Rant of the week

One of the joys of parenting more than 1 child (I'm assuming that this doesn't only apply to children of the same age) is that just as you get over a hurdle for one, the other presents itself often with the same problems only much magnified.

T finally managed to get on top of his constipation last week and despite a small number of attention getting sessions (he has quickly learnt that crying in a particular way brings the adults running) he has obviously softened stools. Unfortunately as his has improved, N's ongoing problems with constipation have worsened to the point that we nearly took him A&E. His temp shot up, he became listless and sweaty and despite valiant attempts to pass a stool spent the whole day doubled up in pain. Fortunately through some hard core perseverance on his part and much tearful support on ours, he finally pushed out at least enough to stop the cramping - for now anyway.

The rant however is more to do with the way that this kind of problem is brushed off by the medical fraternity. I know that even if I had taken him to A&E today or if I take him to the doctors tomorrow, the standard response will be that this is normal for toddlers and so there is very little that they will do to help. I guess in their eyes it would be perseeved as normal but I am sure that there are many parents out there who have to coach their children through similar 'normal' episodes on a daily basis who would disagree. There is nothing normal about the daily onslaught of pain and discomfort. It may be a common problem, it may be something that is expected and thus deemed normal but to my mind it is anything but.

This general attitude towards normalities like these means that little or no attempts are made to find solutions and parents are left fending for themselves, trying to discover which of the millions of 'remedies' suggested by Dr Google and every single person you speak to, actually work.

I know that we should consider ourselves lucky, that there are so many children and parents out their struggling to cope with much bigger and more complex problems. In all honesty I have no idea how they do it because it breaks my heart to see my boys in pain when there is absolutely nothing I an do to stop it as I'm sure it must theirs. I guess we as parents have to carry that burden until they're old enough to carry it themselves (although I suspect that never happens because parents never see their children as grown up anyway ;-))

Despite my little rant, I would be very interested to hear if any of you have suggestions about overcoming constipation of this kind - I have a few ideas and if they work I will share them.

Love
A

p.s. Hello!! New readers, you're all very welcome, please leave a comment so that I know who you are :-)

Going all techie and stuff

So, another cool thing that Baby A'more taught me today was to go here and make myself more visible. Not sure if that's a good thing but hell, its Christmas - a time for taking risks... um or is that what New Year is for? I dunno, but anyway part of the deal is that in return for these lovely people making me popular with their many, many friends, I would post a wee little mention of them in the hope that I may have some influence over the 3 of you which frequent these parts.

So here's my post, if you know what rss feeds are then you probably know who they are already and you're bored silly and frantically looking for the 'next random blog' button right now as boredom overcomes you. If you have no idea what I am talking about then may I suggest that you mosey on over to rsshugger where you can get yourself some techie loving?

A

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about parenting twins 1. It will make you envious of parents to single babies 2. It will make others think they should give you unsolicited advice 3. It will drain your savings and eat into your finances 4. It will challenge your sanity and test your resilience 5. It will make you impatient and irritable during teething season 6. It will make you appreciate the finer things in life, like sleep and privacy whilst peeing 7. It will take over your life and make you long for time off BUT 8. It will make so you proud of all the things you can achieve 9. It will also show that you have a much larger capacity for love than you ever imagined. 10. It will prove that material things really aren't that important 11. It will teach you about creativity and imagination 12. It will teach you tolerance for others and strengthen the bond you have with your partner But most importantly.... 13. It will be the single most incredible, amazing, wonderful and overwhelming journey you're ever going to take and I HIGHLY recommend it....

Thanks to Trish for linking to me (one day I will fix my blogroll and add you sweetheart - right now I am faaar too lazy!) and please join in the fun and leave a comment when you have!!

**** Editted to add that I have done it.... you're linked ---> See? :-)

Only 10 days to go!!!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

548 days, 12 hours, 0 minutes and 34 seconds

That's the amount of time that has passed since our lives changed forever. 1 year, 6 months and 12 hours ago Thomas entered the world and 5 minutes later Nathan followed suit. At the time I remember feeling overwhelmed by the lack of emotion. I was scared, worried, tired and sore but more than anything I was astonished to find that I had felt closer to my babies when they were inside me than I did once they were out.

18 months later and things couldn't have changed more. Now when I look at them I am overcome with love and pride and I truly wouldn't exchange the sleepless nights, dirty nappies, constipation or endless washing and housework for anything else.

There is no adequate description for the depth of emotion. I have no prose or turn of phrase to describe the absolute joy that they bring to my life at least none that truly does it any justice.

There are moments of desperation and I am thankful that these moments still occur if only to allow me to gain some perspective because this mommyness is heady stuff, easily addictive and altogether moreish.

Happy 1.5 birthday my babies, we've made it this far so we must be doing something right.

Love
Mama