July 27th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

Oh.My.Word. The most awesome weekend I have had in…FOREVER. What a wedding!


We flew up to Johannesburg on Saturday morning. Our flight left at 10:00. We were up from 5am with Babyice and my friend/stylist, Sarah, was there at 06:20 to get my hair and make up done. Just before 07:30am Kambabe and Squidsquirt showed up to watch Babyice for us while we were gone. Kambabe shooed me out of the house while Babyice carried on sleeping. I popped my head into his room – said “Goodbye – I love you” and made a run for it. I already bawled my eyes out earlier the morning after Babyice got sick all over Rudi. He came down with something on Friday and we decided to take him to the doctor. He was given an antibiotic as he was beginning to get an infection. He was coughing so hard sometimes that he threw up his feed. I felt horrible having to leave him. I HAD to run out of the door to save my mascara and eyeliner from running. I managed to keep the tears to a minimum.


It was Rudi’s first time on a plane. Joining me at the wedding and his first flight on a plane was my gift to him for his 30th birthday. He was very nervous and kept on thinking of disaster scenarios. After we took off and were about halfway to Johannesburg he realized that flying is actually quite boring. We failed to draw money at the airport so didn’t have anything on the plane, this would also prove troublesome later in the day…


Rudi’s cousin, Candy, her boyfriend and kids picked us up at the airport to take us through to Helderfontein Estate where Angel and Glugster were to be wed. We had a drink with the family as they haven’t seen each other in over 10 years. After they left we checked into our room and started to get ready for the ceremony. I brushed my hair and touched up my make up before putting my dress on and we headed down to the area where the ceremony would take place. Shortly after we sat down people started arriving in their droves and I started meeting people that I speak to every day on Twitter, but never had the opportunity to meet before.


I was fortunate enough to meet the following people:


Shebeegee – she gives AWESOME hugs!
ExMi – Lovely chick, can be as grumpy as she says she is.
Becausei – What a fun person to hang out with! Very susceptible to brain freeze
Sproutsmom – A lot shorter than I thought she would be, dynamite and all that!
pauljacobson – Rudi thinks he knows his shit
MeeAParkins – My ex belly buddy. Was awesome to meet her in person!
Sleepyjane – I didn’t even know she was going to be there – as gorgeous as you think she is. Not surprisingly, we discussed nail polish.
beagle_momma – We were both wearing gold jerseys!
donpackett – He really is a funny guy. Search him on YouTube.
SnowgooseSA – Hot chick. #thatisall
Alidaonline – We didn’t get to talk too much, but she likes shiny things.
Rubyletters – Been chatting to her forever and so glad I finally got to meet her.
Louisabower – Another new mommy…MUCH taller than I imagined her!
thejacksonfiles – She is awesome. Very fun to be around…her enthusiasm is contagious.
philly_girl – We also didn’t get to chat much, just met briefly.
Jenty – Amazing photographer and very sweet. Go and see her pictures of the wedding here.
I also got to see cybersass again. I met her briefly in Cape Town last year…she is wonderfully down to earth for a celebrity


The ceremony was beautiful. The pastor was funny and respectful. I wasn’t bored for a minute. Angel and Glugster had their own vows, which got everyone teary. She looked breathtaking. Amazing. Gorgeous. ExMi pointed out that she looked like a cupcake that you had to resist licking. I have to agree! ChristaB did a fantastic job with her dress! The Knucklehead (Angel’s son) also looked very handsome. We got to chat with him a little before the ceremony. He really is a lovely boy – or I suppose he is a man now, he is 19 already, after all.


After the ceremony we moved over to the reception area. Angel and Glugster had taken most of their photos before the ceremony to save time later in the day as the sun sets pretty early in winter. They only took family photos after the ceremony and lost the sunlight just they were done. While the photos were being taken guests enjoyed some cocktails and Angel’s infamous cupcakes! Being in Cape Town I never get to have them and just drool on my keyboard whenever I read about what she is making. I finally got to try a secret centre cupcake and the cream cheese icing I have been curious about for ages! Nom. I could only manage two cupcakes. They are unbelievably decadent.


Don Packett was the MC for the evening. He had us all giggling. He read out beautiful letters from Angel’s friends in New Jersey, Australia and from Cath Jenkin who couldn’t be there. Angel’s father teared up in his speech while talking about his daughter. There wasn’t a dry seat in the house!


The food was DELICIOUS! You very often get crappy food at weddings…this was definitely an exception. I particularly enjoyed the lamb and the mixed vegetables. The lamb was juicy and tender and the vegetables were crispy and tasty. I was really disappointed when I had had enough to eat, I would easily have devoured another plate!


Just outside the reception hall there was a photo booth – similiar to one you might see in a mall. There was a container with crazy props in. Everybody dressed up and posed for photos in the booth. The later in the evening it got (and the more the wine flowed) the crazier the photos became. After having four photos taken everyone received a set of two prints, one to take home and one to stick into the wedding guestbook accompanied with a message. It is SUCH an awesome idea. It was thoroughly enjoyed and taken advantage of by the guests. Angel already said on Twitter that they have the best wedding guestbook ever!


Since we were staying at the venue, we were the last guests to leave along with ExMi and thejacksonfiles (and their partners, of course). Remember we failed to draw money at the airport? We ran out of cigarettes just before the ceremony started. HUGE fail. Thanks for all of those who were generous enough to give us some during the course of the evening, you know who you are!


Don’t worry, I stopped smoking again on Monday. All good


My favourite photos (released so far) taken by pauljacobson (click to enlarge):

As we left, everybody got a cool magnetic bumper sticker that says “I was at #AnGlugWedding!” Hopefully *someone* in Cape Town caught it on Twitter and admires it while we’re driving Our flight back was uneventful. Babyice didn’t even smile at us when we came home, little shit.. Still loves us muchly, I’m sure Kambabe and Squidsquirt took very good care of Babyice while we were away. They constantly sent us updates and photos via Twitter. Our minds were completely at ease the entire time we were there. Check out the cool tweet kambabe sent us just before we got back – I LOL’d


All in all, I am super happy that we were able to go. It was an honour to share the day with these two very special people!

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July 26th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

My first day back at work has not been too bad. Nothing unpleasant has gone on (other than my nose being stuffy).


Rudi didn’t go to work today. He injured his back last week Thursday and was booked off till this week Thursday. This means I had to drop Babyice off at his day mother by myself and then go to work, park in our other building and take the shuttle down to the building I work in. Mission of note. I was 15 minutes early for work because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get there.


The up side of this is that Rudi is on night shift with Babyice since he can rest all day, so I’m not sleep deprived, yet.


Everyone has been so welcoming at work and I’m slowly getting back into the swing of things. Most of my applications have been reset and I am able to login…I’ve also managed to get my tax return done already. Not bad for a Monday!

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July 19th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

So the last week of my maternity leave begins. I have a sore throat, I suspect a throat infection and I’m going to the doctor just now. I’m going to sit down with him and tell him “I’m here for antibiotics and decent painkillers”. I’m hoping that I can get my birth control from my doctor too, instead of going to the clinic on Wednesday. The last thing we need right now is another birth


Babyice has been a bit sick. He had quite a cough, but the pediatrician said it was probably a post nasal drip and that we should treat his nose with saline solution, which we were already doing. Then his one eye starting weeping and was very gunky when he woke up from a nap or in the mornings. Yesterday we got an ointment for his eye and we are treating it. Poor baba. Luckily he hasn’t developed a fever. I don’t think a visit to the doctor is warranted at the moment. He has probably picked up something from going to the day mother. It’s very cold early in the morning when he is taken and he is surrounded by other kids too. The day mother says sometimes their eyes get gunky like that when they teethe as well.


We fed him some Purity Night Time porridge (with vanilla and maize) last night for the first time. It’s a “Stage 2″ food which means it is more textured than the solids he has been eating. It also didn’t smell/taste as nice as the porridge he has been eating (yes, we tasted). We thought he would be hesitant or reject the feed at first, but he was like a guppy fish opening his mouth for more from the first bite. He slept okay last night, woke up once for his dummy around 22:30 (he has made a habit of this) and only woke up again for a feed at 04:30.


On the other hand I woke up for no reason at 3:00 and could not for the life of me get back to sleep. I tried to go back to sleep after Rudi and Babyice left this morning, to no avail. My grandfather called me and said he *neeeded* me at his house (read: he is depressed and wants me to come and cheer him up). So I had to get out of bed, shower, wash my hair, put washing on, wash and sterilise bottles and get the washing in the tumble dryer before I could go to them. I’m so tired, but for some reason I can’t sleep at my grandparents house. The phones are constantly ringing or there are constantly people talking. It’s hard.


Hopefully I get some good meds to take that will sort me out quickly. I’m so looking forward to Angel and Glugster‘s wedding on Saturday. Rudi is excited too. He gets to fly on a plane for the first time and he’ll get to see his cousin that he hasn’t seen for many, many years (she is picking us up from the airport). I’ve decided to focus on Saturday’s wedding instead of going back to work on Monday. Much better!


Despite needing to rest I have a busy week ahead. On Wednesday I’m taking Rudi to work so I can go to the dentist and have my eyebrows done. Sarah is coming over during the week to come and dye my hair. Kambabe is also coming through this week since she will be staying at our house to look after Babyice while we are in Johannesburg…and of course we’re flying up to Johannesburg on Saturday morning. Rush – rush. We’ll barely be home on Sunday evening before we put Babyice to bed and next thing you know I’m back at work. MEH.

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July 14th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

I was dreading going back to work before…now I am dreading it even more. My boss has always been a problem. We’ve been working with him for about 3 years and it has barely been bearable. He is rude, critisizes and is an outright bully. We are always being told how worthless we are, how we have the mentality of someone in a lower position and how we don’t deserve the salaries we get paid. Actually, he is abusive.


He has been working there for almost 14 years now. How he has managed this I don’t know. He can’t get a promotion because his reputation pre cedes him. He has been reported to our manager (he is a supervisor) and to HR, but nothing seems to come of it. No matter how well we do, we’re always doing something wrong. He constantly threatens to burn us in performance reviews to negatively impact our raises/bonuses.


The day we were sitting in the doctor’s office hearing the final verdict about our baby (he knew where I was) he started calling me to crap on me about something. It wasn’t pressing, urgent or even due. I was sitting crying my heart out, losing my child and he was calling me about something insignificant (left me a voicemail crapping me out too). I hate him.


Now I haven’t been at work for almost six months and a colleague calls me to tell me that he has said that she can tell me that I am ‘a negative person and he doesn’t want me in his team’. WTF?! Well, guess what? I don’t want to be in your team.


I want to get out of Customer Care. I don’t want to deal with customers anymore and I also don’t want to deal with him anymore. There is nowhere for me to move within our department without having to deal with customers that are even more unhappy than those I am already dealing with. More pressure and more rude customers. In other words, crappier work. He supervises some of these teams too.


I do not want to stop working for our company. I love working for them. They treat their staff very well, I am very fairly compensated and I trust them. When it comes down to the nitty gritty, however, this is a very small problem for them in the big scheme of things. We are a big corporate and this unhappy team of eight people goes unnoticed and gets swept under the carpet by management.


I don’t know what I am going to do. What I do know is that my boss and I have a common goal, to get rid of each other. I’m going to ask him to help me get into a different division. Employment equity doesn’t count much in my favour, but I reckon I need to do something…and fast. I also currently work weekends, which will most likely not be compulsory in another department. I’m going to have little enough time with my son as it is. I’m seriously going to have to get my ass into gear to do this and it might take some time.


Don’t let me give up. I NEED to do this. I can’t take it anymore. I have come home in tears more than once because of this man. One of us has got to go. Anybody know someone who can make him disappear? I’ll take up a collection

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July 13th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

…is still dying. He is feeling horrible. He is in pain every day. He is weak, nauseous and tired all the time. He barely gets out of bed. Anyone who knows my grandfather will tell you he is a vibrant, active man. He is most definitely not himself. He is very depressed and cries a lot. He barely eats because of how he feels, which is obviously not helping matters. He has been to see his doctor and they have advised him all these symptoms are normal. All they can do is manage his pain. They could not tell him how long they think he has left. It’s anybody’s guess.


I was speaking to him last night and he was telling me how he was planning his funeral. As a priest he has planned many church services before, but this one is different, of course. He is planning which hymns he would like the choir to sing, which hymns he would like the congregation to sing. No wonder he is depressed. He has decided he doesn’t want a coffin at the funeral. He says he has conducted too many funeral services where he has to watch the family break down as the coffin drives away in the hearse. He doesn’t want that. Bless him. He is naive. He wants to spare us that, but does not realize that we will most likely break down anyway. I went to the funeral of my aunt’s mother in law last week. It was so sad to see the family suffer, to watch them grieve. I was sitting there thinking about how I would in their position soon. It was heart wrenching.


My grandmother has been trying to contact Hospice to find out if they can make use of their services. The twat at Hospice isn’t returning her calls. This is all very worrying. I can’t help but feel that time is running out for my grandfather, fast. We spoke about something at the end of August and he said “That is a bit late for me”. My cousin is coming from the UK in September for a visit, when I told him this he said “Oops” – implying that it would be too late.


It’s all so difficult to come to terms with. I find myself randomly bursting into tears at the thought of losing him. We’ve decided to go and see him as much as possible…also allowing him time with Babyice who brings him much joy. He got a model of a Tomcat aeroplane for his birthday which he intended to build for Babyice’s room. He is not up to doing it and has Rudi to come and build the model at his house so he can help him and watch the progress (also a ploy to get us to spend more time there).


I am going to break when the time comes. He has been a father to me. The only reliable, trustworthy and constant male role model in my life. I have wonderful childhood memories with him and I wish that Babyice could have the same thing. It looks like that is not on the cards though. This is going to be difficult. One of the most difficult things I will have to do. It’s right up there with losing our baby.


I’m going to miss him. I love him so much.


….and now I can’t talk about it anymore.

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July 6th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

Where to start? A few things to catch up on.

Babyice went to his day mother for the first time last week Thursday. I forced myself not to phone her. I knew that if he was crying at the time that I did I would want to rush over there and get him. When we did go pick him up just after 1pm, he was happily sitting on her lap after having had his vegetables. He barely noticed that I had walked in. Little shit. We stayed for coffee and pancakes to hear about his first day. It was like he didn’t even leave home. On the one hand I was relieved that he was so happy there, but I did feel slightly betrayed. It was like he hadn’t even missed me. When I picked him up on the Friday though, he looked happy to see me at least. I’m glad that I can feel so comfortable leaving him there.

On Saturday we invited the couple from antenatal class over for a braai. They bought Babyice the cutest little gift! It’s a plush giraffe (the neck and head of a giraffe) with a rattle built into it. Babyice immediately stuck it in his mouth. Seemed he liked it As they arrived my phone rang. It was my grandmother. She was sobbing her heart out. My grandfather wasn’t feeling well and he was talking about dying. Feeling like he was dying. She put my grandfather on the phone. He was also crying. My poor heart! We had just received guests and my grandfather wanted me to come there immediately. He ‘needed’ me there. I told him to calm down and that our guests would be there till the evening, but that I would make a turn there afterwards. We enjoyed our braai with our friends, we played a game of 30 seconds which was lots of fun. Predictably, my team won. I think we’ll swap partners next time to make it more interesting. We did pick partners fairly though, by throwing the dice to decide. Our guests left before seven. I wanted to get to my grandfather as quickly as possible, but it was time for Babyice’s porridge, bath and bottle. Rudi assured me he could cope and I was on my way.

My grandfather was feeling better when I arrived. He’d taken his anti depressant medication and tablets to calm him. Medication he seems to take only when he thinks he needs it. He is eating very poorly as well. For quite some time now. He woke up feeling very weak and tired. He has no appetite and he has pain in his abdomen. He isn’t sure what the pain is, but he assumes it is the cancer. When he is feeling this way, which is quite often lately, he gets extremely depressed. My grandmother tries to get him to eat. She’s a comfort eater. Eating makes her feel better and she feeds people when they are not well. The fact that my grandfather doesn’t want to eat makes her feel helpless.

I can really relate to how my grandfather is feeling. When I was pregnant with Jamie I was sick every single day for four straight months. I felt so terrible that thoughts of suicide crossed my mind. I know it sounds terrible, but you really cannot judge until you’ve been there yourself. I have the greatest empathy for my grandfather because I know exactly how he must feel. He sees no end in sight. No end to the pain, the nausea, the weakness and fatigue. Of course, when he gets this way and my grandmother can’t ‘fix’ him, she is struck by his mortality and becomes inconsolable herself. I went over there and spoke to them. I insisted that he takes his anti depressants every day. I also tried to encourage him to eat more. I know how difficult it is to eat when you feel like crap, but he can’t expect to have energy if he doesn’t eat. I calculated his BMI and he isn’t underweight (this mostly to comfort my grandmother). I lay in his arms for a while and shed a few tears myself. It’s horrible to see them like this and he isn’t even at the worst stage. I’m afraid he will suffer. I keep telling my grandmother to contact Hospice and find out what services they can offer for them. My grandfather really wants to die at home. He said if he slips into a coma or something he is happy to go to hospital, but barring that he wants to be at home. My grandmother can’t care for him by herself should he become completely immobile. It’s going to be so hard. He is going for another check up today to see what exactly the cancer is doing. He probably won’t go for his scan today, but he is starting the process.

On Sunday Babyice was very miserable. He ate, drank and slept, but when he was awake he wasn’t himself. We put him to bed after his regular routine and so the trouble began. He went to bed around 7pm and started waking up at 10:30pm. I kept putting him back to sleep and noticed he felt quite hot. Around midnight I took his temperature which was 38.3 degrees. I gave him some Panado syrup and put him back down. He woke up a half an hour later. I took his temperature again and it had come down to 37.5 degrees which was a big relief. He still felt very warm so I removed his sleeping bag, covered him in a light blanket and put him back to sleep. He woke up again a few minutes later, so I decided to take him to bed with me. He was quite restless and woke up a few times there too. We gave him two feeds during the night in case he was thirsty and to soothe him, so he definitely wasn’t hungry. Monday morning his temperature had dropped to 37 degrees. He only had a runny nose (clear liquid) and I felt okay sending him to his day mother. I sent along some Panado and Salex for him in case, but she said he didn’t need it during the day. He was a little cranky with her the morning, but he ate and managed to sleep. When I brought him home he still felt hot to me, but his temperature was below 37.7 degrees, so I didn’t give him any meds. He was also smiling a bit so I didn’t worry too much. Perhaps I was a little paranoid because of the fever the previous night. He slept some more after he came home. Last night we bathed him in lukewarm water, dressed him in a babygro and vest and put him in his summer sleeping bag. He slept very well. He woke up about 3 times in need of his dummy and only woke up for a feed at 5am this morning. He felt cool to the touch and his temperature was below 37 degrees. He seems to be feeling better and I’m glad it was over so quickly. He is probably starting to teethe. Fun.

There is some good news in this post! Last week I used my eBucks to order some things for Babyice. I ordered him the Baby Sense winter and summer sleeping bags. I love baby sleeping bags. He can’t kick them off and he seems to sleep really well in them. What’s awesome about the Baby Sense sleeping bags is that they have a hole for the car seat buckle to go through so that you don’t have to remove the baby from the sleeping bag to take him out. The other sleeping bag that I have is like a quilted sleeping bag and doesn’t have this hole. You can view the winter sleeping bag on their site here. I don’t see a picture for the summer one on the site, but it has a polka dot print. I was really glad to have the summer one last night. Perfect for a baby that is too warm, even in winter! I ordered them both in the ‘stone’ colour. Can always use them again for the second baba I also ordered him an educational toy from Tolo toys. You can see the ball here.

Other than that my maternity leave is running out faster than the sands in the hourglass of 30 seconds. Soon my life will consist mostly of work. It makes me sad. I will have precious little time with my son. I wish I could afford to take a half day job somewhere so that I could spend more time with him, but I guess this is the fate of most mothers. At least I will appreciate every second I do get to spend with him!

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July 1st, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

I would like to thank all the moms that replied to my post “Ups and downs“. I have followed their advice and now only put the bottle with the water into the bottle warmer and use my formula dispenser to quickly make a bottle when baby needs it.

Turns out Losec is not a formula. It is a pill that you dissolve in water which you give to baby. It has little balls in it that have a slow release formula that is supposed to assist with reflux. Apparently it can take a few days to work. Problem? R650 for 14 tablets/2 weeks supply. Are they smoking crack?! I’ll try it, might as well, but at that price I’ll deal with the spit up. It doesn’t affect his growth, he is not unhappy or crying all the time…so why spend a daft amount of money on medication? I’m not going to.

Still trying to get him to drink rooibos tea/purity juice. Actually got him to drink (and keep down) 20ml of rooibos tea today. That was awesome! Solids are still going well. My boy LOVES his porridge. He really wolfs it down. Before the spoon gets back to the bowl to get more he has his mouth open for the next one! He’s not *so* keen on the vegetables, but he eats them and that’s all that matters.

He is still sleeping through. 4 nights in a row now. We’re very lucky! Some people have babies that NEVER sleep through. I hope he keeps it up and that I can adjust and stop waking up for no reason!

By the time you read this, he will probably be with his day mother for the first time already. I’ll be missing him. A lot. Think of me?

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June 30th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

I asked Drikus Le Roux to do a photo shoot for me. The idea was to get some photos of our family to create some memories with my grandfather and grandmother. It is my 70th birthday gift to him. I’m going to have prints done and put them in an album for them. When my grandfather passes on the album is to go to my grandmother, when she passes on it is to come to me. Drikus did an AMAZING job. You can see the full set of photos here.

Here are a few of my favourites (click on any image to enlarge, the last few are cropped quite a bit, so rather click on them):

I am VERY pleased with the results. Can’t wait to blow up some of these and print them!

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June 29th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

We’ve been toying with the idea of moving when our lease expires. It expires at the end of August this year. We would like to live in a house, without neighbours literally on our doorstep. We would like to have a garage and a yard with some grass for Babyice to play on. You would think that’s not too much to ask. Rental properties seem to be EXTREMELY rare. I could find NOTHING in our price range and we were looking up to R5000 a month.


Rudi has been itching to buy our own house for a long time. It is a dream of mine to have my own house, but I know that we just can’t afford it right now. Realistically. We’ve been to see a couple of houses for sale. The ones we can’t afford by a narrow margin are quite small, but not too bad. There’s always something. No space for the dishwasher is a biggie. There never seems to be! Also…many of the places have very little storage space…in the kitchen and elsewhere.


We saw a house we thought might be in our price range. The house is SO run down. I wouldn’t live in it until it had been fixed up. It needed a LOT of work. We may have been able to afford the house, but wouldn’t have money to fix the place up. The upside to such a property would be that you can make it exactly as YOU want it. Make space in the kitchen for the dishwasher, etc. It was also on a very big plot, so lots of space to build on. The main bedroom had no cupboards. The kitchen looked…dingy…to put it mildly. The roof had been leaking so there were water marks and mould all over the walls and ceilings. There must have been tenants in that house for a very, very long time. I just can’t see us having enough funds to make the place liveable. Sure, someone lives there already, but they obviously have no standards whatsoever. One other nice thing about this house is that it is in the same street as Babyice’s day mother. Very convenient. Someone with the ability to buy it, fix it up and sell it at a profit has probably already snapped it up though.


We’re speculating about what we can afford as well. We haven’t actually applied for a bond at the bank, so we have no idea what we actually qualify for. I’m sure it’s not as much as we think.


We might just end up having to renew our contract here at this rate.


*sigh*

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June 28th, 2010 | Posted by acidicice

Babyice has a problem where he spits up. Very often. I chatted to the pediatrician’s assistant about it on Skype and she spoke to the doctor. After answering a few questions, they suggested we try and limit Babyice’s formula intake to 750ml per day and feed him more solids. I thought this was going to be very hard since he is used to having a bottle whenever he pleases. It went better than I thought it would, but we’re still having some issues.


He still spits up, but only his milk. He doesn’t vomit or spit up solids at all. Perhaps the milk is disagreeing with him? Discussing this with the pediatrician as well since they requested feedback. Also, we’ve now changed him over to Lactogen 2 (he was previously on Lactogen 1) and this milk is horrible. I pre-make his bottles and keep them in the fridge. At night when we go to bed we put a bottle in the bottle warmer for his night feed and should he require a feed in the middle of the night, his bottle is ready and waiting. We never had any problem doing this with the Lactogen 1. We have found now with the Lactogen 2 that his bottle has completely curdled by the time he needs his next feed. It smells sour and has gone lumpy. WTF?! The bottle warmer keeps the formula at a constant temperature of 40 degrees. Why does it go “off”? Granted it does stay in the bottle warmer for quite some time…but we never ever had a problem with the previous formula. I understand that the formula is different as it is stage 2 formula, but surely stage 2 formula doesn’t mean it must be impractical? It just doesn’t make sense for me to have to make a bottle (potentially in the middle of the night)…leaving him crying, waiting for it. I also can’t put a bottle from the fridge into the warmer as it will take 20 minutes to get warm…this will take longer than making the bottle from scratch and Babyice will be screaming his lungs out and be fully awake by then. I’ve mentioned this to the pediatrician. They’re considering another type of formula and will get back to me later today.


The other thing that is bothering me is that he is urinating considerably less. We bath him and put him to bed around 7/8pm and the next morning at 6/7am it looks as if he has only urinated once or twice. Before it used to be very full and would probably leak if not changed immediately. I realize he will urinate less now that he is drinking less, but surely one or two during 12 hours is a little? He seems happy, isn’t crying more than usual, cries tears and is still drooling (all signs to look out for in “What to expect the first year”). I’m trying to get him to drink purity juice/rooibos tea to up his liquid intake, but that isn’t going very well at the moment. I have raised this issue with the pediatrician also.


There is good news though! Babyice seems to be sleeping through! For the last 3 days he has slept till 6/7am. The night before that till 4am. I might have been too hasty to give him a feed that night. Sometimes he does get restless and wake up, but after being given his dummy he goes back to sleep without even being picked up. I, on the other hand, wake up regardless of whether or not he is sleeping. I’m so used to getting up for him that I can’t help but wake up. Hopefully we’ll both adjust now so that I also get some decent, unbroken sleep.


Any moms out there have some advice for the other problems?


P.S. My pediatrician is a lot of awesome. His receptionist is available on Skype all day during office hours and I can chat with her from home, free of charge. She asks the doctor should she not be able to answer your questions. She’s going to print out my discussion with her this morning to show to the doctor so he knows exactly what we spoke about. She mentioned something about Losec formula, but is going to discuss it with him first. Anyone know if it’s expensive?

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