A pox on you

What's been happening around here? Many things... 

So my little Liam is one year old. I have no idea how that happened. His birthday was on Sunday and we had a Sesame Street party with our nearest and dearest planned, but spanners were thrown when he went and caught chickenpox. Yep. I ended up in the emergency room on Friday night with a very sick and dehydrated little boy and a sense of panic, after two sleepless nights and a lot of unhappiness from my baby. Rob had to stay at home with the other two children, who were slumbering on oblivious to all the drama. His sister happened to be in town, having flown in for their grandmother's funeral, and came to the hospital to be with me and take turns holding and rocking our miserable little one. Four hours later we were home again, reassured that we were doing all the right things at home and that the rash that had popped up within an hour wasn't as sinister as I had feared. The emergency room on a Friday night is a strange place. No one wants to be there and no one wants to look at anyone else, but yet you can't help looking and wondering. 

I was very glad to get home and also glad I had gone for peace of mind. Saturday was spent holding Liam in my arms as whenever he is sick he just wants to be held. 

Not many pox on his face- just everywhere else! 

As mentioned above we had a party planned for Sunday but in light of the chickenpox we postponed it and just had close family come over for presents. My wonderful mother organised food and a little cake at the last minute as I was too exhausted to even think about that stuff. He perked up a little but was nowhere near his happy self and wasn't what you could call impressed by his presents. 

       

Even though he had no appetite we offered him a bit of cake to try (baby's first sugar...) but that didn't impress him much either. I was just so grateful to have him breastfeeding again. He is all about breastfeeding normally but didn't want a feed for 24 hours as he felt so unwell, starting from 5am Friday, which along with the rash prompted my dash to emergency that evening. As well as being desperately worried that he wouldn't feed and only wanted a few sips of water, I felt lost not feeding him. It is so special to me and gives me such a sense of joy and peace and fulfilment. When he finally accepted a feed on Saturday morning I cried with relief and knew he would be okay. 

He is on the mend now and we are definitely starting to see our happy boy reemerge. The rash is awful and I feel terrible for him. I feel like I've come through a war (a feeling any parent with a sick child will find familiar!) and am utterly exhausted. It's also been exhausting being back at work, though I have settled in again faster than I thought I would. I am loving finding my feet as a Kinder teacher again though it is hard being away from Liam three days a week. We have also had a lot going on with a death in the family and other family members flying in. 

We have rescheduled Liam's party for a few weeks time and I am hoping it all goes well, particularly my attempt to make a Cookie Monster cake. 

A fairly joyless post unfortunately. My next one should be full of party goodness. A few weeks from now is my 30th birthday (WHAT???!!) and I am very excited about a little trip we will be taking into the true Tasmanian wilderness, so expect a post about that, too...

I leave you with a shot of someone in the house who remains unaffected by all the recent stress and turmoil. Though she did get her claw stuck in the carpet briefly today, which must have been very upsetting.