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Gaby has barely slept in HER bed all year. It all began when she threw up in her sleep, while in her bed (back in January), and since then, she has refused to sleep in her own bed, much preferring my bed. I tried to be 'firm' to get her sleeping back in her own bed, but no matter how 'firm' I am, she is a lot stronger & I end up giving up. I don't think people realise how hard I DO try to get her to stay in her own bed, but there comes a point (usually around midnight), when it doesn't seem like it to have a screaming toddler & a crying Mummy. That is when she gets in my bed.
I know she needs to go back in her bed, I just don't know how to get her there. Even the mention of sleeping in her bed sends her into tears, and she gets all panicky about it - I don't so much mind her sleeping in my bed, because it's *just me* in my bed, but what happens when I have a partner who stays over regularly?? Can't very well have three of us in the bed! Related to that, I want to get Gaby into her own bed SOON, so that when it does happen to be, that I'm in a relationship, that Gaby doesn't feel like she's being 'kicked out' of my bed, in place of said partner.
I have asked her numerous times why she doesn't want to sleep in her bed, and the answer is always the same, quite simply "I don't like my bed", or "my bed isn't big enough" or - the heartbreaker "I miss Mummy". It's like I'm being pulled two different ways the 'firm' Mummy side, competing against the nurturing Mummy side, I guess it says something that it's always the nurturing side that wins over? The only thing way I can think of, to get her into her own bed - is to BUY HER A NEW BED... but I hardly have the money to do that. I'm keeping an eye on TradeMe, a second hand one would be okay, but then there is still the matter of transporting it between point A & point B.. it would mean trailer hire, and finding someone with a tow bar.....
Hmmmm I keep hoping that one day she'll just snap out of it & decide her bed is awesome, but so far... nothing...
In 4 days time, Gaby will be 2 years & 9 months old - it blows me away, because it still seems as though she's the little bubby I brought home from the hospital all those months ago... But she is almost THREE... It seems so old to me, so grown up - so un-baby-like, and well, I guess it is! I'm going to either get her a bike or a LeapFrog Tag Reading System for her b/day - whatever I get her for her b/day, I'll get the other thing for her Christmas present. I'm starting to think about her birthday party - where & when to have it, whether she's old enough for a 'themed' party. I wanted to make her a Thomas the Tank Engine cake for her b/day - but she seems to have started getting over her little Thomas fad, so I'm pretty much back at square one. She does like Nemo & Happy Feet a lot, so perhaps I could do a Nemo/Marlin/Dori cake, or a Penguin cake. I'm not creative, but I LOVE making & decorating cakes!
I've been reminiscing a lot about what it was like when Gaby was a little bub, and about my pregnancy with her. The up & down of emotions, the joy at feeling movements, the anxiety before ultrasounds & m/w appointments... all these memories kind of scroll through my mind, like a slideshow - sometimes there is even music playing in the background.... Ahhhh dear.. I'm getting so soppy in my old age!
For once nothing major seems to be happening in the life of Gabrielle Oakden!!! She seems to be well over her illness of a couple of weeks ago - and thank goodness for that, it was not fun seeing her so miserable! We've been working on using our manners the past two or three weeks - and I think it is all finally starting to make sense to Gaby - yayyyy. She regularly asks in the car "May I please listen to Halo", or "may I please have a sandwich" it is so cute to hear her speaking so maturely!
She has been very spoilt lately by her Aunty Terri - but I guess that is what Aunties are for! She got an adorable little denim jacket and a very cool flap book, as well as 5 pairs of cute undies - AND her own (used) iPod, with her favourite songs already loaded! There is apparently a book on the way in the near future - and goodness only knows what else... Now if only we could go and visit Aunty Terri to thank her properly!!! She may be seeing her at the end of this month - fingers & toes crossed, because we haven't seen Terri since... well, I can't even remember, so must have been quite awhile ago!
Poor Gaby is sick.
Friday night I noticed she was coughing a bit - Saturday morning I noticed she was coughing a lot more - and had a fever, and by Saturday afternoon she was coughing pretty much constantly, so it was off to the after-hours doctor for us! Because Gaby had symptoms of the flu - ie she had a cough & fever, we both had to wear masks & sit in the 'swine flu' part of the waiting room. We must have all looked rather funny (or scary), sitting there with our masks on.
It was around an hour before we got taken in by the nurse for the first assesment (to make sure we really needed to see the doctor), and Gaby was very good - let her take her temperature & check her heart-rate... I think Gaby actually enjoyed it, because at the end of the assesment she got given a lollypop. Probably made her day! She confirmed we did infact need to see the doctor, so back to the waiting room it was for us!
While we were waiting, Gaby crashed a bit more, she got very sleepy and quiet (which is strange for her!), and I noticed her breathing got a bit worse - I was tossing up whether or not to inform the nurse at reception about this, when the doctor finally called us (over an hour after we saw the nurse). He listened to her chest, looked at her ears & throat, and decided that it was possible she had viral pneumonia, or early onset asthma - he then sent us (well, Gaby) for a session on the nebuliser & a chest x-ray.
The nebuliser was horrible, Gaby screamed the whole time. I guess the combination of the noise, the funny thing on her face & the actual medication didn't make her very happy. I'm not sure how much she eventually got in her, but the doctor didn't notice much change. The chest x-ray went a bit better... we had to wait in the radiology waiting room for about 15 minutes, but were then taken in and it was all over in about 3 minutes... the radiologists that were in there made Gaby feel at ease - and me, which was really good. After the chest x-ray it was back out to the radiology waiting room, to wait for our doctor... who eventually came, took us back to his exam room, and told me that Gaby's chest x-ray hadn't displayed any signs of viral-pneumonia (yay), but her chest looked 'kind of asthma-like'. He prescribed her some antibiotics, some liquid asthma meds & sent us on our merry way.
Last time I took her to after-hours it cost us $10.00. So I went in, armed with $20.00, figuring that'd be more than enough to cover the doctor fee, and any prescription fee. But no. $35.00 for the examination, I was obviously short, so the receptionist told me she'd just send me out an account so I could pay for the prescriptions. We went across the hall to the emergency pharmacy (it is great they have doctor, radiology & pharmacy all in the one building) - handed over the script. 20 minutes later our prescription is read - I presumed it'd be $2.00 - because Gaby's prescriptions are always $1.00 at our pharmacy - so you can imagine how much I choked when the prescription fee was $21.50!!!! She explained that the medication for the asthma wasn't subsidised, hence the price. I told them I only had $20.00 & the pharmacist told me to just bring the rest in when I was over that way (ha! not bloody likely)....
We get home - 3 1/2 hours after going to the after-hours, I give Gaby her first dose of her medications, she gets all cozied up on the couch & falls asleep. The doctor then rings me. Of course I'm freaking out, thinking they must have picked something up on the chest x-ray after all, but no - he is ringing to tell me not to give her the liquid asthma meds, becuase it isn't the one he prescribed - that the pharmacy didn't have any of what he prescribed in stock, so the pharmacist swapped it for a similar medication.... I was so pissed. The $21.00 medication was USELESS! He then told me he'd written a prescription for an inhaler & asked if I could go in & pick it up, I explained Gaby was asleep, but I would try and see if someone would go and get it for me. In the end Stu went and got it - he had asked if there was anything he could do to help, and well - that was a big help. Of course when he brought it over he acted as though he was some knight in shining armour, that he'd saved my life & that I owed him something....
Fast forward to Monday morning... Took Gaby to our regular GP to be reassesed. She said that she is cautious about saying Gaby has asthma, seeing as it is her first episode like this, and said she may just be a 'wheezy child'. She checked her heartrate & oxygen levels - her O2 levels were borderline, so she gave us a prescription for some steroids, to help her lungs get better a bit faster... but other than that, she seemed to have improved a lot...
Sooooooooooooo... that's our sick weekend.. It scared the hell out of me when I realised how much Gaby was struggling with her breathing, and I'm so glad I decided to go to after-hours, because I think that if I hadn't, we would have ended up at A&E in the early hours of Sunday morning....
Laxing out - very ladylike, watching TV
"GET ME TOAST - NOW!"
"GET ME A TISSUE - NOW!"
"PUT THE LION KING ON - NOW!"
someone has suddenly - literally overnight, become very bossy!!!!! Yet another example of how quickly a child can change - I guess now it's back to the drawing board, to figure out a method for teaching Gaby to NOT BOSS MUM AROUND! Toad. It sounded cute the first time she said it, but after that first time, it was irritating. I guess it's just a glimpse of what the tween & teen years are going to be like huh....
Still amazed that she can change so much overnight......
Gaby has been sooooo well behaved the past couple of days, it is wonderful. BUT it makes me wonder if this is the metaphorical 'calm before the storm' as far as kiddy behaviour goes? Friday and Saturday I didn't raise my voice at her once, and had no troubles getting her to go to sleep... I have praised her numerous times so she knows that I'm really proud of her - hoping that perhaps she'll realise she should be that way all the time.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
I must be an idiot, being worried about good behaviour?!!!!! Funny how too-&-fro toddlers behaviour can be. She can be a total devil for a week, have me at the end of my tether, and then all of a sudden she is being a little angel - and I don't think butter would melt in her mouth! She has really been a total joy the past couple of days, it's lovely!!! Guess it's these sort of things they do to keep us on our toes - can't let us get TOO used to one sort of behaviour! That'd just be too easy after all!
my lil' Mama, giving Georgia a cuddle
... crazy monkey!
