bairn blog: a tale of three henleys

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01:00am Tuesday, 6th February 2007

we’re back and sorry for the long wait.

without getting too technical, moving the website to a new host took longer than expected and by the time it was in its new e-bode cole has been too busy to get it back up and running.

what a busy couple of weeks it has been. since last we scribed we have had two visits to the hospital, a visit from half of g’s godparents, been to the cinema, up and hill and bounced some.

after last we wrote poor gethin was striken with a nasty case of the liquid poos. this meant he wasn’t eating particularly well, at which we were rather helpfully advised to starve him. not the best of options for a perpetually ravenous bairn but tried it we did, although all it seemed to achieve was to make an unhappy bairn a hungry unhappy bairn.

on the saturday morning (the 20th) we awoke and gethin was still poorly so we (cole) decided that some eggs might help with his tummy. g-man was not impressed with this novel foodstuff and promptly spat out any that passed his lips. unappetised, the next best thing was to have a morning bounce which was gladly done whilst mum did a spot of hoovering around him and cole supped some coffee. we are not sure what transpired between egg spitting and bouncing but promptly after a boing or two gethin started to swell. and swell. like something out of willy wonka his skin went redder and blotchy and his ears puffed up. this was quiet worrying. we rang nhs 24 who promptly dispatched an ambulance to collect boy in case whatever it was he had reacted to affected his breathing. fortunately it did not and once at hospital (cole in tow whilst peta and gethin got to ride in the ambulance – no sirens alas) his ears slowly returned to their normal size and the blotchiness spread to his exteremities before disappearing. after a check up from a couple of doctors we were referred to the children’s ward where they suspected an allergic reaction to something, possibly the eggs he had skillfully not-quaffed for breakfast. anyhow. because of gethin’s eczema (which is faring particularly well at the moment thanks to the burdock and chickweed concoction that denise had hunted down) the hospital were unable to do a skin test for potential allergies so he would have to return later in the week for a blood test (and return he did with the wee fella on his best behaviour for the blood extraction, although there is now a 6-8 week for the results).

on sunday ryan and shelley popped over for a long overdue catch-up and an epic feast of tadpoles-in-the-hole and apple crumble, with cole and ryan popping over to the pub for the arsenal-manu game before some beverages at the bonsyde house hotel.

after all that excitement the rest of the week was relatively subdued and by the following saturday gethin was back to his normal self and ready to embark on some fun and frolics when our neighbour celebrated a joint-birthday (ben and casper) with some fine fodder, a pinata (filled with addictive, filling-pulling japanese sweets called white rabbits) and…….a bouncy castle. given his fondness for the door-frame bouncer which he frequents, gethin was remarkably non-plussed by this large inflatable thing that adults and children alike (shoes off first though!) can jump up and down on. saying that, cole felt distinctly exhausted after only a few bounces – how can something so youthful make you feel so old?

so to this last week (our week days have been largely uneventful i fear so am just skipping over the weekend bits whilst i have your attention). on thursday cole took the morning off work and headed, with peta and gethin, into edinburgh for some cine-action. we sat there watching stranger the fiction, a fantastic film with will ferrell, dustin hoffman and emma thompson. i remembering the wise words from the dad’s classes all those moons ago about how the cry of a baby subconciously triggers adrenaline to stimulate a reaction from the baby’s parents/carers, a deliberately uncomfortable and distracting sound. yet somehow we (well cole) were able to filter out the surround sound of scores of screaming bairns to focus on the film and its plot. mind you, peta was gethin entertaining for much of the film though between the three of us we managed to get most of a tub of fromage frais everywhere but in gethin’s mouth.

that evening, after spending the rest of the day in town with baby g, peta called cole at work as gethin was not feeling too good and, after a few days with a cold, had upgraded to puking. by the time we got back to linlithgow he was running quite a high temperature peaking at 103/104 degrees farenheit. another call to nhs 24 and we were soon on our way back to the hospital in livingston. we were quickly seen and after a thorough inspection from the doctor it was decided that gethin’s cold had upgraded to some kind of infection, probably a virus but possible a bacterial infection so boy was prescribed some antibiotics (bright yellow) and advised to continue on calpol (bright pink).

after all that excitement g-man slept though most of friday, although we were spared that luxury over the weekend with what transpired to be perhaps the toughest couple of days of parenthood yet! from half seven on saturday morning until half seven on sunday evening – with the hiatus of saturday night in between – gethin was inconsolable. hungry, tired, moaning. in fact, the boy had the worst case of man-flu ever noted. even worse than cole and that is pretty bad indeed! our only respite was an inspired suggestion by peta for a trip out to local tall lump, binny craig, to blow the cob webs away (last seen somewhere over the firth of forth). the tall lump was taller than i remembered and steeper too, making a climb up it with bairn in sling quite tricky for peta. we made it and to celebrate the occasion scoffed some pineapple chunks whilst gethin snacked on a cornish wafer and cream cheese.

well that’s about us up to date. glad to report that gethin now seems much better. the man-flu is subsiding and he hasn’t blown up in reaction to anything – though we await his blood test results. sorry we’ve been away for so long and hope you like the new look.