| Technical difficulties... |
[Nov. 2nd, 2009|11:24 am] |
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So you've probably noticed I've posted a bit more recently, but referred comments to my blog. Most of you probably know that I've always wanted my own space on the web, and LJ just feels too shut in and insular a lot of the time. Still, there's some stuff that won't be major-public, so that's what this place is good for.
I had some trouble putting up that film review - it posted twice, kept editing the wrong post, duplicated images... and now it's deleted itself. So I resubmitted it all and it should work fine.
I have been sick, again. I've been really sick a lot this year, I don't know why. Normally flu and cold doesn't really get me that bad, I can push through it and it's gone in a day or two but this year, it's been with me for a week or more and actually putting me totally out of action some days. I'm not one for 'man-flu', but I was actually trying to get out of bed to get a glass of water for about three hours yesterday. Then Jen came home and got one for me, and called the doctor.
My fever is gone at the moment, hopefully will stay gone, and I can move around a bit now which is good. I even managed a slice of toast earlier. Freddy is staying with his grandparents to avoid catching this, although I'm convinced he's the one who gave it to me in the first place. Hopefully, the worst of it (the temperature of 40 and the near-unconsciousness) is past and I'm on the way back to good health for at least a few more weeks. I will probably make an appointment at the doctors to discuss the constant ill-health though...
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| Film Autopsy - Surrogates |
[Oct. 31st, 2009|11:54 am] |
This film review is going to be heavy on spoilers. Move along if you’re not into that sort of thing. I will warn you to start with, I am a nit-picker of films. I will latch on to something and unravel it, and try and understand how the world of a film works. This often makes it look like I hate a film, or at least think too much. Sci-fi films set 10 minutes into the future are perfect for this – a lot of things can be assumed about the way the world works now with that 'one big difference'.
To sum it up right here, I enjoyed this film. It’s a fun action flick, Bruce Willis is good as usual, and the style and appearance of everything in the film helps to sell the story. When people act as their surrogates, they are slightly off, but not entirely ‘uncanny valley’, if that’s even appropriate. The ‘cheaper models’ shown in the film are definitely sitting in the uncanny valley but everyone appears to have the equivalent of a Ferrari, as far as I could tell.
( More... ) |
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| I never realised this would become a political blog… |
[Oct. 25th, 2009|08:05 am] |
So, the British Nationalist Party managed to get on Question Time and almost the entire audience was wanting to ask questions about Nick Griffin’s nasty policies.
I have to say that I think to anyone who sees the BNP as just another political party (whether or not they would actually vote for them), Griffin presented himself calmly (more so than the frustrated panellists disgusted at having to be near him) and said all the right things. Send back immigrants who commit crimes, etc etc. When the discussion moved onto someone else to talk about current immigration policy, they totally dropped the ball.
To people who shiver any time they hear about the BNP, they were exposed as frauds, liars and snakes who haven’t abandoned their wicked ways. But that requires that you already believe Griffin and the BNP to be inferior creatures – people who don’t are more likely to see them as an underdog after this, being almost the sole subject of scorn and derision.
My criticism of Question Time is that the show was not nearly long enough to really get to the bone of any of Griffin’s claims and lay them out in simple enough terms that he could not claim he was misquoted. Although that would have made it more of an inquisition, rather than a “meet the politicians” sort of thing. Since he managed to wriggle long enough on each specific accusation, they had to keep moving onto the next question and he wasn’t forced to actually say “Yes, when we talk about Ice Age Britons we know full well we’re ignoring the dozen different major cultural eras that took us from barely sentient cave-beings to the almost entirely sentient McDonald’s employee, we just use that as an excuse to hide our racist views.”
The thing I took away from the show about the BNP is that if they have changed (and I don’t believe that for an instant, just talking hypothetically) then they are still taking us as a culture backward. Ignoring the immigration issue, they want Christianity placed above other religions in this country. Although technically it is the state religion, we have moved far in that everyone gets a level ground, and everyone’s religion is equal. In the same vein, anyone not ‘obviously’ British would have to start proving it, even if their family has been here for more generations than most. And their view on homosexuality not being taught or talked about is just plain wrong. People are homosexual, bisexual, or whatever they are, and just because they’re not told about it when they’re young won’t change that fact. It’ll just cause more problems for them in their own personal life, and act as a stepping stone backwards to situations like Alan Turing, and the way he was treated by the government for being homosexual – despite inventing a code-breaking computer that contributed immensely to our efforts in the Second World War.
Basically, I think it shows that our culture has moved on to ignoring differences between people, and focussing on people themselves. The BNP would be taking us back to an “Us and Them” culture, where anyone like the party-in-power is Us and any minority is Them.
(disclaimer: this does not constitute my entire feeling on the BNP, which can easily be simulated yourself by ramming a fork into your eyes, but merely a few things I had to get off of my chest this week. Thank you.)
[comments here]
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| Battles and Caches |
[Oct. 16th, 2009|08:42 pm] |
Wednesday marked the 943rd anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, a very important battle in British history. For the foreigners… it’s the last time that foreign invaders have taken over the country. It was fought between William the Conqueror (or William the Bastard, to his own troops) of the Normans and Harold Godwinson of the English.
Harold had just come fresh from repelling the invasion of Harold Hardraada (a Dane), but couldn’t do it twice in a row. The Normans won, built castles all over the place, and William I became King of England.
And while looking to double-check I had the date right, Google’s search results showed something strange about both Google’s cache and Wikipedia’s open nature. By the time I got home, the cache had refreshed so I couldn’t grab a screenshot but for a wonderful few hours, Google’s cached result for Wikipedia’s Battle of Hastings page listed the date as 13th November, 1991.
Though there was probably a calendar change over the years, but I don’t think the margin of error is that great…
[comments here...] |
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| Three Weeks Later... |
[Sep. 23rd, 2009|07:03 am] |
We got our internet back last night!
The new house is awesome, the move went great, I failed my driving test, Freddy had pneumonia on both lungs (but is way fine now) and is several handfuls of trouble just waiting to kick footballs through windows *deeeeeeeeeeeeep breath*
So what's new with everyone here? I need a quick run-down of the last month of your lives, because I wasn't totally paying attention before I moved - I was in flappy-arms "AAAGH why do solicitors charge so much to SUCK SO BAD????" and "My world is boxes and baby poo AAAAGH!" and a little bit "WILL I EVEN HAVE SOMEWHERE TO LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE????" |
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| Here's Sport... |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|07:14 am] |
We're moving! Hooray! The completion date was set for yesterday, we met the seller and he was happy with everything, the solicitors got everything sorted out for Friday.
Then Wednesday, about 4 in the afternoon, the seller's solicitors started calling people and saying "Actually, we forgot that we needed ID for the owner of the house, since it's being sold through power of attorney. If we don't get it (and a couple of other documents) by Friday, we can't complete Friday."
We are stunned. Our solicitors are angry, and the seller is pretty annoyed too. Seeing that the ID is in a safe in Bristol, and he lives in Scotland (then needs to get it signed/confirmed by someone official, before getting it to his solicitors in York...) it's not now going to happen till Tuesday because of the bank holiday on Monday.
There's a slim chance that things might be able to move quicker, but it's not likely. We've taken time off work, arranged vans and things, and Tuesday happens to be the first of the month - so more rent to come out. Luckily, our landlord is cool and we were going to be paying a week here anyway to come back and clean, but still... that just isn't cool. This is something they should have had organised before we even viewed the place, if they are representing someone for that.
Because they'd told our solicitors earlier that same day that they had everything ready to complete, the bank has now released the money. A huge chunk of cash is going to be sitting in our solicitors account, and probably gaining interest from Friday onwards. This didn't bother me when I thought I'd have keys to the place on Friday, but paying interest on a loan for a house that I don't even own for another 4 days bothers me a bit. Especially since the bank charges interest by the day and on that amount of money, it's not a measly amount. Needless to say, we will be arguing with the other solicitors that they should pay any interest accrued before we get the keys. Their cock-up. I see it as an uphill struggle, since they are solicitors and even told the seller on the phone (when he enquired "what about their plans? They'll have hired a van!") - "Oh, until the contracts are exchanged nothing is official anyway."
That just seems a little unprofessional, and people do make plans based on "The day both solicitors have agreed they can complete". It's just basic sense.
In summary - "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" |
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| all the small things |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|03:14 pm] |
So we're packing to move again. Boxing up every belonging again, blah blah blah. Bored of this now.
But this time things are different... A lot has changed in the last year. To run it down - we got married, I changed my name, got a 'real' job, started driving lessons, had a baby, shaved my long flowing locks off (completely bic'ed that scalp) and then removed the long flowing beard off for charity, and we also didn't move last summer, which breaks a long-standing tradition. And that was all in the space of 12 months. Cycle on a few more weeks, and we've almost bought a house. Just waiting for the solicitors to do all their checks and searches and get us a moving-date.
Which makes packing a bit... different... this time. For a start, we've decided that in the new place we won't have a games room - we'll just put the boards up when we want a game. That should give us a bit more space. There's also plenty of room in the loft for another room when we've got the money to do it up. To maximise that extra space, we're trying to be ruthless with getting rid of things.
Now, we always ditch junk when we move. That just makes sense. But obviously in that lot, there's little trinkets that get dragged around - little things that might never get out of a box in a house, or just sit in a cupboard and not be considered till next moving day. Going through those things now after two years (rather than the traditional one), and with an eye on where things will actually go in the new house (rather than just casting off and trusting to luck), and feeling that I've probably changed quite a lot since I first picked each of these things up... well, going through all the little bits and bobs with all these things in mind, I'm starting to wonder if it's time to get rid of a lot of it.
There's a lot of those little bits that were given to me by friends once upon a time - friends that have drifted off somewhere, or things I picked up to remember something, and little bits that, in a past life, meant a lot to me - reflected a bit of me at that time. But looking through them now, they've never come out of boxes, and I don't know if they actually mean anything anymore, or if they just remind me of those times in my life. And I have those memories through the year without looking at all these little things...
I'm putting off packing all those knick-knacks. Maybe I'll come to a decision later. I'd like to work it out before I move because it'll be one little box less to move, and if I do decide that these things aren't me anymore, I'll just be bringing that baggage to ditch in the new place. And I can at least ditch them now and say later "Well, it was a clear-out for moving." If I ditch it in the new place, then I've decided to purge that bit of me for good.
I know it sounds daft to have objects as a bit of me, but having them around, wherever they were, always made the interchangeable, magnolia-walled cheapo-carpet student flats I've lived in for so long feel like my space, my home, and not just like I'm hopping from one shape of place to another. It hit us both a few months back that this place, after nearly two years, still doesn't really feel like home. In desperation, I whacked some pictures on the wall (but couldn't decide on what photos to actually PUT in them) but it doesn't really feel like it made a difference. |
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| My Birthday |
[Jun. 14th, 2009|08:35 pm] |
Last Tuesday was my birthday. For my birthday, I got a bag of aniseed balls and a house.
I love aniseed balls :)
Basically, Jen's sister has been trying to buy a house recently - there's been all sorts of delays on it. And from her, we discovered that a) the banks are lending again, b) houses in Bristol are quite cheap at the moment, c) the house prices are beginning to creep back up again and d) there are some cool deals to encourage people to get mortgages right now.
So we had a little chat at the bank to find out what our limit might be, and took a look at a few places. Nothing too serious. Nothing too committed.
I need an aniseed ball.
Right, that's sorted.
Anywho, this week I had off in order to de-stress, chill out and relax. So what's the best way to ruin that? Right, arrange some house viewings in it. We saw a cool place on Monday, put in a low offer Tuesday (that by all rights should not have been accepted!) and they went and accepted it. So we scrambled to get the mortgage stuff sorted out and some solicitors on the case to get it off the market before someone puts in a higher offer!
Now it's off the market, we just have to wait for bank + solicitor + estate agent to talk to each other and start getting things rolling. So I'm wondering when I can take off some more time in order to de-stress and relax like I couldn't properly do this time pack and move, which is allegedly (apart from having kids and getting married) one of the most stressful things you can do.
Hopefully, things won't progress tooooo quickly, since I'll probably need another payday to be able to afford the solicitors fees.
Finally, we had a visitor from Portsmouth this weekend - a friend from way back in school who first introduced me to Warhammer (4th edition) and beat me at every. game. we. ever. played. Except this time, I beat him! It wasn't certain during the game, but in the last couple of turns it all swung to me. It was a massacre. It felt great. I tried not to rub it in too much. He claims it as a victory of sorts since he taught me to play in the first place.
There's more, but I am shattered. |
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| June? Already? |
[May. 28th, 2009|07:25 am] |
Things have been Moving Apace here at pagan-gerbil towers.
Firstly, Freddy has grown impressively - putting on around 10oz a week since we changed his milk. We've just started him on mushed up foods and stuff. It's a lot of fun!
I've been quite sick recently, picked up a virus a couple of weeks ago and another one last week that's just beginning to disappear. I'm back in work, at least.
The beard is off. It took an hour, killed three disposable razors, one pair of scissors and a good electric shaver. So far, I've raised just over £200 - as soon as I actually collect from people, anyway. It was good to meet my target. Unfortunately, all the good pics are in Portsmouth and I forgot to get some sent before I left. I'll try and get some in this week.
Tomorrow is dress-down Friday, as usual, but now the weather may be good enough to try out a kilt! As far as I can see, Friday is a dress-whatever day, as the young lads all have their trousers below their underwear (surely the clue there is the word underwear?) so a smart-casual kilt should go down alright. Well, stay up alright. Be accepted, is what I mean.
I'm sure I had more to say than this. I'll get back to you when I work out what it is. |
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| Pete Does a Good Thing for AYME and Pogonophobes |
[Apr. 20th, 2009|09:08 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | ayme | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  energetic | ] |
I've decided to shave off my beard in May to raise money for AYME - the Association of Young People with ME.
Severe ME: Painful, devastating and debilitating
ME Awareness Week 2008 runs from May 9th – 16 th 2009
Young people from the UK’s largest ME/CFS children’s charity are raising awareness of the real impact of the debilitating condition, during ME Awareness Week, May 9th -16th.
This year The Association of Young People with ME, AYME is focusing on children with severe ME/CFS who are, or have been bed-bound in a darkened, sound-proofed room; tube-fed because they are too weak to chew; too sensitive to be touched; unable to talk and temporarily blind. Withdrawal from mainstream education leads to loss of contact with peers, social exclusion, isolation and loneliness. The need for 24-hour care also puts enormous strain and stress on the whole family.
There is no known cause or cure but we do know that early diagnosis can aid recovery and stop children declining into severe ME/CFS. AYME’s Chief Executive Officer, Mary-Jane Willows said: “We must stop children spiralling into this devastating world of severe ME/CFS. They need to be believed, given prompt access to ME/CFS specialists, diagnosed correctly and given the appropriate care and support.”
I also have the obligatory JustGiving.com page here - www.justgiving.com/petesbeard. If you can't or won't donate, would you mind hassling someone else to do it instead? |
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| Finally, Answers. Well, not really, but almost. |
[Apr. 13th, 2009|03:36 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | frederick | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured - Arctic Monkeys | ] |
After much to-ing and fro-ing, we finally heard back from the paediatrician. To cut a long (and irritating) story short, he believes Freddy may be cow's milk protein intolerant, and recommended we try soy milk. No tests or results though, since he a) hadn't ordered any before and b) told us they were unreliable.
So we tried it. And he took the whole lot down, hardly any wind, NO vomit, and fell straight asleep afterwards.
So we're on exclusively soy milk now, and he's been a lot better. A bit of sickness, and we still think he has reflux, but he's taking the food a lot better and sleeping almost as much as he should be at this age.
Jen's a bit gutted to have to give up breastfeeding, but we tried cutting dairy from her diet and it was extremely difficult, and didn't have an awful lot of an effect.
And in just a couple of months we'll be weaning him anyway! If they'd taken any longer, it would've been a lot of wasted effort.
What else, what else.... not a lot to be honest. We finally got Rock Band! Woo! I am becoming a drum-supremo (on anything but the Ramones, anyway). |
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| Update about ME! |
[Mar. 4th, 2009|09:03 pm] |
So I failed my Microsoft exam yesterday. Grah, this week has been kicking my arse.
Luckily, I have a "free retake" voucher, and double-luck, I can get the day off to use it. I've just got to spend every waking moment studying between now and then.
Jen's workplace are retiring people of retirement age, dropping any temps and fixed-term staff, and 'streamlining' the rest - so moving a 3-4 person job role down to 1.5 people. Moving people around and asking full-time employees to cut down their hours.
Basically, they don't really know what is going on. They don't realise that people there are under enough pressure at the moment, and there's a slow flow of people leaving because of it already (or taking long-term sick for stress). This is only going to get worse.
On the plus side, Jen is on maternity leave! Hopefully, the childcare when she goes back will fit what she is wanted to do. Personally, I would like her to find another job. I've hated this one for a looong time, they treat their employees terribly.
My work is going great, I'm still enjoying it. I'm still a little surprised that it's possible to enjoy a job this much, since... well, I've not had a job I liked before. |
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| More Incompetence, Less Filthy Lies |
[Mar. 1st, 2009|01:34 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | frederick | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  aggravated | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Bleed It Out - Linkin Park | ] |
Before Freddy had all his blood removed for testing (placed in the wrong containers, as you may remember), he had a stool sample to test for lactose intolerance.
Well, we got the results back. "There are no bugs in this sample."
Someone else ballsed up here, and either didn't read the accompanying letter that describes the wish for a lactose intolerance test in detail or... well, COULDN'T read the accompanying letter. Who knows.
So that's another test that has to be re-done.
In other news, my sister's old school-friend has a baby with exactly the same symptoms and problems as Freddy, and guess what? He's lactose intolerant. As the GP suspects and the health visitors agreed and the breastfeeding counsellor suggested after seeing him. If only there was a test we could do that, you know, actually gets done we might be a little wiser.
Agh. In other other news, we now have Rock Band! It is in Portsmouth, waiting us to go there or family to come here. Also, I splashed out and got Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop. In my first foray, I got stuck in a clothes shop where I was unable to change out of womens business attire (before zombie parrots would have killed me), and had to escape back to the security rooms to save on a skateboard (till it shattered on a zombie's head). Hopefully, there's a spare set of men's clothes there.
It makes me feel a little better about losing my provisional driving licence and being unable to take the theory test yesterday. ARGH. |
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| Incompetence and Filthy Lies |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|06:24 pm] |
After all the samples that were taken on the 12th, we were a little impatient. Jen called the hospital today to ask what was up.
"Didn't you get our phone message? We left a message, on your phone, on Thursday."
This is a lie. A filthy dirty lie. Certainly, if they left a message on a phone, it was not ours.
"Yes, well, we couldn't use those samples. They were put in the wrong container, and so we were unable to do tests on them. But we can take more samples if you like!"
So it took a week to leave a very insubstantial phone message telling us that we need to give more samples, and we only find out what's going on when we call and badger them.
The next appointment is on Tuesday, another week's time. So only two and a half weeks after giving samples to test, we should be able to give... them... again...?
Apparently they don't take too long to do, so as long as they're in the right containers this time, we should get the results soonish afterwards. Here's hoping! |
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| Mystery to Medical Science |
[Feb. 14th, 2009|09:58 am] |
Frederick surprised the doctors at his emergency paediatrician appointment. When the chief consultant called to arrange the appointment, he told us it wasn't worth putting the sample in to test for lactose intolerance and that everything was probably the reflux, or diarrhea after the stomach bug. He wouldn't understand what Jen was saying about not putting on weight before the stomach bug and diarrhea, or that the reflux was pretty much under control.
I wish I could have been at home to have taken that call, because if he'd carried on telling me it's reflux I would've asked "So what do we do about that?" Apparently, there are surgical procedures that can help in severe cases and a baby not putting on any weight is probably a severe case.
Regardless, we put the sample in anyway (a definate negative is better than just not knowing) and we had an appointment on Thursday. I wasn't able to attend (bah!) but mostly, they just exsanguinated my son to test for everything and anything. He was reportedly in good spirits, kicking the doctor trying to collect a urine sample and knocking the bag off before it could be firmly attached, then laughing loudly. At least, until they drained his blood. That upset him a bit.
He wasn't seen by the chief consultant, but by one of the doctors who saw Freddy last time he was in hospital. Freddy had just been fed, so the doctor saw him being sick - more than usual, since he was laid down immediately - and said it wasn't that bad, and the reflux seemed controlled (also, he is not in pain when he's sick now). Then he asked how much Freddy is having each feed - about twice as much as he should be. And still not satisfied or full up. And it's every four hours, even through the night. He was quite surprised at this - the amount taken down compared to the amount thrown up, and the frequency of feeds, just don't add up to the weight gain. Then Freddy obligingly had a great big poo, which has become normal every feed - this is also unusually often for formula-fed babies. He also commented how loud and anxiously he screamed for food, even a half hour before his next feed was due (we feed him early if he does scream, but try not to go the full amount).
In short, every question the doctor asked was met with a contradictory answer. None of it adds up to any proper cause-and-effect. Hence, an awful lot of samples and tests and we'll get the results...... at some point.
On top of all this, and perhaps knowing all the trouble that professionals are going to in order to find out just what his biochemistry is up to, he remains a relatively happy young thing and put on 10oz this week. Apparently, 5 is satisfactory, 8 is average, 10 is good. But not so good if it comes after two weeks of no weight gain, and he's still under the graphline. In perfect consistency with his inconsistency and contrariness, he has grown out of some of his smaller sleepsuits now.
So he eats too much and gets taller but without gaining weight and remains strong, active and healthy despite never being full up or satisfied. I am really looking forward to seeing what the tests come back with. Probably "there is no iron in his blood, but has a condition caused by too much iron" if we're going to base it on the bizarro laws of biology he seems to follow at the moment.
In other news: I think I have written every single entry in 2009 about Frederick. Interesting... |
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| Freddy scares the crap out of me |
[Feb. 7th, 2009|10:54 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | frederick | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | People Are Strange | ] |
Hey all, quick update - I'm still not dead. I'd like to talk about how great work is, the snow, and blah blah blah but that's all a bit dull. I'd rather talk about Freddy.
We're teaching him a few things - like putting his hand up to his head and saying "Hello" (he burbles, which is good enough) and how to rattle the rattly bits in his gym. He sometimes tries to copy facial expressions, and his smile is totally gorgeous!
Proud father moment aside, he is a scary little thing. Now, he's been a lot better recently, but still a little sicky and he picked up a stomach bug a few weeks ago. Nothing major.
He's nearly nine weeks old, and hasn't put any weight on in over two weeks. He's still only 8lb (3.3kg, I think). Since about Tuesday, he's been vomiting more and more (to the point where he's down about half a feed) but luckily, it's not as painful for him as it was. He's also pooing more (should I be warning people that I'll talk about poo? Well, too late) - and the poo is runnier, smellier, and more explosive than before. It seems that a minute after he starts feeding, he poos. Jen took him back to the doctor's today, because they had told her that he should be putting on about 5oz a week, preferably more, and with increased poo + vomit, he might be really sick... Anywho.
They told us some interesting things. We've been feeding him up to 4 or 5oz of milk at a time, and he takes it all down and throws some up (all the way through, it's not that he's throwing up what there isn't room for). We were informed that he should only be having 3oz! at a time, that there shouldn't be room for more. Not that there's anything itself wrong with it, it's just surprising that he should eat so much and not put on weight. It might also explain why he's not been dehydrated this week - which is definately a good thing. Before this week, he was usually having more than 3oz, after vomiting.
Next, they said that his medecine dosage was very high. We knew it was the highest that the hospital dare give out back at Christmas, but it seems to have helped control things up to now.
Finally, Jen asked them if it could be lactose intolerance - and the doctor there agreed it sounded likely, and would test for it. She also referred us to the emergency paediatrics at the Children's Hospital, who will make an appointment with us shortly. At his eight-week check, the doctor had written in his little red book "Failure to thrive" - which sounds a very scary way of saying "slow weight gain". But they don't like to see babies who eat lots and STILL don't put on weight, who are right at the bottom of the expected weight anyway, and who get vomiting and diarrhea in large quantities. Hence the emergency paediatrics.
It was a bit hit and miss today whether or not he'd be transferred to the hospital straight away, and we're still sort of on guard for any signs of dehydration - at his age (and weight!), babies health can drop very suddenly. On the plus side, they can recover just as suddenly. But it does mean that we have to keep an eye on him.
So all in all - he is wonderful. But I wouldn't say "I wouldn't change a thing about him", because at the end of the day, he has spent about 10% of his life so far in hospital and about 80% of it on medication. In a way, it'd be great if it was found to be lactose intolerance because that is relatively easy to sort out - either lactase drops before every feed, or in the extreme cases, a prescription soy formula milk that is completely lactose free.
But he does have a wonderful smile. I've sat for ages just watching him play. |
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| bug |
[Jan. 25th, 2009|09:36 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | frederick | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  dicky tummy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Still Alive | ] |
I've not been too well the last few days, which is playing merry havoc with the night-feed schedule (weekends it's my turn, obviously) and also with my dreams.
I had a dream that [ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<lj-user="seiyaharris">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] I've not been too well the last few days, which is playing merry havoc with the night-feed schedule (weekends it's my turn, obviously) and also with my dreams.
I had a dream that <lj-user="seiyaharris">, <lj-user="saffronra"> and <lj-user="solittleshame"> turned up for some reason. Or maybe I visited them. All I can totally remember is some sense of three wise men.
I almost like getting sick just for the incredible boost my imagination gets - though in totally uncontrollable ways.
So I've been tackling housework like a good little elf, feeding the boy and knuckling down at work. As for new year's resolutions however... well, I haven't made it to the swimming pool yet. There's always something else a little more important to get sorted. Perhaps when Fred is a few months old (will be 7 weeks tomorrow!) I will have the time, or can take him with me.
He's been doing a lot better with his sickness - the health visitor suggested we stretch to four-hourly feeds and see how it goes. This generally means that consecutive feeds are too close for me to be comfortable about giving him his thrice-daily medecine, but alternate feeds are further apart and some days he only gets two doses. Since he hasn't been any more sick, I am calmly restraining jubilation at the thought that we can wean him off the stuff soon. His third 'with every feed' medecine ran out a while ago, though I was skipping the odd one or two before that... and there's been no difference. So hooray! We are down to two medecines (the prescription ones) and even they are less frequent than they used to be.
At last check he was 7lb 15oz, which is about 3.5kg. So he has now surpassed average birthweight! I'd like to get a picture of him next to Archie at some point, since Freddy is in the 2nd centile (??), and Archie the 91st-ish. There's three months between them, but that only increases the apparent difference.
He's back on the bottle again - he just can't keep it down if we don't control the flow absolutely. Eyes are definately bigger than his stomach, doesn't let it touch the sides, etc etc. |
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| All clean! |
[Dec. 25th, 2008|07:23 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | frederick | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | baby it's cold outside - tom jones / catatonia | ] |
Freddy is back home now.
The diagnosis is - really bad reflux. He's been given three medecines to take until it clears up, which is expected in 6-12 months. Yep, months. So once he's onto solids, this should all be gone.
That being said, his first night at home (Christmas Eve, no less) we missed a feed in the middle of the night (alarm went off, both of us awake, and.... I can't explain it) and he didn't wake up. So that's a good sign, even if he did miss one.
He's upstairs having the next scheduled feed now (a little early, he did wake up for this) and hopefully he'll keep most of it down. He's due his meds again but we've got to sterilise the syringes first...
We've been told that some babies are sicky, some babies are not, and occaisionally there'll be a really sicky baby that, for some reason, will not take night feeds well. So we've pretty much guessed what we have.
Thanks for kind words and well wishes.
Rob, sorry I didn't call you, I was meaning to, but I got in from the hospital so late every night and with every person I told, I was asked to call them with updates every day... so I didn't really have the opportunity. Also, I blame you for the whole thing. You were talking about how Archie got so much attention from a young doctor... well, Frederick's been dressed, undressed, picked up, cuddled, examined, and attempted to feed from over a dozen young nurses. So he was trying a bit of one-up-manship. Clearly all your fault, as my flist will agree. |
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| Well, that'll teach me to lay my plans in a year-end meme. |
[Dec. 23rd, 2008|11:11 pm] |
Frederick is in the Royal Children's Hospital.
MANDATORY PREFACE - everything is fine. Do not panic. Pete has a habit of telling a story in narrative order, forgetting that real people in the real world want to know the end before the beginning, i.e. Frederick is Fine.
He started being very sick last Thursday, not eating, and throwing up, with some diarrhea. So we went to the GP who said "Take him to the Children's Hospital, I'll call ahead and let them know you're coming." Felt pretty urgent, so we rushed.
Two hours in the waiting room, and we saw a nurse who told us someone would give us water for him (5ml every 5mins). That took at least half an hour. We fed him with that in the waiting room for 2 hours, before we were taken to a side room and he had some examinations. Fun part - "Can we get a urine sample?"
-blank stares-
"Here's a bowl, just hover him above it. And hope he hasn't just been, hahahaha!"
Luckily, our boy is almost trained to pee on command (note - not when changing nappies, just when nurses ask nicely).
After another good hour, we were told a nurse would take us up to the wards for the night "in 5 minutes". ANOTHER two hours later, the nurse appeared.
A course of Gaviscon before and after each feed, which helped.
By Saturday, he was feeding alright and they said we could go home if we wanted to. We really really did. Saturday night, he reverted to vomiting everywhere. Then crying that he was hungry. It's not easy to feed a baby with an upset stomach, since it'll just come up again. And then he'll scream he's hungry again. This started about 10pm, and 2pm we realised the only genuine option we had was to call the hospital again (since they said there was something stronger that they could try). So back in he went. This time, he spent so long in the waiting room that he got a bit dehydrated and was too tired to feed. A tube was put up his nose, his blood sugar and oxygen was dropping, as was his heartrate.... till he woke up suddenly and started feeding normally. His heartrate was low because he's a calm little sleeper, apparently.
Still, this did not bode well. I was at home while all this was going on, and when I arrived at the hospital I saw the tube still in place, worked out that it didn't go anywhere, and sat in terrified silence for a few minutes until Jen woke up and explained that he didn't actually use it.
Anyway, he's been giving some anti-sickness medication a few times a day and Gaviscon before and after each meal, and he actually slept through a night at hospital. Last night, he wouldn't sleep and managed to throw up his anti-sickness medicine. I'd like a moment for everyone to consider that an outstanding feat of something - it's too late to properly describe the action. But I thought it was impressive, if not terribly constructive.
He's spent most of today sleeping, but keeping most feeds down. He's put on weight now, and one doctor tried to say that the constant vomit-hungry-vomit-hungry cycle is normal and the weight is important, and we can go home tomorrow if we want to. Since a nurse originally ran down to fetch the doctor last night because she thought it was more than normal, and to try and get painkillers since he's always screaming in pain at these times, I'm not convinced that we'll go home tomorrow.
Basically, they believe it is a bit of acid reflux - possibly a floppy valve or something that is letting acid come up, which aggravates everything and brings up a feed. Feeding him less, and more often is helping, as is a bit of Gaviscon, but when he really wants to go it seems that he can overcome anything and go!
We now have no plans for Christmas, and wouldn't make them anyway - it's more important to get him home, safely and calmly, and try and carry on his routine till he settles. So it won't matter to us to stay in over Christmas Day, as long as Frederick comes out alright in the end.
It's late, and I might have missed something, but to summarise - Jen and Frederick are in the hospital, he's doing alright but was sick again last night. Weight is going on ok now, he's at least back to his birthweight, and he might be out in the next day or two. Hopefully, we can control his sickness at home (or better, it goes away completely!) and this will all be behind us soon enough. Bear in mind that with mobile phones switched off in the hospital, you should not expect replies from either of us for a while (and I don't have much time outside of that to be online as usual, I'm staying up a little too late to be doing this...) |
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