I haven’t had much of a chance to post this week, things have been a bit hectic.

Daniel started the week a bit off colour and not his usual chirpy self. I put it down to teething but on Wednesday he started vomiting every hour at least and didn’t seem to be able to keep any food down at all.

Rachel did this a lot when she was a baby. She seemed to catch some sort of vomiting bug every month. We were so worried that we brought her to the doctor quite a few times. We have since worked out that she gets like this any time she has the slightest temperature, so it was probably all teething related. It appears that Daniel is going to follow in her footsteps.

Jake on the other hand has decided to use his pee as a weapon against us!

Jake has been dry during the day for 4-5 months with very little accidents. We have been lazily putting off training him at night despite the fact that most mornings his Huggies Pull Up Pants were dry or almost dry.

Well they were up until this week! This week Jake has not only begun to wake up with his nappy soaked right through to his pyjamas, but he is also having accidents at each nap time and has had a few while outside playing with Rachel.

He used to get really upset every time he had an accident, now he thinks it is funny. We decided to take the plunge and put him to bed without the pull ups tonight and he stood at the stair gate and called us repeatedly to take him to the toilet, even though he didn’t need to go. But the little tinker just knew that we wouldn’t take the risk of him wetting himself again.

I think that he is either using his toilet habits as a way of getting attention, or he has just gotten lazy. Maybe both.

Hopefully if we perservere for a few nights (or weeks) we can remedy this. But with all the wet bed clothes, vomit covered blankets, babygros, soiled trousers etc my washing machine has been on continuosly. I thank the lord that I was not a mother 50 years ago with no washing machine and no tumble drier. That would be hell on earth!

Finally!

I hate the winter. As a self diagnosed SAD sufferer, I dread the onset of the dark nights, rainy days and cold cold weather. Lucky I live in Ireland eh?

This week we caught our first glimpse of some sheep nursing the first of the spring lambs, our first daffodils, and our first rays of sunshine for weeks.

I love the spring, because that means that summer is just around the corner. Holidays, day trips, picnics in the back garden, all the things I love.

Hopefully the new season will also wipe out all the horrible runny noses and persistent coughs that have plagued us all winter and will instead bring a happy healthy family.

Here we go again! We heard that chickenpox (also referred to in our house as chickenspots and chickenpops) was going around Ray’s nursery about a month ago. We thought we were safe, Ray and Jay both had it last year. Hooray, no sick kids for us!

Then the spots appeared on Ray’s face, then her body, then inside her eyes, ears and mouth. The more that appeared the more I knew that despite what the doctor had said, this is not what Ray had the year before. I don’t know what that rash was, but it certainly wasn’t chickenpox.

Three sleepless nights later and the spots began to fade, later that week we started to venture out of the house again. then we notice the red spots appearing on Baby D.

Thankfully he got quite mild dose, and didn’t seem to be overly irritated by the illness. He was a bit restless at night and definately woke a lot more, but all in all he stayed his usual happy and placid self. Once again the spots cleared, we began to sleep again.

Wednesday came, Jay undressed himself as soon as he woke up and I noticed the tell tale signs straight away. I hoped he too would get a mild dose, but we have not been so lucky this time round. His spots seem even bigger than those of the other two, the ones on his scalp are the worst. In fact this time I think his may be becoming infected, so its a trip to the doctors for us tomorrow.

Thankfully the chances of any of them getting chickenpox again is very slight. It’s been a tough month with very little sleep. Thank God that the kids get free medication, if we had to pay for all the anti-histamines and painkilling medication that they have taken, our overdraft would be stretched to its limits right now!