I need a whinge

I need to have a major whinge. For any of my whinge to make any sense, I probably need to update everyone on some of the dramas we have experienced lately.

On Monday afternoon Baybee was just as normal, swinging from the jolly jumper and having a ball playing with a friends daughter. Around 5pm she started to get a bit grumpy. She wouldn't take a feed and didn't enjoy the bath so the guy who lives at my house decided to put her to bed. She fell asleep on his shoulder before he could get there so we figured she really was tired. At about 2:30am I heard her have a little grizzle so I went into her room and put her dummy back in (I am seriously working on an invention to stop an infant's dummy falling out during the night, some may want to call it sticky tape or even glue but I will be launching the stopthatdummyfallingoutthingy in the near future)

For some reason I went back in a 3am, saw her awake and figured I'd save myself a few hours of hassle and just feed her, she had, after all she had skipped her last feed and if you look at this picture of her you will see that she couldn't possibly afford to skip a meal

Of course, she took it happily. I noticed her derriere was a little under the nose so finished the feed and headed to the family room nappy without waking up Fletch. With the benefit of hindsight, while I undressed her even though she had her eyes wide open, she was limp, cold and grey. At the time I just thought she was very quiet at that time of day. When I undid the nappy I found it was full of blood and I mean really full. I ran and got the guy who lives at my place and we called 000. The ambos (2 sets came) arrived really quickly considering the rain and were as calm as cucumbers. We went to Monash Medical Centre, not the closest hospital but better than the 2 closer ones. (I knew they had a paediatric ICU) and were seen by the paediatrician straight away with 2 specialist nurses and the paediatric surgeon within 10 minutes. They tried everything they could to stabilise her for an hour and a half before they had no option but to go up to surgery. At that point they didn't really know what the problem was because the symptoms didn't quite add up to one particular diagnosis.

We held it together until they told us if we hadn't got her here when we did or if we hadn't decided to change her (which I never normally do during the night) we would have just 'found' her in the morning. We knew what that meant. Something has to be said for a 'mother's intuition.' So they took her off to surgery and we just had to wait. I was prepared for several hours of waiting but it was actually only about 2. They were still the longest 2 hours of my life. I made phone calls to let people know what was happening. I even made a deal with God that if he let her live I would lose the weight I have been promising to. We ate breakfast in a effort to distract ourselves from the time that was passing so slowly. The guy who lives at my place eventually went off to get more coffee when one of the surgeons stuck his head around the corner and said her name. He looked exhausted and made small talk about the fact that he too had a 'Baybee' (not her real name of course) at home but his was a 'he'. Clearly going by this small talk I figured things had gone well but you never really know till they say the actual words, everything went well. It had been something called interceception, where the bowel telescopes back into itself. They had taken half of her large bowel, a bit of her small bowel and her appendix which was tangled up in the mix and say long term they don't expect any problems she, should adjust well thanks to her age.

We felt like we had just won the lottery, we actually had. Considering what she has just been through Baybee is doing amazingly. She didn't complain that she didn't get to eat for nearly 3 days and her only real gripe was when she has fallen asleep and the others in the room have made noises. She started back on a little formula yesterday afternoon, most likely after she heard the surgeon say she could start back on food after a bowel motion. She did one 15 minutes later! And when she still hadn't been fed 5 hours after that she did another just for good measure. After a handful of formula feeds she has now been allowed back on to the real stuff and is tucked snuggly in bed next to me in the hospital. Recovering nicely. What a scare.

That all sounds a but too serious for my blog.

Now as for the whinging bit I mentioned earlier.

This experience and the hospital stay that has come with it has brought to my attention the parenting skills (or lack there of) of the parents around me in this ward. Next to Baybee is a beautiful little boy, 6 months old, not sure what he's in for but I know he is waiting for surgery next week, his parents don't stay here at all over night and when they do come in they, go straight to the Starlight room and play Nintendo Wii. The nurses give him more love and cuddles than they do. Then there is this beautiful little boy adjacent, had his appendix out yesterday with a few complications, very confused and sore. His mum stood on his bed (yes that's what I said) so she could answer the phone on the other side of his bed. What the? Then his dad arrived at his court designated time (after mediation from the doctors) and mum had to leave as they have some sort of court order out on each other! ( the mum started crying and she got me started again) Then a 13 year old girl got wheeled in a couple of hours ago, took one look at the 2 cots in this room and asked if those babies were staying the night as she is a very sensitive sleeper!

I fair dinkum wanted to slap her.

So tell me, how in the hell have these people been able to procreate?

Obviously Darwin's theory was wrong.