22 March 2007
So you can't get it twice eh? Ha! Another one in the eye for 21st century medical science - ds1* came down with dreadful, dreadful chicken pox again this week.
Stupidly, I waited for two days to take him to the doctors as I assumed the nasty rash and fever were a reaction to the MMR booster he'd had a couple of weeks before. Consequently, he buzzed contagiously around one children's party and two days at preschool... guilty doesn't quite sum up how I feel about that, especially as one of the other mums at preschool is about to give birth...
And then there's the baby. With a 20 day incubation period, he could get it anytime in the next couple of weeks. Or not at all. Me and my mum have spent the last few days desperately trying to stop ds1 expressing his brotherly affection for the newborn in the form of slobbery kisses and very touchy cuddles (we gave him a chart to fill in 'XXX's' and hearts when he felt like kissing the baby so he could remember to give them all later), but I've no idea how effective this all is and given our luck, the damage is probably already done. Today's the first day without a fever, so we've shipped him off to his grandparents’ house until those dirty spots calm down. Amazing you can get them in the mouth and ears, too! How very conscientious nature is.
Even if he does come down with the pox in the next couple of weeks, for the moment baby's doing just fine. Getting chubbier, waking every three hours for a feed and behaving pretty well, all in all. I guess second kids must get used to being comparatively neglected; he seems ok just by himself, happy with whatever attention is paid to him, whereas I seem to remember carrying ds1 around a lot in the first few weeks. I've gone through our entire DVD collection whilst breastfeeding, so bless Richard and Judy for being the only bearable telly on in the afternoons. Did I really just say that? But you see what I mean - for all the charm of Supermarket Sweep (how old is Dale Winton, anyway?)... How quickly I've fallen.
Any day now I should start to get my hard earned incapacity benefit through, since the benefits office managed to lose the two, separate MAT B1 forms I sent them... grrrr. Apparently it happens quite a lot when envelopes are processed in their post rooms, so ladies, remember to solder the form to your claim using the strongest glue known to man, or you too could be begging another duplicate from a midwife who (understandably) suspects you of some kind of evil, ACME identity fraud scam. Seriously, it's a full time job just getting one claim processed - how desperate would you have to be to try that hard for another £100 a week?!
Onward and upward, then, off to join the buggy parade and enjoy a bit of this terrific sunshine in the park, hooray!