James and I have officially survived a year as parents. Wow. Awesome. Who woulda thunk it? We rock.
Oh, and Callum turned one 😉
Once again life has been a little crazy with a hospital stay for myself a few months ago resulting in keyhole surgery. This was the first time I had spent the night away from Callum and it was very emotional. I had a horrid bout of gastro and then experienced severe abdominal pain after the gastro cleared up. As the pain kept coming and going I figured it was just a hang up from the gastro. Wrong! Ended up in Emergency (twice – the first time they kept me in overnight and then sent me home) and had a week long hospital stay. I couldn’t hold anything down and was on IV fluids only for a number of days. This also affected my breast milk production and that combined with some of the medication I was taking possibly not being approved for breastfeeding had my emotions all over the shop as I considered I might have to have a forced weaning. Thankfully it didn’t come to that. Phew.
So I knew I was really sick when I didn’t care that I couldn’t eat – apart from the breastmilk production concerns (note, I LOVE food). My symptoms had the doctors stumped so they decided to put a camera in through my belly button. Turns out I had bowel adhesions – extra bits of tissue attaching the bowel to the abdominal wall and after my nasty gastro part of my bowel had twisted around this tissue 🙁 Luckily the surgeons were able to remove the tissue via keyhole surgery whilst they were checking things out with the camera. Post surgery I was back to eating in no time – huzzah!
Just when we thought things had gone back to normal, Callum had a stay in PMH – the children’s hospital in Perth. After being diagnosed with a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), (Side note – in order to confirm the UTI I had to catch a wee sample. Yes. That’s right. Callum and I had to hang out in the bathroom, Callum sans clothes, waiting for him to pee. Fun! Ha.) Callum was sent for an ultrasound to check if the UTI had impacted his kidneys. Oh yes, it had. Left kidney and ureter (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder) were inflamed. So off to PMH as the paediatrician there was concerned about kidney stones. Thankfully that wasn’t it and after a four day stay at PMH, three canula insertions, one traumatic catheter insertion and two scans that came back clear, we were sent home with additional antibiotics. Still not sure why Callum had the UTI or the inflammation but we have a follow up appointment soon so perhaps the doctors will have figured something out in the meantime.
In far more fun news, we have had some lovely visits recently from Callum’s Nanna (my Mum) and his Grandad and Janma (James’ Dad and his wife). James spent some quality time with his Dad doing manly things like rearranging our shed and building a work bench and Mum and I had fun making Callum’s birthday duck cake (Callum loves ducks) and organising his party. We also went to bunny chow together for lunch one day (delicious South African curry in bread) – do yourself a favour and check it out at Caffé Verro in Subiaco. Yum!
The Duck Cake
Callum’s first birthday party was a relaxed little affair at the local park, BBQ lunch, kids hanging out on the playground and the International Beer Shop conveniently across the road! We had a lovely afternoon catching up with friends and celebrating James and I surviving our first year of parenthood.
The weekend after Callum’s party we had our Combined Mother’s Group First Birthday Party which was also a relaxed BBQ lunch. One of the Mums kindly volunteered her backyard for the event and it was a stunning sunny day perfect for an outside chill out. The kids had a great time, there was an amazing rainbow birthday cake and we did a Kris Kringle style Birthday Present Swap.
And finally, I have recently started back at work two days a week. Eeek! We’re still working out our routine for this and its a bit of “lets see how she goes” thing for me.
Any thoughts on returning to work from other Mums out there?