Diary of a very happy mammy of 3 miracles

[Shamrock.]

Friday 12th April 2019

J will be 9 months old in 4 days time

J is in hospital
He has had a head cold the last few days and yesterday he was very cranky which I put down to teething. Last night I put him to bed around 8pm as usual but he woke up crying around 11pm. DH went to check him and said he felt very hot so I checked his temperature and it was 39.8c  I gave him Calpol and he slept til 7am when he woke up bawling crying again. It wouldn’t be like him to wake up crying...usually he plays happily in his cot for a while when he wakes up....so I checked his temperature again and it was 39.2c. I phoned the gp clinic as soon as it opened and got an appointment for 10am.

The gp examined him and said he has a throat infection and infections in both ears. She told me to immediately bring him to be checked in the paediatric unit a&e in our local hospital coz his breathing was a bit labored, I had said he wouldn’t eat or drink for me and because of his complicated medical history/previous breathing difficulties.

I spent about 8 hours with him in the paediatric unit a&e where he was examined by various doctors and nurses, had bloods taken from the back of both of his tiny hands and a cannula put in (it was awful because it took ages and he screamed the place down while I tried to comfort him  ), had a chest X-ray and was put on a nebuliser to help his breathing. Around 7pm he was finally admitted as an inpatient for iv antibiotics and iv fluids. He badly needed the fluids because he wouldn’t drink anything all day despite me trying various liquids with him. The diagnosis is severe tonsillitis 

DH offered to stay overnight at the hospital with J because he knows I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink on the very uncomfortable pull out chair beds they have in the rooms for parents so we swopped over duties and I went home to look after P and R. Luckily we had our childminder T to look after them and do the school runs during the day today.

Hopefully J will recover quickly once the iv antibiotics and fluids start to work their magic 

[FertilityFriends]

[Shamrock.]

Sunday 14th April 2019

J will be 9 months old in 2 days time

J is still in hospital  Tonight is his 3rd night there 
I spent the day at the hospital with him yesterday and DH stayed overnight with him again last night.  Either me or DH has to be with him 24 hours a day, we don’t have any family help with the children so we are relying on friends/neighbours to step in to look after P and R for us whenever we need to swop over looking after J.

Poor little J was still having very high temperatures during the day yesterday but during the night last night his temperature dropped below 35c so the consultant wants him to stay in overnight again tonight and he will reassess him tomorrow morning. They have changed whatever iv antibiotic he is on to a different one to see if that will help him recover more quickly.

Last night while DH was looking after him, J somehow managed to pull the cannula out of the back of his hand so he had to have it put in his tiny foot instead. DH said he screamed the place down again while that was being done 

Today his temperature was in the normal range all day but he is drinking very little and he will only eat yoghurts 

[Shamrock.]

Thursday 18th April 2019

J is 9 Months 2 Days Old

J got released from hospital on Monday afternoon so he was just 3 nights incarcerated this time. I worked out that in the 9 months since he was born J has spent 40 nights in various hospitals. He was 5 nights in the maternity hospital with me after he was born, then 32 nights in the children’s hospital from when he was only 5 weeks old and now 3 nights in the local hospital  Hopefully that’s the end of hospital stays for us but I’ve learned the hard way that you are very lucky if your childern are not sick so now I take one day at a time and hope for the best 

J is on antibiotics for another few days but thankfully he seems fully back to his cute playful self. He was visibly absolutely delighted to be home again on Monday. He was very fed up of being stuck in a little room in the hospital and towards the end of his stay there the only way I could stop him from whingeing was to carry him up and down the corridor so he could see what was going on in the world outside the room. He is delighted to be back going around in his walker at home now and back playing with P and R 

My diet and exercise regime went to pot over the weekend when I was stuck in the hospital but I got back to the healthy eating and exercise on Tuesday. I went training with my running group on Tuesday night and last night we all competed in a 4km road race. I finished it in 22 mins 29 seconds    I am delighted with that. I didn’t go to WW yesterday because P and R are off school at the moment for Easter holidays and I didn’t want to bring them and J out of the house early in the morning.

I've spent all day today at the hairdressers treating myself to a new look! I've gotten the dark colour I had stripped from my hair and a full head of highlights and much lighter colour put in. I wonder what Mr Shamrock and the kids will think of it when I get home. I look completely different but I think I like it   

[Shamrock.]

Sunday 21st April 2019 (Easter Sunday)

R is 5 years 3 weeks old
J is 9 months 5 days old

We are having a lovely Easter weekend so far  The weather is beautiful...it was about 21c warm and sunny yesterday so we spent most of the day outside. We brought P, R and J to T playground. They had a great time playing and eating ice-creams. J loved the baby swings  I brought R across the road from the playground with me to an old church ruins, high tower and really old graveyard. He was fascinated by the old gravestones and got me to read out the names on every single one.

J is the cutest little thing ever! Yesterday evening he was playing hide and go seek with me at home. He was in his walker and I was hiding behind different things like curtains, doors and chairs and he was coming to find me. I would peak my head out a few times and jump back in when he saw me.  When he would get to me and find me he would do a high pitched squeal with delight and start laughing. He was sooo damn cute looking with his big brown eyes I had to kiss the face off him every time he found me. He absolutely loved playing the game 

My tummy feels sick this morning because I had an Indian takeaway and two bottles of Corona Light last night followed by me eating a full terry’s chocolate orange and packet of crisps by myself  Ughh ...my day had started great...I got up early yesterday morning and did our local 5km park-run. I did it in a new personal best of 28.44 minutes  it nearly killed me though because it was too warm out even though it was on at 9:30am. I’ve discovered I much prefer to run when it’s cold out or even when there is light rain  Anyways I feel sick from eating crap so hopefully I will get back on track with my healthy eating today.

The Easter Bunny visited our garden last night when the kids were tucked up asleep in their beds and he hid little chocolate eggs everywhere so there will be great excitement this morning when P and R go out to try to find them 

[Shamrock.]

Wednesday 1st May 2019

J is 9.5 months old

I did it !! I got to my goal weight in Weight Watchers this morning  and I even weighed in 0.5lbs under goal   
I'm delighted with myself 

I didn't make it to WW the last 2 weeks because the kids were off school and I didn't want to bring the 3 of them to class with me. When I weighed in this morning I was down 3.5lbs from the last time I was there. I had a few takeaways and drinks and plenty of Easter chocolate in the last two weeks but I have been jogging/running 3 times a week religiously since January so I think that has speeded up my metabolism.
I have lost 18 lbs since I rejoined WW in October so it has taken me nearly 7 months to get to goal but during that time I have still lived my life and enjoyed myself  I'm finished with all fertility treatment and child bearing now so hopefully I should be able to maintain my goal weight this time...no excuses

J is doing great. He has 3 teeth now. His 3rd tooth finally broke through the gum about two days ago. He has his first two teeth for months. He can now wave bye bye and he looks so adorable when he does it  He is extremely cute looking  Sometimes I can't believe he is mine, that he is finally here after all the heartache of the ivf cycles in the last few years. I finally feel complete and very happy with my lot 

[Shamrock.]

Sunday 12th May 2019

P is 6 Years 2 Months Old
R is 5 Years 1.5 Months Old
J will be 10 Months Old in 4 days time

I'm so proud of P. She performed in her first ever ballet show today in a theatre with an audience of about 250 people and she is dancing again in the same show tonight (Alice in Wonderland). She looks super cute in her pink sparkly costume. I'm really proud of how confident she is on stage and for going backstage on her own an hour before the show started. 

[Shamrock.]

Wed 29th May 2019

P is 6 yrs 2.5 Months Old

It was a big night for P last night coz the tooth fairy finally visited our house for the first time ever to collect Ps first tooth to fall out and she left €5 and some chocolate coins under Ps pillow. P was feeling very generous this morning because gave me the €5 and shared the chocolate coins with R 

J had a developmental check up with the public health nurse last week which went great. He is doing everything he should be at this stage and more. The nurse commented a few times on how clever he is 

R is doing great too. He can now count to 10 in Irish (as gailge).

3 weeks to go to our holidays. The 5 of us - me, DH, P, R and J are going to Lake Garda, Italy for 2 weeks!

[Shamrock.]

Friday 28th June 2019

P is 6 Yrs 3.5 Mths Old
R is 5 Yrs 3 Mths Old
J is 11.5 Mths Old

It's a few weeks since I last posted here...I've been busy 

When I last posted here P had just lost her first tooth. Well, in the 2 weeks after that the tooth fairy was very busy because P lost 3 more of her teeth. She has now lost the two top ones and two bottom ones at the front and her adult/big teeth are already starting to grow in their place.

In the 2 week period that P lost her 4 teeth J was very busy growing new teeth and he now has 8 teeth! Every time P lost one J seemed to grow 2 more overnight  I told P that the tooth fairy must have been sprinkling her fairy dust on J while she was collecting Ps teeth from under her pillow  The tooth fairy left €5 under Ps pillow each time she visited and every single time P gave me the €5 and told me to buy myself something nice ...Ahhhh   

Today is Day 9 of our two week family holiday to Italy. We are having a great time despite an unexpected heatwave across Europe. Yesterday it was 38c here! Thank God for the swimming pools and air conditioning !!

We spent the first 3 days of our holiday at an apartment with a beautiful olive tree walled garden in Torri del Benaco. One of those days we went on the cable car to Monte Baldo where the scenery was absolutely stunning and we sat right beside paragliders on the top of the mountain and watched them getting ready then literally running off the mountain and flying out over the lake. The kids were amazed and they loved it.

A great memory I will always have from Torri del Benaco was one night when we went for dinner by the harbor then we watched a really good band singing on the side of the street and R danced like crazy in the street then danced all the way home to our apartment much to the amusement of everyone who saw him 

We are now staying in a bungalow at a campsite for 7 nights and then we have 4 nights in a villa in the mountains at Lake Iseo before we go home. Our bungalow here now is on the shore of Lake Garda and myself and DH have a beautiful view of the lake from our bed  We have a terrace off our bedroom and I imagined we would sit out on it at night sipping wine while the kids were tucked up in their beds/cot but the first night we sat out we were eaten alive by mosquitos despite having repellant on so we haven't braved it since 

P and R are having a brilliant time here. They absolutely love the swimming pools so most of our day is spent there. We bought them snorkel masks and they have both gotten really good at snorkelling in the pool and swimming under water. R especially is not afraid of the water at all.

I had a very scary incident a few days ago at the pool. I was watching all 3 kids on my own while DH went to the loo and R went down a small waterslide with an inflatable ring around his waist and he landed upside down in the water and got stuck under the inflatable ring and he couldn't get to the surface. I was at the side of the pool with J on the ground and I was keeping an eye on R and P at the same time so I immediately saw what had happened to R. In 5 seconds flat I made sure J was safe, I screamed at a woman in the pool to help R (she had her back to him so didn't see what had happened) and I jumped into the pool with my shorts and t-shirt on and my mobile phone in my hand and rescued R from almost drowning Once I got him to the side and made sure he was ok I burst into tears from the shock of it. Needless to say R was immediately banned from using the inflatable ring. He was absolutely fine once he had finished coughing up water...he just got a fright. During the incident my phone sunk to the bottom of the pool and a woman got it out for me. I thought it was a goner but by some miracle when I dried it out in the sun it was working perfectly 

We have been to Gardaland amusement park twice since we got here. To he honest none of us really enjoyed it. It's too hot for it with the heatwave at the moment and we all agreed we much preferred the shows and amusements at Portaventura last year.

Another highlight of the trip was when I brought P to a pizza making class the other day and she learned how to make a mozzarella pizza which she got to bring home to eat. I'm bringing R to do the same class today P and R love the mini disco that is on every evening and the show that is on after it. P is brilliant at copying the dancers on stage. I am amazed at how good she is at doing the Macarena 

J is getting on well even though the heat has him zonked. He is really enjoying people watching and eating pasta. He also loves the swimming pool 

[Shamrock.]

Tuesday 30th July 2019

P is 6 Yrs 4.5 Mths Old
R is 5 Yrs 4 Mths Old
J is 1 Year 2 Weeks Old

When I last posted we were on holidays in Italy……The rest of our holiday went well. We had a lovely time at the villa in the mountains. It was an air bnb place with a home restaurant where we were served delicious home cooked food on our veranda. It felt like we were living like the other half with our own personal chef and waiter!

Since we got home from holidays:

- J has come on in leaps and bounds in his development. He is now comando crawling everywhere very quickly, he can move easily from sitting to crawling back to sitting again and he can pull himself up standing at furniture. He is not moving around the furniture yet  He is into everything and spends his days playing and exploring. He doesn't watch tv at all coz he is too busy to sit still. It is almost impossible to change his nappy because he keeps flipping over  For the last two months or more he will only eat if he can feed himself. Now if i want to try to spoon feed him something I have to use 3 spoons. Two for him to hold in both of his hands and one for me to try to sneak food into his mouth while he thinks he is spoon feeding himself  He is very strong and if he is holding something he wants there is no way you will be able wrestle it off him  He eats almost everything put in front of him and he especially loves blueberries...they are like an elicit drug for him that he can't get enough of 

- P and R started private one to one swimming lessons last week ...well technically one to two lessons because the instructor is teaching both of them at the same time. R has no fear of the water at all and will happily stick his face/whole head in while P was a lot more cautious at the beginning but by the end of the first lesson she was putting her face in while holding a float and kicking her legs.

- Yesterday P completed day one of a three day ‘learn to cycle’ camp where she is learning how to cycle her bicycle without stabilizers. The camp is just for 1 Hour 15 mins per day and then I am helping her at home to practice what she has learned. She did brilliantly on day one and has already mastered balancing on her own while pedaling with someone holding the back of her top

- P and R are enjoying the summer holidays off school. I am still only working 2 days per week (Going to 4 days per week in Sept). On my days off we have picnics in the park and plenty of playdates and every weekend we have a family day out when the 5 of us go somewhere. Last weekend we went to an adventure park with huge waterslides. R of course had no fear and went down them all countless times. P was as usual more cautious in the beginning but by the end of the day she did brave one of the slides on a raft with R  Next weekend we are going to a scarecrow festival that we go to every year 

Update At the learn to cycle camp today (Day 2) P has started cycling without stabilizers and without anyone holding her at all    I brought her out on her bike again this evening to practice and she is flying it. She is balancing perfectly and is even able to take off by herself and turn around in a circle without stopping  I’m very proud of her 

[Shamrock.]

Saturday 24th August 2019

P is 6 Yrs 5.5 Mths Old
R will be 5 Yrs 5 Mths Old in 3 days time
J is 13 Mths, 1 Wk Old

I think I'm hitting peri-menopause    I haven't had my AF since the beginning of July so this cycle is 8 weeks long so far. My cycle before this one was about 6 weeks long so my AFs are becoming irregular. I'm 47 years old now so I suppose it's inevitable. I don't like it - I feel hormonal, moody and bloated 

My diet and exercise regime has gone to pot since we went on holidays at the end of June. I've made a few half-hearted feeble attempts to get back on track but I haven't been able to get myself into the right frame of mind for it. I think it's because my usual routine is gone out the window since P and R are on school holidays. I can't get out walking with J in the buggy during the day anymore and I can't get to my WW class because I have the 3 of them with me all day on my days off work. Hopefully I will get back on track when P & R go back to school next week because I don't like how I’m feeling so flabby and unfit again

J is developing great since I last posted ...he is now moving all around the furniture when he stands up at it and he is going from one piece of furniture to the other just holding on with one hand. He has let go and stood by himself for a second or two a couple of times and he sometimes puts his bum up in the air and tries to stand up from sitting down  It probably won’t be long before he takes his first steps but there is absolutely no rush on him...He’s my last baby so I don’t want him growing up too fast on me He now calls me “Mammy” instead of “Mama” but he still calls DH “DaDa”  . He can also say "Hi ya"  He is always handing me things these days...everything he picks up he wants to give me and he loves putting things in and out of containers. I took some of Ps old toys down from the attic for him to play with and his favorites are the piggy bank with plastic coins and the cookie jar with shapes. I also took down Ps old push along walker which he loves to stand behind and push. Everything is pink because they originally belonged to P but J doesn’t mind. R used them too when he was Js age. I love that all 3 of my children are getting use out of the same toys  J now has 3 new teeth! In the last week he has gotten his two back molars on the bottom and one on the top. He got the last of his vaccinations during the week. He got his 13 month ones. Thankfully he doesn’t have to get any more now until he goes to primary school.

For the last few months I have been giving away all the boy baby stuff J has outgrown and lately I have also been giving away the girl baby stuff I had stored in the attic. Only this morning I gave away a bag of newborn girl clothes to one of our neighbors. I do feel a fleeting pang of sadness every time I give something away and think I will never have a small baby again but I’m happy to be finally clearing out the house a bit and I know that 3 children is my limit. I wouldn’t be able to stretch myself any further and give them all the attention they deserve. I’m stretched to the limit physically and emotionally as it is with the 3 we have 

(Update: My AF arrived the day after I posted this entry  )