a new year starts

Wow, 2011.  A New Year!

This past month has been a daze.  I went on a short break, spending a lot of time with my boy.  And I loved it so much!  It was so much fun to be able to spend whole days with him again.  We stayed home this holiday, and the two of us lazed around at home, visited, and did a couple of fun things like visiting the aquarium.  Christmas was spent with my husband's side of the family, and we had a quiet New Year.  The time at home flew by, and tomorrow I return to work.

And boy has my boy grown!  For the past couple of weeks he has gained so much confidence in his walking.  He walks most of the time now, and has even stopped pushing his cars around because of this - although at times he tries to push bigger cars while on his feet rather than hid knees, this is too funny to watch.  And when he falls over he just gets right back up!  He understands so much more now, and seems to be a real curious boy.  He points at absolutely everything.  He seems to have a few words which at time has meaning.  "Car" is a definite favourite, but also often used for other objects like planes, helicopters etc.  "Dada" has also on occasion now been directed to dad (no sign of mom, mama or anything in that line yet!).

I hope that this year is going to be exciting for us.  We are putting our flat / apartment onto the market at the end of this month.  We will at the same time start looking for something larger.  I hope that we will be able to complete the entire process within the first half of the year - and the quicker the better!  I look forward to having a garden for us to relax and play in, and just having more space generally.  We are definitely becoming a little cramped now with all the things that the little guy seems to "collect".

And some other exciting developments on the cards for us too....  Watch this space for more! 

3am awakenings

At just before 3am we heard some wimpering from his room.  My husband went to see and it seemd he had lost his dummy and was trying to find it again.  He did not find it quick enough, so he woke up and started crying.  And that was it...  he would not go back to sleep.  We were so tired, so we once again did the unthinkable - put him in bed with us, hoping that he would fall back to sleep quite quickly.  He is such a rough sleeper though - and it took him so long to find his "spot".  Oh, the joys....

as the year is coming to an end

I hate year ends. I am not really sure why – I get sad sometimes (not for any particular reason), and mostly I feel as though I was supposed to accomplish something more during the year than I had. On the other hand, I do not do New Year resolutions – mainly because in the past when I did I never or hardly ever kept to them. They were silly ones really, maybe that was why. This year I feel a bit different. I think I was just too overwhelmed last year to feel anything – I still had a small baby, meaning less sleep, and was still trying to find my place in the whole motherhood journey. I don’t know if I have found that place yet though!


I do have some feeling of regret this year – but too be honest not much. I am not that sad that the year has ended, but rather excited to experience Christmas with my boy (last year did not really count....), and excited about what the New Year holds for my family. There are some things I should have done but didn’t, but I will let this pass, and concentrate on what I can achieve next year. And maybe I should rethink those resolutions, and maybe make a few this time round.

But for now I will start to think about my break – which starts in just a week and a half! Cannot wait to spend all that time with the little boy who goes “Ahhh” when mommy yawns :)

first birthdays, grommets, teeth, metformin

So a few things have happened since my last post....


The boy turned 1 – WHAT?!! When did that happen? I could not believe that the year has gone by so fast. It brought back lots of memories – memories of his sudden delivery, his stint in the NICU, the start of my maternity leave, how crap I was actually feeling all that time, trying to sit after a c-section, hospital, hospital, and going home for the first time with a baby. All in all it has been a great year I think, it was hard (very hard at times), but I would not change anything...

After another couple of ear infections we had surgery done a couple of week ago. He had grommets put into both ears, and the doctor also did some type of sinus sweep / wash out. Luckily his adenoids were fine, so these could stay put . And all I can say is that a baby waking up after anaesthetic is not fun at all – I have never heard him scream like that! But he did really well afterwards I think. I spent most of the week home with him, which was a bit of fun.

Just before seeing the ENT we had a 1 year follow-up hearing test. He had no problems with his test at hospital, and I had not noticed anything amiss, so I thought it was going to be a breeze. However they picked up some issues with his right ear, but this was most likely due to fluid in his year because of all the infection he had been having. So on the 21st we head back to the audiologist for a follow-up. I am pretty sure that this one will be fine.

He is growing well. Another two teeth made their appearance the week of the 15th of November. They are HUGE! (top 2). On Monday I noticed that his top right lateral incisor has also cut through. He has really been great with this whole teething experience, and I hope this will continue! We hardly know when there is anything going on in there until it has basically cut through the gum. Yesterday he also bit me (it was my own fault...), and actually drew a little bit of blood! Little vampire!

Still crawling as though for an Olympic medal, and cruising all along the furniture. He is now able to stand unaided, but does not do it too often. He loves clapping his hands together, which is really cute. I love how he can understand so much already – when I ask him to clap (without showing any hand movements) he will (although at times he just looks at me and laughs), and when I ask him to kiss me he gives me a nice sloppy version of his own on my mouth (I love him!!).

Diabetes has gotten the better of me a few times, but things seemed to have settled down again. I started metformin last night (500mg Glucophage XR). I have not had any uncomfortable symptoms yet, so I hope it stays that way. Going to be interesting to see how it is going to be affecting my insulin requirements over the next few weeks.

And in two weeks I start my holiday! CANNOT wait. I am only having about 2 weeks off, and unfortunately my husband will be working over the festive period. I am going to have to be well prepared for my little guy, as he has become extremely busy lately...

remembering

This past week I have been remembering and thinking a lot about the past year, and also about last year this time.  I cannot actually believe how vivid some of my memories of last year are, and I hope that they will remain so.

Last year, on this Friday, our team was having a team build day.  we are a small permanent team, with a few people based in our offices in Joburg.  They would all arrive that morning for a day of - wine and chocolate tasting and cellar tour, lunch on a wine farm, painting in the afternoon, and a show and dinner in the evening.

I was also 33 weeks pregnant.  Starting to get really excited and looking forward to the birth of my son, and the start of my maternity leave - I could no longer make it through the day!  I had had a pretty uneventful pregnancy up until then.  Besides the constant battle to keep my blood glucose numbers as normal as possible I did not have much else going on.  Or so I thought.  (I don't count anterior placenta or RH negative blood)  But I had also experienced bad headaches (I want to say severe, but I never complained, so lets leave it at bad....), disturbed vision (I know, this should have been some sort of sign that something was not right, but I put the flashing lights to possibly having blood glucose drops or something.  they were always accompanied by a headache too).  My blood glucose levels had been pretty steady throughout - with just a slight increase in insulin during the second trimester, and then my needs stayed pretty stable (yet another sign...)  But this morning I woke swollen (I had had minimal swelling up till then) - my shoes would not fit.  It was slightly painful walking.  But, pregnant women swell up, don't they.  So off to work I went.  By then my PE must have been pretty bad already.  I had had an OBGYN appointment about 1.5/2 weeks before and all was normal.  No protein at all, and BP was within the normal range.  In that 2 weeks I had to visit the dentist twice to have a filling that fell out put back in - apparently my gums were quite swollen (most likely due to the pregnancy, but in hindsight, this was also probably something to do with PE).  I now think of this day as the day the PE "won".

I had no idea that in just a short few days I would be meeting my son.  I continued to work on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday - the day he came, after a scheduled OBGYN appointment where my protein levels were found to be sky high, and the blood pressure was more than 200 over 134.

1 year, I cannot believe it...

the week that's been

We have had an interesting week to say the least.  I got a call one day last week that C was running a fever, so off home it was for me with sick baby.  He seemed much better a couple of hours later, just a bit clingy.  But then at about 16:00/30 his fever hit forty.  Our paed was on vacation, so it was either finding a GP or the ER.  We opted for N's uncle again...  I had also then just noticed that he had some discharge from his one eye, which was also slightly red.  Conjunctivitis (other eye followed when we were at pharmacy collecting his meds) and another ear infection.  Breaks my heart when my darling is in pain...

Work has been busy, but (since this morning) it is good busy.  I have removed myself from a project I had become involved in.  It was just going to take up way too much time, and I was concerned that eventually it would become a bit too much - our department is really small, and at times we get really tight deadlines.

I have been shopping for a birthday present, and have seen a few things I like.  Hopefully this weekend I will get that all done!

Healthy, but with some changes

So my endo appointment went well.  HbA1c has not budged - well not much anyway.  Sitting comfortably at 6.2% (6.1% last time round), which I am extremely happy with.  My aim is to try staying on the lower side of the 6s.  Anything lower will not be realistic for me.  All other tests came back normal.  So at the moment I am tired and healthy I guess.

Changes are to be made over the next month or so.  I am going to once again attempt basal testing - although I have actually effectively done this already.  The plan now is to get those basals done, and then add Metformin (the extended release one) to the mix.  Make adjustments from there and see how things go.

And then I want to start some other lifestyle changes.  It is going to be slow, but I need to make a few.  Probably start off with packing lunch every day to avoid unhealthy lunches during the week.  Try making more time for cooking to avoid more unhealthy eating that way...  And then I need to add some sort of exercise.

I have decided to give the exam a miss.  It was a difficult decision to make, but I am feeling quite relieved with it off my shoulders.  The plan now is to postpone registering for my thesis next year to the following too.  Kaitake - I am registered for a Masters in Futures Studies (MPhil Futures Studies).  I have completed most of the degree already as there is a lot of coursework involved.  Outstanding now is the exam and my thesis.

Marcia, I need to look at how I am spending my time.  I have to admit though that I probably did not expect a baby to take up that much time...

Another Joburg trip is on the cards.  Another 3 nights away from home.  I am, again, not sure how I feel about this.  This is mainly because of my feelings about the project, and some reservations regarding being on it.  But that is a whole other story...