PH Parents of 2013

Author
Discussion

S10GTA

12,645 posts

166 months

Sunday 12th January 2014
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Theo is 1 year one week now. It's gone so quickly. He is walking now, eating proper food and babbling away. It's all good fun.

S10GTA

12,645 posts

166 months

Sunday 12th January 2014
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Here he is in his birthday suit

MiniMan64

16,863 posts

189 months

Sunday 12th January 2014
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We think Harry's starting to teeth, you could easily drown in the amount of drool he's creating!

harry010

4,423 posts

186 months

Sunday 12th January 2014
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Seb had his first birthday party today, and also took his first steps. There was cake.

Hub

6,413 posts

197 months

Sunday 12th January 2014
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^haha!

Emily is 4 weeks tomorrow. I said a couple of weeks ago that it was easy. Well, it has got harder - she is going through a grizzly phase at the moment, particularly in the evenings of not settling or wanting to sleep! She cries and then only sleeps lightly, waking herself up again and requires another 15 minutes of soothing. She could do with a dummy, but we are resisting that for now!


Irish

3,991 posts

238 months

Sunday 12th January 2014
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Hub said:
^haha!

Emily is 4 weeks tomorrow. I said a couple of weeks ago that it was easy. Well, it has got harder - she is going through a grizzly phase at the moment, particularly in the evenings of not settling or wanting to sleep! She cries and then only sleeps lightly, waking herself up again and requires another 15 minutes of soothing. She could do with a dummy, but we are resisting that for now!

We have twins (5 months). One never had a dummy in his mouth - the other can't sleep without. Inside the first six months - whatever works!

Lois

14,706 posts

251 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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Hub - we had that. It's horrible. I also resisted the dummy, but I did end up co-sleeping for a while and then when she was in her cot she slept better on her tummy (controversial!).

Molly is still a terrible sleeper, but she gradually started settling earlier and earlier, from 2am to midnight to 10pm to now anywhere 8-9ish depending on feeds.

Hub

6,413 posts

197 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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There are two issues - the desire to 'suck' to settle and then not wanting to sleep in the moses basket. But yes, for the latter it is definitely something about sleeping on her back. The startle reflex goes into overdrive, arms flailing around and loads of grunting noises which eventually lead to crying. A little experiment yesterday showed that she sleeps soundly on her front (once settled!), but obviously isn't without worry as everything says don't whatever you do put them on their front!

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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Current wisdom is front sleeping is fine once the they can roll back and forth by themselves but not before (usually around 6 months). Makes sense really.

FWIW mine certainly prefers sleeping on her front but we rode it out until the above criteria was met, it's tough!

Lois

14,706 posts

251 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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We used a breathing monitor (Angelcare) so never had any worries about her on her tum.
Babywearing has also been a life saver when she wont settle.

Obiwonkeyblokey

5,399 posts

239 months

Wednesday 22nd January 2014
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My wife and I went to Bruges for the weekend on the 13th December ( a friday). in the early hours of Sunday morning my wife woke me up, she had gone into premature labour. I called 999 and very quickly an ambulance turned up at the hotel, however with no time left my wife gave birth to our son in the hotel room, 10 weeks premature. thankfully all went well, however our world was torn apart on the 3rd of January when a routine brain scan showed aggressive cysts growing in the white matter of our sons brain. It turns out the premature birth was brought on by an infection in my wifes placenta which was undetected and the little fellas brain was affected.

The doctors say its very early days but its likely to be severe brain damage which will lead to him being severely disabled. As I write this I am still in Belgium as we have been here now for 5 weeks, however this afternoon my wife and new son, Dexter will be flown back to the UK by air ambulance while they continue to monitor his progress in hospital in Bristol.
I'll be travelling back with our other son (4) on the tunnel. He's called it a Top Gear race!

Anyway, its turned our lives upside down in a avery short space of time and we really won't know how the damage will manifest itself until he starts to grow older and develop. At present we are hoping that when the reflex actions of breathing and swallowing stop, that his brain will be able to take over those very basic functions.

Time will tell.

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Wednesday 22nd January 2014
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Very sorry to hear of what must be an incredibly difficult time for you Obi.

I can see the Bristol Royal Childrens Hospital from my office window as I type and know many of the girls that work there as my OH is a nurse. My thoughts are with you.

S10GTA

12,645 posts

166 months

Wednesday 22nd January 2014
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Sorry to hear that Obi. Can we assist in any way towards the costs? I'd be happy to donate as I am sure many others would.

Pferdestarke

7,179 posts

186 months

Wednesday 22nd January 2014
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How terrible for you all. I'm sorry to hear of your news.

At times it feels hard enough coping with a new born in normal circumstances.

Happy to donate if required.

Hoping for some better news for Dexter soon.

Irish

3,991 posts

238 months

Wednesday 22nd January 2014
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OWB - my heart goes out to you on this. I hope it works out as best it can.

Obiwonkeyblokey

5,399 posts

239 months

Wednesday 22nd January 2014
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Thanks all.
Home sweet home after being away for 5 weeks, feels weird to be back. Little Dexter is all tucked up at St Michaels and is settling well. I lost the Top Gear race ( my son and I in the car V my wife and dexter in the air ambulance form Ostend to Bristol) by ten minutes due to a KFC stop!

Good to be home, lets see what the future holds and thanks for the kind offers, but all's well.

If anyone here has first hand personal experience of brain injuries in babies, then I may turn to you for guidance at some point in the future.

Ill keep you updated on progress. thanks,

BlackVanDyke

9,932 posts

210 months

Thursday 23rd January 2014
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I'm just in the process of adopting a baby girl who had a catastrophic brain injury at birth - I've got a fair bit of experience with disabled kids generally, including with brain injuries/cerebral palsy but obviously not (yet) with parenting them. So I guess our learning curves might be pretty similar.

I'm glad you've got your little lad back closer to home! Big step back towards enjoying a more typical family life again.

There's at least 1 PHer whose little boy survived a similarly severe injury and is now I think 4 or 5 and doing very nicely, enjoying school etc.

All the very best.

S10GTA

12,645 posts

166 months

Thursday 23rd January 2014
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BlackVanDyke said:
I'm just in the process of adopting a baby girl who had a catastrophic brain injury at birth - I've got a fair bit of experience with disabled kids generally, including with brain injuries/cerebral palsy but obviously not (yet) with parenting them. So I guess our learning curves might be pretty similar.
beer


Obiwonkeyblokey

5,399 posts

239 months

Friday 24th January 2014
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BlackVanDyke said:
I'm just in the process of adopting a baby girl who had a catastrophic brain injury at birth - I've got a fair bit of experience with disabled kids generally, including with brain injuries/cerebral palsy but obviously not (yet) with parenting them. So I guess our learning curves might be pretty similar.

I'm glad you've got your little lad back closer to home! Big step back towards enjoying a more typical family life again.

There's at least 1 PHer whose little boy survived a similarly severe injury and is now I think 4 or 5 and doing very nicely, enjoying school etc.

All the very best.
Thanks very much for your kind words and thoughts and I also wish you well with the adoption process.

BlackVanDyke

9,932 posts

210 months

Saturday 25th January 2014
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S10GTA said:
beer
Cheers!

biggrin

I'm going to meet her on Monday. Can't wait. Feel like the luckiest human on the planet.