Resilience and smiles

Dear P,

On Saturday you stuck your tongue out at me. Some may say it was cheeky, but it really made me smile! It was the first time you had ever done it. As I've blogged previously, you were born with a tongue tie and we decided to get it snipped.

You were 11 months old so it was a procedure done under general anaesthetic. You weren't allowed any milk after 5am, so typically you slept through, and I had to wake you at 4.30am to give you some milk. You looked at me like I was mad! But then I couldn't get you back to sleep so we were up early! We were in Preston Hospital at 7.30am, and you smiled at people for a while. By 9am you were hungry and not impressed that we were withholding breakfast.

You went down to surgery just after 10am. I carried you down with Penguin and leaving you in the anaesthetic room was horrible. You were asleep and fine and I knew they would look after you. I also knew you wouldn't be gone for long, but it was still scary leaving you in there and walking out clutching Penguin.

25ish minutes later we were called into recovery. You were crying on the recovery nurse, but I cuddled you and fed you and you were fine. We were wheeled back to the ward and you spent half the journey smiling at the porter!!! After a nap (where we took some very cute photos of you!) you were back to your normal smiley self. You charmed all the nurses and munched your way through toast and lots of other things very soon. No lasting damage at all!

So the tongue poking out was confirmation that they had snipped it for you. Here's hoping you'll never be in hospital again my darling!

Just under a week later you showed your remarkable resilience again. Daddy had has his gall bladder removed a week before your op, and on his first day back at work after a fortnight off, he ended up in agony and took a trip to A&E. I got the call to say he'd been taken in just as I came to pick you and E up from Grandma and Grandpa's house. They kept hold of you two while I raced to the hospital to see him. He wasn't well, so we decided that you would have to sleep at Grandma and Grandpa's that night. I popped back and fed you quickly, but you were happy as ever.

That night you were very brave. First night away from us and you coped admirably. Though I believe you spent a lot of the night sleeping on Grandpa's chest in the lounge!! Good job he retired and didn't have to go to work the following day. I am very proud of you for being so brave. Nothing phases you does it?! (I was awake most of the night worrying about you!)

Well done little P.

You rock!

Love Mummy x

Smiles, crawling and hospitals!

Dear P,

I was thinking recently that you get less letters on here than your sister....I guess she does more than you at the moment. But that doesn't stop you being gorgeous.

You've settled well at nursery and you're coping well with my return to work. You seem to be growing every day and you're much bigger than E was at your age. You're also still looking much like she did which is a source of amusement as we look at baby photos trying to work out which of you it is. There are definite differences though. Grandpa commented the other day about your smile. It lights up the room! E had a gorgeous smile, and it really was very similar to yours, but her eyes were a more intense blue than yours so you noticed them first, where with you it is definitely your smile that lights up your face. Gorgeous, truly gorgeous.

You've also started to cuddle right into us, which is just lovely. You've always been a cuddly baby, but now you initiate cuddles, and snuggle with up close. You also blow kisses, and yesterday you were leaning in to kiss my face. Too cute for words!

You now have two bottom teeth, which were painful for you for a while (and now are only painful for me when you trick me into putting my finger into your and then chomping down hard!). You're not bothering to move much though. You sit very solidly and love sitting playing with a box of toys. You now try to move one leg under you so you look as though you are about to crawl off, but you haven't mastered that yet. If we put you on your hands and knees, you look at us like we're mad and then cry! You love being up on your feet, but don't seem to appreciate that you need a little balance, so you have to hold on tight to our hands. You'll get there in your own time, and for now I'm enjoying being able to put you down and come back to you still in the same place. After all, why move when you have a devoted big sister who will bring you anything you want!

The next couple of weeks are due to be a little hospital related! Daddy has gall stones and is havig his gall bladder removed on Thursday. We'll go and stay at Grandma and Grandpa's but apart from that life should be too different for you. Here's hoping all goes well for him. And then a week after that it's your turn, baby girl. You have a tongue tie, which I noticed as soon as you were born, but division is rarely done in small babies unless it affects feeding. You never suffered from this problem, but it concerns me that it may affect your speech, so we're having it divided. Only a tiny operation, but it does need a general anaesthetic. I'm sorry for putting you through it, but it is with your best interests at heart. So I'll be with you and hopefully Daddy too if he's recovered from his op. Here's just hoping E doesn't decide to compete and need a hospital too!

Big smiley snuggles,

Mummy x