Two weeks of the sickies does not make for a happy Mum and Dad

It also makes life a lot more stressful and hectic. Hence the lack of updates here!

Alex had had the usual daycare snotty nose and cough that seems to constantly hang around, but nothing that seemed out of the ordinary.

The 24th of October, was a work holiday for Duncan ... luckily, because Alex was not happy on the Thursday night and didn't seem his usual self on the Friday morning. Duncan decided to keep Alex at home with him. It wasn't too bad, but the weekend got progressively worse. Alex developed a temperature and all he seemed to want was cuddles. Sunday night he screamed inconsolably for a good hour before he fell asleep exhausted. Duncan was relegated to the spare bed and Alex got to sleep with Mum. Needless to say, none of us really slept.

Monday morning the fever had gone but we decided that a trip to the Dr was necessary. Mum stayed home and we were lucky to get an early appointment and saw an intern / arts assistant who listened to the history and decided to check his throat and ears for infections. She thought they looked ok but got the Dr to come and double check ... the verdict? "they're a little bit red but not infected". We were given a prescription for nose drops and recommended panadol. The day went ok, Alex seemed a lot happier and slept better that night, so Tuesday, even though he wasn't quite "normal" we decided he could cope with daycare.

The day seemed to go ok and Alex went to bed happily ... until 10.30pm when he woke and screamed for another two hours. It seemed obvious that he was in pain so we resolved to take him to the Dr again. We called as soon as they opened and got an appointment for 8.50am. Duncan took him this time, and was told that "his ears are no worse than they were on Monday, but seeing as he's been unwell for so long, I'll give you antibiotics". This was somewhat of a relief because the Dutch are notorious for wanting to avoid drugs as much as possible. Duncan and I are all for limiting use of antibiotics, but when your baby is suffering, you just want them better.

Alex seemed happier and the Dr said there was no reason he couldn't go to daycare so off the two of them went ... but as has happened in the past, they were turned away at the door. We still really don't know why.

Anyway ... Alex got better and better and we thought that we were over whatever it was, becuase he was almost sleeping through the night again.

Then ... last Wednesday, after Duncan got Alex out of the bath he noticed that while he seemed warm, he was shivering. Sure enough, he had a fever again so slept with Mum while Dad went to the spare room. He woke up a lot and tossed and turned, but at least he didn't seem to be in any pain this time. Duncan stayed home on Thursday and spent a lot of time cuddling Alex and giving him panadol. His fever peaked during the afternoon and although he was pretty tired and cuddly when Mum got home, he managed to eat some dinner and played for a while before bed. The fever stayed away all night and he got up and had a normal breakfast so went back to daycare on Friday. Saturday was ok ... he would have been perfect if he had only napped properly.

We still don't really know what the causes of either episodes were, but fingers crossed that's the end of the sickies for a while! We've got quite used to our sleep and are not used to having to deal with a sad baby.

Finally ... to really add insult to injury ... Duncan has been fighting a cold for the last week or so. It never rains but it pours!