but we are about to go back to hospital.

Wycombe this time though.

Molly has lost more than 10% of her bodyweight since birth and has to be readmitted to have some checks to make sure she is OK and that she is getting enough nutrition. Naturally, Helen is distraught, but there may not be a huge problem. Molly has lost about 16% of her bodyweight, but she otherwise seems alert and happy.

I will update you in due course.

Friday, January 06, 2006

The night of the long baby

It is almost 10 am Helen, Molly, Murray, Maisy and I are all still in bed - the joys of being able to work on a wireless laptop.

That was a long night ! Molly became a breastfeed refusenik last night despite being obviously in need. She sucked and screamed intermittently all night and slept hardly at all.

I made 3 attempts to put her into the crib (Yes Molly, the really, really, really precious, beautiful antique Arts & Crafts crib that I spent hours preparing for you to SLEEP in !) none of which was successful. On the first occasion we thought we would try letting her settle in the crib - how bad an idea was that ?!!! Helen somehow managed to fall asleep for a few minutes (Er possibly through fatigue ? - Ed.) but 20 minutes later the screaming had not subsided by a single decibel, so that idea got a big thumbs down. I have never been an advocate of leaving babies to cry.

The other two occasions were after she had apparently fallen asleep. On the first occasion, I laid her down really slowly and carefully into the crib, maintained body contact with her for a few minutes to ensure she did not wake immediately and like an old pro slowly withdrew the pressure before retreating back to bed. Molly continued sleeping peacefully until about 4 seconds after I climbed under the duvet. The second time I tried the same thing, I think she managed maybe 7 or 8 seconds. So at that rate of progress in about 2 or 3 months we might get it up to a few minutes.

We changed her nappy, tried to feed her some more, put her in the bed between us so that we could hear her scream from a position of greater comfort, got up walked her around the room. I even tried singing to her - yes I know that I should have known that would not work. Those who have heard me 'sing' will be acutely aware of my shortcomings in that department.

Eventually we succumbed and fed her about 7ml of formula from a syringe - it worked like magic to put her to sleep, albeit fitfully at first. I walked around with her some more and took her into the nursery and sat with her on the couch while Helen got some sleep. After the third abortive attempt to put her into the crib (see above) I got her back to sleep and laid her between the two of us, where she slept the sleep of the just for about 2.5 hours. However, we were not granted the same luxury because it was 05.45 when I climbed into bed with her and just 1 hr 15 mins later it was time for Emily & Charlotte to get up to go to school !

I suppose the smart money would be doing what Helen and Molly are doing now - catching up on their sleep. Even the dogs are lying here snoring for Britain. Sadly, once I am awake that is pretty much it. I think I might sneak down for some breakfast.

I wonder how Alan & Libby are doing - I have now put a link to their blog on our blog page towards the top of the page on the right handside, under the heading "Links" for those who require subtitles for the hard of thinking.

I also wonder how Lucy, Adrian and Harry are getting on with breastfeeding, sleeping etc. They are such cool cats that they have undoubtedly taken to it like ducks to water - if you can unravel the mental picture presented by that mixed metaphor.

Where does the expression "I slept like a baby" come from ? Has its meaning become corrupted ? Shouldn't it's true meaning be "I woke up every few minutes all night screaming for food" ?


Molly in her going home outfit Posted by Picasa


Molly got bored of waiting to go home. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Big Big News !

Molly and Helen are at home !

Hostilities ended suddenly and without warning this morning and by 4pm all prisoners had been released. Good job as the ladder made from knotted sheets was still about 7 feet from the ground.

Murray and Maisy went wild when we came in. They have been missing Helen terribly, I think their 'treat quota' has been a bit lower under my regime. They were also more than a little keen to see Molly. Despite being restrained, they both managed to lick at least some part of her in the first few seconds after our arrival. They were also very worried when she began to cry later and were anxious to jump up onto the bed to help to comfort her. They probably recognised her smell as soon as she came in because I have been allowing them to sniff one of the first outfits she wore for the last couple of days. I don't think she will have too much trouble in being accepted as the latest member of the pack.

We attempted to have a welcome home celebratory supper, but Helen ended up eating hers in bed with Molly who woke up demanding to be fed just as I served up the fillet steak, roast fig tarts, roast anya potatoes and assorted vegetables. We wet Molly's head with some pink champagne later when she came back down. Perhaps if we had actually given her some (other than indirectly through the breast milk) she might have calmed down a little sooner.

I will post a photo or two from today in a moment unless I get called back upstairs to comfort a howling babe.

Now that our story has calmed down a bit, you might like to start following Libby & Alan from our NCT group's progress. They have a blog now too and you can find it at http://bladesandbears.blogspot.com/ I hope that it is less dramatic than ours for obvious reasons (I want ours to be the best - er... no, I mean because I hope they have a less traumatic time) although I am sure it will be better constructed.

Hideous Helga brings reinforcements...

And I thought I was joking about how much I had upset Hideous Helga the doorkeeping Nazi ! When I arrived with Emily and Charlotte at 2 mins to 7pm last night, I discovered that not only were there several people waiting at the door and that no one was being allowed in until exactly 7pm, but that there were 2 uniformed police officers at the door. Our prospects of sneaking all those extra visitors in were not looking good.

I never did discover what they were doing there, they had gone by the time I left, but our plan to sneak the visitors in while creating a false impression of coming and going seemed to work like a dream. At one point, we had 7 people in Helen's room (but no Helen, who had gone to the loo)when there was a knock at the door. Silent routine was immediately instigated, the kids went under the bed, my sister disguised herself as a plant stand by holding a big vase of flowers in front of her face, Claire concealed her top half at least behind the curtains at the window, my brother in law tucked himself behind the door and held the lever shut that operates the blinds on the door window which might allow the ward Nazis to see who was in the room. You could tell he has had special forces training. I opened the door just wide enough to see who was there. It was Ellie (the ward assistant ?), wanting Helen's menu request for the next 24 hours. I looked around in panic and gestured for anyone to pass it to me quickly so I did not have to let her in. There was no immediate response so I told her that I would bring it to her shortly. She seemed satisfied by that response and went away.

When Helen returned, it turned out that she did not have a menu, so I went out to find Ellie only to be accosted by the ward sister when Ellie turned out to be busy. I told her that Helen did not have a menu. The ward sister said she would bring one - oh God NO ! She would be bound to discover us all in the room. Some persistent loitering in the corridor near the coffee machine saved the day and I was able to intercept the arrival of the menu and take it into the room myself.

Even then, we almost brought disaster on ourselves. I read out the menu choices to Helen and managed to cause near hysteria in the room. I think it was "Cheese and Potato Pie" followed by "Cheese & Potato Pie (liquidised)" in the list of choices that set them off, but after that everything in the list seemed to engender some form of giggled response or witticism, the choice with "(Softs)" after it broke the floodgates and everyone was clutching their sides (except Helen who was clutching her tummy because it does not only hurt when she laughs, but it does hurt more when she laughs). I was laughing so much by the end that I had tears streaming down my face - a not unusual occurrence this week, albeit for a different reason.

Anyway we pulled it off and at 8pm they all left without anyone having to be ejected.

Helen, Molly and I then passed 2 hours in relative peace and quiet together, which was lovely, but would have been much nicer at home. Molly had a jolly good feed and filled a couple of nappies.

Helen is obviously feeling much better because she is beginning to show signs of going 'stir crazy' and is very keen to escape from Colditz as soon as possible. I have been appointed head of the escape committee and have been assessing the options. Tunneling looks difficult because we are on the second floor and there are few materials available to build a glider, plus I am not sure that the second floor would be high enough - the real Colditz was perched high up on a rock with tall towers, as I recall.

I am sure we will come up with something.

Our friends from NCT, Libby and Alan, are apparently going to have their baby induced today. We wish them the best of luck. I am sure that Helen and I must have used up the all the bad luck, complications and unusual medical procedures so that the law of averages should mean that the rest of our group will have an easy time. Please keep all appropriate parts of your anatomies appropriately crossed for Alan, Libby and their baby. I will tell you when you can uncross them by a further post once their baby has been born.

If anyone feels like visiting Helen this afternoon 3-5pm, they are very welcome to do so as I shall not be there then and I know she would prefer to have company. Drop me a line or call me if you think you can make it.

Oops, better get on, much to do before I go to the hospital this morning...

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

So that's how it's done...

Molly has finally figured out breastfeeding. She had a good feed in the middle of the night and another one this morning. By now she will have had a third. They have to be rationed a little at the moment because Helen is very anaemic, but it is a huge step in the right direction and has saved her from being exposed to formula milk at this early stage.

Molly still has the canula in her arm, but the blood tests should come back sometime today, so it may be removed this evening or tomorrow. Helen is still in quite a lot of pain and has acquired a chest infection - that's the trouble with hopsitals, too many sick people around.

I was almost arrested in the ward corridor this morning when Eva Braun's uglier sister demanded to know why I had gone to the locked ward door, released the mechanism and allowed Charlotte past her heavily guarded checkpoint at the entrance. Even the patient's own children are not allowed to visit before 3pm. However, she will have to get up earlier if she is to outwit me - I had already gone onto the ward on my own first, cornered the friendliest looking nurse and charmed her into allowing Charlotte to come in. Helga (or whatever her name is) was crestfallen when the permission was duly confirmed by the nurse, she was sure she was going to have her first successful ejection of the morning. She returned to her post scowling and muttering under her breath. I couldn't resist a giggle. I think I may have climbed a few places on her hitlist. This evening should be funny when we are going to breach the maximum number of visitors rule several times over. I may have to create a disturbance in order to sneak them all in. Sleight of hand deceives the eye.

Charlotte had her first GCSE mock exam this morning - Spanish writing. She has exams for most of the next two weeks. Timing is everything in life eh ?

Another long day

I just got home a short while ago from another long day at the hospital. The turnaround time from bringing the kids back from Aylesbury via picking up the puppies from our friends Neville & Claire before returning to the hospital meant that I missed out on dinner. I was planning to grab something after visiting finished at 10pm, but I was allowed to stay on to speak to the paediatrician and midwife (see below) and did not leave until after midnight. I think Molly may not be the only one who needs to establish a good eating routine.

Helen has managed to walk a little bit today and is grateful for the fact that she and Molly now have a private room (amenity room in NHS speak).

Molly continues to struggle with breastfeeding. She manages a few gentle sucks and then just falls asleep on the job. We saw the paediatrician and a midwife this evening and they have given a few helpful tips to stimulate Molly's desire to suckle properly and they are going to put those into practice at about 2-3 am this morning after they have both had a bit of rest (Helen and Molly, not the paediatrician and the midwife !). They are not terribly worried though because the little bit she has been getting has already pushed her blood sugars up (which in any event were not abnormally low) and she is plainly not dehydrated.

Molly still has the canula in her arm because she has at least one more dose of antibiotics tomorrow (actually, later this morning since it is now long after midnight !). She is not a big fan of having the antibiotics administered as she demonstrated to great effect when I wheeled her down to the Special Baby Care Unit this evening to receive tonight's dose.

Her face is gradually coming into shape after the trauma of being pushed into Helen's not fully dilated cervix for so many hours. Her head circumference has already dropped by two centimetres and her right ear is no longer buried inside her skull. She still has a mildly lopsided look, but that will undoubtedly resolve itself very shortly too. It is amazing how elastic a baby's body is. In any event, she looks beautiful.

Anyway it is definitely time I went to bed. It is almost 1.40am. I was only going to jot a short note.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006


Another proud dad picture Posted by Picasa


Babies' fingers are pretty fascinating too Posted by Picasa


Molly blowing bubbles in her sleep Posted by Picasa


The Sendall girls - good job one of our puppies is male otherwise I would be completely outnumbered Posted by Picasa


Three of the tiredest people on the planet Posted by Picasa


See what I mean ? Posted by Picasa


Helen looking tired, but happy and feeling a lot better Posted by Picasa


Molly's foot - why are babies' feet so fascinating, when feet in general are such ugly things ? Posted by Picasa

Molly's first 24 hours...

Molly's first 24 hours have been quite quiet, she has slept a lot and has still not fed yet. She is still full of amniotic fluid, mucus and other appalling gubbins (most of which is normally squeezed out during the birth process), so will still feel like she has just eaten Christmas dinner, apparently. Her blood sugars are fine though and she is not dehydrated. No doubt she will wait until say, 2 am for her first proper feed !

Helen is feeling a fair bit better today. She has had the drain and catheter removed and the on demand morphine syringe. She is going to have a try at walking this evening. She is really touched by the level of interest people have shown by following the blog and passing on their messages.

I will upload a couple of pictures from today in a few minutes, then I am back off to the hospital again !

Monday, January 02, 2006


Here comes Molly ! Posted by Picasa


Molly enjoying a well-earned rest Posted by Picasa


Helen just before her waters were broken Posted by Picasa