a long weekend

like, really long.
K came down with a fever AGAIN. 39.6deg at it's height.
Took her to nighttime medical centre, and all they did apart from shove that super-long q-tip up her nose to check for influenza was give us some bum bullets to keep the temp down. So no idea what the phantom fever is all about.

She had a high fever on NY day (night) too, but it was gone by the next morning.

Although I would like to think this is a 24-hr one too, she has been feverish since Sat night. sigh.

Poor little pumpkin.

And she is so shitscared of doctors, that she won't tell me where, if anywhere, she is sore/hurting, in case we take her to the docs. Somehow managed to trick her into the docs room last night, but once her name was called she started yelling out "駄目といったでしょ!" ("I told you I don't wanna see the doctor") , screaming and thrashing, at least I could somehow hold her as L was waiting in the car with J.

Tomorrow morn is gonna be fun again when we hit the peds ;(

Why do these things always happen on weekends/holidays when the regular docs are not open???

Happy New Year

New Year's Day 9pm : K wakes up in a sweat, eyes wide open, crying. She had gone to sleep with PILs as we were staying with them over the new year, but MIL had called out to say that K felt hot...too right - she was running a 39deg fever.

AAAArrrrrggggghhhhhh. Happy New Year.
And so it began.

K complained of a sore back of the neck, so I started to freak out that she had meningitis, but a bit of Internet searching (Dr Sears is my new best friend) and we decided it probably wasnt that, so we rode out the feverish night (with no meds cause didnt think to take bum bullets with us, bad mummy) with K seeing "obake" (ghosts) for about an hour as she wouldnt close her eyes to sleep. Lucky they were all friendly ghosts - she was describing them all to me. She was also doing a hysteric type of laugh. J thinks she was taken over by some spirit. Hmm. Anyway, she finally got to sleep and woke up the next morning unscathed and pretty much back to normal. Wonder what it was?? Perhaps she was just overtired from a BIG day of bike riding and a 3km walk in the afternoon?? who knows...

Jan 2nd. L starts to run a low fever, about 37.5. I figure it is teething related as he now has the white hard bit on his bottom gum. PM. L's fever peaks at around 39deg during the night. Of course, NO BUM BULLETS so poor boy has to suffer thru. I hook him up to booby-on-tap all night, as he doesnt sleep for more than 30mins. Want to keep his fluids up.

Jan 3rd. L wakes up still feverish, but after a morning nap, he is back to 37.5deg, so we figure he is all ok. Fever spikes again in evening, so come back home and take him to nighttime emergency centre, where they say he has adenovirus, which is basically a cold with sore throat caused by a virus, so no meds necessary. Characteristically, his fever will go up and down for about 5 days (ugh!) and may get a bit of diarhea. Still sleeping BAD, and now even snoring in his sleep as obviously finding it hard to breath right at night.

Jan 4. repeat of previous day.

Jan 5. morning same. By this stage I am about 5 days into sleep deprivation hell (lol) which is proven when I speak to mum on skype and she says my eyes look all glazed over ;(

By the afternoon L has returned to his usual genki self (the change amazing!!) but still a restless night sleeping

Jan 6th: FINALLY the regular peds are open for business after the new years break -- doc says he is over the worst of it, checks his chest but says it is ok, and the snoring is just part of it, nothing more sinister. Phew. Hopefully he will be back to normal by tomorrow.

I am SO over all this sickness. It has just been one thing after another since november - granted, only colds and tummy bugs etc, thankfully nothing more major for the kids(touch wood) but still, I have spent the last few months planning and cancelling catch-ups, morning teas, playdates..... I feel like I am starring in my own tv show, "The Canceler". Add to that my very long and recurring battle with plugged ducts (think we are over that finally) and cracked nipple (70% healed?? ) It seems everytime I am on the verge of being healed, L gets sick and goes into overdrive on the comfort nursing. :(

I had really hoped we could start the new year on a good note healthwise.

Right, L is still asleep after our morning peds visit(prob catching up on lack of sleep from last night) so I am gonna make myself a cuppa and sit back for a bit longer and bludge rejuvenate while K watches Tamagotchi.

feeling better

It has been a rough week. Although less stressed (both TJ-baby and me) after Tues docs appt, the headcold-allergies really did me over on Wed and Thurs. I thought my head would split in half on Thurs. At one stage I almost felt like I had the flu.... my face was red and swollen and I just felt awful. Also think the meds might have played a part - esp with side effects like shaking, and the headache.

All I can say is THANK GOODNESS my parents arrived early and managed to be here for Thurs - I seriously stayed either horizontal on the sofa, or in bed. I think they may have even thought I was putting it on just to get out of housework (lol) but when I woke up on Fri I was 90% back to normal, and felt like a different person. Which is nice because it was K's 3rd birthday, and we had J, PIL and my parents all here for a full day of celebrations: lunch out at local restaurant, then Dora the explorer birthday cake

and piles and piles of presents from family in Aus that my parents had brought with them, then 手巻きsushi for dinner. K was in her element and really enjoyed being with both sets of grandparents, so it was nice to see. And J was super helpful, well, he basically prepared all the dinner and stuff. I managed to get the cake baked and iced thurs night with mum's help, think it turned out ok. K was happy at least so that is all that matters.

Has been another longish day tho, both K and I missed out on a nap, so i might head to bed early. Since my meds have finished, I am rock^hard belly again.

Also, an interesting thing; I don't know if this happens or not, but I reckon TJ^baby had dropped lower Tues, but is somehow "back" up , riding high again from about yesterday. And more active again. On Thurs there was a stage where I was seriously worried because I hadn't felt any movements for hours. TJ-baby is making up for it today it seems, which is nice.

and now...

I have a stuffy and runny nose, headache (going on all week), sore throat.....grrrrrrrreat. Can't work out if it is a cold, or allergies, or both.

J is out picking up my parents - they are going to be put to good use tomorrow, I think I will be sleeping all day...

at least TJ-baby is still on the inside at this stage ;-)

what a floosie

am quite pissed off today. Spent the morning ringing around doctors (for kiddies and preggo people) trying to find somewhere that offers the influenza shots. apparently I am too late, and every where is FULLY BOOKED. It would have been nice of the clinic I am going to (and paid my deposit too, to make sure I can give birth there) to tell me when I asked about piggy flu vaccinations to have told me that I could have booked the seasonal flu shot then. Or even if they had some information about it around the clinic. But I swear there was no info anywhere. The lady behind the desk only said that I should ring up to find out when piggy flu is being offered. So I waited until now, and of course they still don't even know when they are going to start those vaccinations. So I rang the 耳鼻科 down the road (the one I made an appointment at when K shoved two rubber bands, the small ones we use as hair bands, up her nose while having a good pick on Tuesday. I cancelled the appt in the end as J managed to get her to blow her nose enough to bring the bright pink and bright yellow hair bands down her nasal cavity far enough to grab them with the tweezers). They are taking bookings, but for 2 weeks in advance, on an automated telephone number. When I rang this morning about 9:20am (after having spoken to the lady on the regular phone number first) bookings were already full for two weeks from today. Bugger. I am gonna have to get in before 9am by the looks of it. So I tried the big general hospital up the road too - all the vaccinations for kids are finished already. I asked the lady what the hell I am supposed to do - I have tried several doctors and they are all saying the same thing - she put me through to a doctor or nurse who told me that to "limit outings to short periods of time, use a kid's facemask, avoid mixing with other kids" yaddih-yaddih-yaddah. I meant where the hell can I get the vaccination? I was almost gonna start on a rant "what, so just because we recently moved and I have no idea where the f*")Dng hospitals are around here, and because I don't know the whole procedure for booking 50months in advance for the vaccinations, do we have to miss out and now all die from bloody influenza???" But I bit my tongue.

What I don't understand is how the vaccines have all "run out" already. We are talking about seasonal flu shots here! Another bad for me for not being on top of it, right?!?

Big Sigh, end rant.
I guess we just try again tomorrow to book for 2 weeks in advance. Or keep going further afield to try find some place that will inject us!!

buttons

This morning has been spent with K pulling out EVERY piece of clothing she owns and putting them on, and taking them off 100times. I can't see the floor anymore.

K is now intently doing up her buttons - a little trick she picked up around Monday this week.Seems she has a favourite jumper to practise on - must be easy buttons.

too cute.

We skipped playgroup today because I have been feeling very hayfevery....I thought it had gone away, as I hadn't had a bad time with it since I got pregnant with K, but it seems to be back with a vengance this year. The mornings and nights are still quite cool, so I think that makes it worse for me too. So far I have spent the morning watching Season 4 Grey's Anatomy online....maybe just one more after this....

I am very glad that Monday was a big clean up day - a friend invited themselves over yesterday for lunch and since I had spent Mon and then Tues cleaning the house, all I needed to do on Wed morning was a quick sink shine and everything was a-o-k for visitors. Made up a lasagna, and added about 2 carrots and an onion and some kidney beans to the mix too (you know, some nutrition for K!?) and it actually turned out very yummy if I do say so myself. I think it may become my new family recipe.

Silly mummy moment- after a quick trip to the supermarket yesterday morning to get some stuff to make a side salad, I now have a whole cabbage to somehow use up today/tomorrow! Soooooo thought it was a lettuce I grabbed, lol!

Right, one more more GA then some clean up and cabbage cooking!

flu, part 2

damn. K came down with it yesterday.

it came on all of a sudden, in the morning when she woke up she was a bit grizzly, but I thought it was mainly because she woke with a bit of a fright. She had a runny nose and cough, which I thought was just the end of her cold. no fever (only 36.3 I think it was). So I took her to playgroup. I am the worst mother ever, I swear. At playgroup she was clingy, and runny nosey. I still thought it was nothing more than a cold. Then she got hot. She fell asleep in the car coming home, and when she woke up, she looked groggy. So we waited outside the docs until they opened at 3pm, when they checked her temp (39.3deg). Doc told me I was stupid for having taken her out today. Yes, that was true. I felt SOOOOO BAD. Not only did K have the flu, but there is now the possibility that we have infected all our friends at playgroup. Doctor made me feel even worse when she found out K hadn't had the flu shot. Yes, I am the worst mother. Anyway, we got some Tamiflu and those stickers you put on your chest to help you stop coughing, and another lot of cold medicine (in syrup form - our third lot of this since we got back from Oz! She now refuses to take it and I can't find any way to get it into her (I have tried all the things I can think of, and everything the chemist and doctor suggested!) so I stopped giving her the last lot. The chemist said it was not that important anyway. And I read on the internet that there is nothing you can take to fix a cold so I am not worried about giving this lot to her either.)

Last night she was still running a high fever, and very groggy. We managed to get two "serves" (?) of tamiflu into her - they gave it to me in powder form, and suggested I mix it with custard or ice cream to give her. That worked well with chocolate pudding for the first attempt when we got home from the doctors, but by nighttime, K wouldn't even take any liquids let alone food. In the end, we had to mix the tamiflu powder into a paste and use a syringe to squirt it down her throat. I have wasted 3 out of the 8 packets of tamiflu powder the doc prescribed over the last day and a half by mixing it one way(that worked last time) only for K not to take it at all the next time. So now we are doing the syringe squirt routine no matter what, but tonight when we did it that way, of course she was screaming blue murder at us, got all upset and threw the damn tamiflu up 1 second after we had spent 10 mins slowly syringing it down her throat. I hope *some* of it stayed in her, though.

But I am actually surprised at how genki she is today. Last night she woke up every hour during the night, and seemed really struggling , but this morning she woke up with a fever running just under 38degrees (not high enough to use the bum bullets) and spent the morning watching re-runs of "inai inai baa" and "okaasan to issho" before starting off a colour-in-a-thon and drawing fest where I had draw a pussy cat 50times over for her. (fwiw, K drew a banana). She had a big afternoon nap, nearly 4hours and then even ate a small amount of rice with salmon for dinner. She has been drinking fluids well today too. And her temperature has stayed below 38 degrees, actually hovering around 37degrees for most of the day. I hope this means that we are over the worst of it. We are still going to be housebound for the rest of the week, and probably into next week just in case.

Poor little K.

I do feel so bad for her having caught the flu, last night when she was so sick it was really heart-wrenching. I just wished that I could take her place or something. I guess I was a bit too blah-zay (how do you spell that word?) when J had it, and should have been more vigilant with things like wiping down things he touched, washing K's hands more often etc. And of course I should have gotten the flu shot for her. I will be doing that for sure next winter.

And more importantly I feel really bad about taking her out and putting others at risk of the flu too. I can only hope that none of the kids or mums from playgroup catch the flu from her.

****
Just wanted to say thank you to tigermama and nay for the comments.

I hope that I didn't come across in my original post here as just writing it so that people would comment that I wasn't a bad mother - I really did feel that way though, seriously. I know it is not logic, but hey, I figure I am not the most grounded and logical thinking person anyway. I also got messages and a phone call back from some of the mothers at playgroup who said "these things happen and not to worry about it" which was nice of them. Also one mum rang to say that (fingers crossed) they and their kids seem to be ok for now, so that is good to hear.

Just writing this now, I think I have realised that the main thing I was feeling was a sense of hopelessness at K having the flu and the situation in general. I guess this is something that as a mother I am going to feel more of in the future too.....

flu

So it turned out that J actually had the flu. He was basically on bed rest for all of the week. I have never made so many soups in my life as I did last week, haha. Poor J had it bad, fever over 39degrees, aching body, and a headache that lasted the whole week.

Luckily K and I managed to avoid getting his flu, although I was a bit worried on Wed night/Thurs morning when K ran a bit of a fever, and seeemed to get her cough back, so I pulled out of the local jidokan playgroup (it was my turn to do the English, but we postponed it until this coming Thurs) and I took K down to the docs and asked them to check if she had the flu or not. They swabbed a bit of snot out of her nose and ran a test on that, which came back negative so no flu for her, thank goodness. But she did have a bit of a cold return, but it seems to have basically cleared up again.

So I spent most of the week trying to keep K quiet and entertained in the living room and her bed room/play room while J was holed up in our bedroom. (We are "moving back" into the bedroom tonight!) It was great, because I couldn't do any major housework really, as I was trying to keep the noise down for J to sleep, so I ended up watching 4 episodes of Grey's Anatomy during K's naps....only a few more until I am up to series 3, which I have the whole series of on dvd sitting under the TV waiting to be watched. yay!

Despite having my new computer for over a week now, I am actually getting worse at using it - for some reason I just can't be bothered with it all at the moment, and have hardly had it on all week. I have so many emails that need replying to, but I just can't get myself around to it.... I was actually going to start on some replies now, but ended up here instead, haha. Maybe tomorrow will be my email day.

the week in review

saturday morning, 6:03am. We left home in the rain with K (awoken from her sleep to be shoved in a car seat) in a suprisingly good mood. She even managed to fall back asleep on the drive out to Narita. It only took 1hour, almost to the dot, to get from home to Narita, which is pretty cool I think! It then took me something like 20mins to find my way into the carpark - I swear they have changed things out there - I coukdn't find the carpark I usually park in, which puts me out in the open (as opposed to in those multi-story car parks where I can never remember if I am parked in the blue penguin or the yellow giraffe section) and right next to the entrance to the walkway to the airport arrivals floor. So we drove around and around, entered one carpark, then realised it was for buses and employees, so quickly exited that one (nice guy on the exit booth even told me I wouldn't have to pay - gee thanks, I mean, I was in the carpark for all of 5 seconds, I would HOPE I don't have to pay!).
It all worked out well, and i got to the arrivals hall about 10mins or so before my friends arrived, so I had just enough time to feed K her breaky before we got back in the car for the ride home! Oh, and R didn't end up coming out to the airport - actually the PIL's took her for the week, which was a great help, so that while I was off galavanting around the sights of Tokyo, she was being pampered and probably feed up with snacks all day, I bet she loved it!

We actually went all the way down to Odawara on Saturday, to see the Odawara Castle, and Sunday headed to Hakone, the bubbling hot springs of Owaku-dani, and lake Ashi-no-ko and the shrine there in the pouring, and I mean pouring rain. We came back home a bit earlier than planned on Sunday coz it was just tooo wet to do much else.

Monday it was overcast, but not raining, so we headed in to the Imperial Palace, Ginza, Omote-sando and Harajuku and the Meiji Shrine.

Tuesday was a perfect day, so we started off at the Hama-Rikyu Gardens, then caught the "water bus" up the Sumidagawa river to Asakusa. Saw a sumo wrestler down the back streets and got a photo with him - he leaned over and touched K on the head - I think I head somewhere that is supposed to bring good luck? (J knew nothing about it, hehe)! Came back home Tues afternoon for a rest, before heading back to see Tokyo Tower at night.

Friends left on a 9am train on Wed morning out to Narita and K and I have spent the last 2 and a half days lazing around, lying on the couch, taking long naps and trying to recover! K has had a cold (runny nose, all stuffed up, cough and sore throat) since Wed last week, and she got a bit of a temperature again on Sunday night (it hit 38.5) so we took her down to the outpatients again and got some meds for her. Her temp came down pretty quick. But she is STILL stuffed up. *sigh* Apart from Sunday night when she had the temp, she has been her usual genki self, but I have kept her home from playgroup this week and last week, as I don't want to have her spluttering all over the other kiddies and giving them a cold too. And I am all stuffed up too (my sore throat over the weekend has gone, but am still very flemmy). Plus yesterday was really cold, and rainy. Today is back to warm and sunny weather, so we just headed out before to buy some veges for dinner (oh, and a donut from Mister Donut for mummy's afternoon tea break.) Which got me thinking about why if

fruit = fruutsu; and
nut = nattsu; and
donut = donatsu
then why is it called Mr. Donut?

not so rosey Roseola

K came down with a fever all of a sudden on Sunday evening. One moment, she was running around happy happy, the next she looked dull, listless, and was red hot. Temperature at 38.2. we put her to bed early, at about 7pm, with a netsu-sama sheet (what a great invention these things are!!)

on her little forehead, and she fell fast asleep...for about an hour. When she woke up she was sporting a temperature of 38.7 degrees. Another netsu-sama sheet, and another sleep later and her temperature was getting higher.

At about 10pm, it hit 40degrees, so we decided to take her to the doctors. Of course, we couldnt find the phone book (or the netsu-sama sheets for that matter, so J had to go out to buy some) in the mess that is our post-moving apartment. but thanks to the wonders of technology(a.k.a the internet, my best friend!), J found the closest emergency doctors and we headed in to the hospital at about 11pm. A quick check (we surprisingly didn't have to wait too long. J was told on the phone that if there is someone with a life-threatening problem come in, then we may have to wait, and just as we pulled into the hospital carpark, an ambulance came screaming up behind us, so J is like "great, we will be here all night", but the kiddies doctor is separate to the others so it didn't affect us at all) and the doctors gave us some of those capsual looking things that you shove up the butt to bring your temperature down (I had never seen them before, mum was v. surprised when I told her about them too) and sent us on our way.

The butt-thing worked, and K's temperature was down to about 37.7 the monday morning. We had to cancel our proposed trip to Kamakura with H to see the azaleas. turned out for the best as it rained Monday afternoon anyway! K was pretty much back to normal from by Monday night, temperature not much higher than 37.2. By Tuesday morning, it was already in the 36-es, but we stayed home from playgroup just in case. Tuesday night in the bath, I noticed that her back was red, and looked like a heat rash all over her back. After she went to bed, I checked the internet, fearing chicken pox, but the rash didn't look like the pictures. Wednesday morning the rash was on her chest too, so we consulted our friend the internet again for a local kiddies doctor (I always get pediatrician and podiatrist mixed up, so call them a kiddies doctor to avoid my own confusion). The closest doctor actually got the best write up on the Benesse site, so we went there, a 10 min walk away, and K was diagnosed with Roseola,（突発) I skyped mum to tell her:

Me: The doctor says K has Roseola
Mum: never heard of it
Me: It is a type of herpes
Mum: HERPES!!?!?!? How did she get that? I thought that was a, you know, uuuh,
Me: a what?
Mum: a, uh, a, uh, transmitted disease
Me: you mean sexually transmitted disease
Mum: uh, yeaaaaaaah.

I had to laugh!
Apparently Roseola is very common, and babies get it sometime between 6months and 2yo. K got an atypical case, with only one day of high fever - usually the fever last 3 days!! The rash is not itchy or sore or anything, but she did have a red red throat, so the doc gave us some nice smelly syrup to take and that is it! Hope the spots/rash will be gone in the next few days.