Packing, feeding, packing, feeding!

Geez I hope I can find babycakes in amongst the packed boxes ..I might have to wait until he starts crying...tomorrow I think I will tie a string to hs foot, I think that will make finding him a little easier.

We have had a good day, all bathed and ready to go for an access vivit with dad this time...pick up time was 1pm, I stayed upstairs just to make sure I heard the door bell so next thing its 2pm and still no one...I called his caseworker and she got frazzled and said "what day is it?", "its Wednesday" I said..they don't pick him up on wednesday..."hmmm" its access today with Dad, is it not?" ..."oh, I FORGOT to organise it" ..luckily I hadn't put anything off to hang around for them, lucky I was packing up for the move to Whale Beach next week.

So next week we will try again for an acess visit with Dad, Mum has 3 days a week and one of thse days will extended to make time for Dad's visit...I am really looking forward to that day..out from 10am -6pm and no sleep...hmmmm!

I have decided that in future I will send off a stroller with him on visits so that there is no excuse not to put babycakes to sleep and hopefully I will have a rested baby on his return, not an over stimulated squealing sadsack!

Breeanna's nightmare

We left babycakes with our 19yr old daughter Breeanna for the day whilst we attended the annual Sassy Awards & Authors Seminar...baby had been a dream for the last week and settled in his routine.

Babycakes slept in until 7am so I fed him before we left.

Usually I keep him up for one hour and 20 minutes playtime before putting him back down to sleep so he was nearly ready but I left Bree to put him down and evidently as soon as we left he started screaming blue murder, my other daughters description "he screamed like he was being stabbed" and he screamed until 4pm which nearly sent Bree crazy...poor kid! Bree that is.

He has had these squeals for no apparent reason on a few occasions and nothing settles him, I thought that his bottom might be raw but evidently not...I think he realised that I was missing and he has become attached and is going through that period where they become strange ...oddl that it be with Breee as she sees him and cuddles him every day.

We have a few function son this week and my gorgeous neighbour Vicki who is a foster carer with DOC's is going to look after him...ooh, I hope he doesn't do that for her...

His little face lights up when he sees me and he is such a happy and contented baby...who knows what caused his squealing fit.

I somehow don't think Bree will volunteer to take care of him again, it all too much for a 19 yr old.

No Cold, No Nappy Rash and NO Thrush

Finally babycakes is free of all his ailments... hallelujah !

He has had a nice few days not having to suffer with a sore bottom and thrush.

Baby's Mum wrote me a nice letter today thanking me for looking after her son and for the good care I am taking and thanking me for allowing her to be part of his life and she expressed her wish to contribute to his needs whatever they should be, clothing, nappies or toys...so sweet!

I wrote back to her to say I would kiss & cuddle him once more each day for her and that if she supplied me with a photo I would show him each day and tell him who she is. I felt so sad for her, evidently she is very caring and for once the birthmum isn't critiscising me for the way I look after her baby. This is normal behaviour because they aren't capable of the caring they can't bear the fact that a foster carer can so they find something to pick on, be it that the baby has a cut on it, the bootees are tied too tight, its always something unreasonable or stupid. Even more stupid is that when the birthmum mentions the silly critiscism, the social worker agrees and comes back and says "the baby's Mother made mention..." instead they should say "no, I don't agree" and nip it in the bud.

I had an incident one time where a baby I was caring for went off to a visit with its badly drug affected Mother and she noted that the baby had a cut on her arm...on inspection it was a red dot smaller than a freckle...I couldn't believe that the social worker even mentioned but it was documented on my file...I had quite a lot to say about that and I don't think Doc's were happy.

This is the same baby came to my home with a toy that had wire protruding from it...which I had handed back to the worker explaining that it was not safe and I was counselled on the fact that I was sending back a toy that the parents had given the child. It was actually a giveaway from a pharmaceutical company. I ended up saying to DOC's tat the supposed cut on the baby's arm was most likely an injury from playing with the toy...that shut them up.

A cold and thrush

Last night and this morning babycakes had a big squeal from a very sore bottom it was so raw last night that when I put on the cortisone cream he flinched and gasped, poor bubba boy!

Back to the CUP's clinic today (drug clinic) for a weekly check and to see what could be causing a bottom rash so bad when his diet hasn't changed...now we are trying a new formula which is for babies with an allergy to milk protein and the nappy rash is being treated with another ointment which was referred to as "bringing out the big guns" lets see how that goes...he still has a cold and he also has thrush which I think is caused by not so clean dummy's and Mum's dirty fingers entering his mouth when he is on access visits even though I send off 4 sterilized dummies...suffering with all these complications and his little face still lights up and he giggles constantly...he is such a toy and such a delight to have around.

Off to start packing for the big move so I am hoping babycakes stays asleep.

Just a cold

Babycakes awoke with a yukky cold, thank goodness it wasn't croup or the dreaded whoop.

Miserable and out of sorts..thats been our day and poor baby has the sorest bottom, the nappy rash is back, this is baffling to me as he doesn't spend any length of time in wet or soiled nappies.

I will do now what I used to do for Bree when she had excema, cortisone cream (Hydrozole) sparingly applied and then pile on the cetomacrogol cream..such a big word. All that stands for is Sorbolene creme minus the glycerine component...hopefully this will do the trick.

Baby has his weekly visit to the drug clinic tomorrow, I think this will be his last and I will be trusted to go to my GP for any future visits, I don't mind going to the drug clinic as the staff are really caring and sweet but getting to the other side of the harbour is a drag & parking is a nightmare, not sure how I will manage when we move to Palm Beach...maybe Ced will buy a jet!

Today is Father's Day and I looked at the little man this morning and wondered where his Dad might be..and then I thought how sad for his Dad and for him as he probably won't ever have a relationship with him.

I think eventually he will go into long term care which means he will be placed with a family until he is 18 and sometime in the meantime will be adopted by that family which will be a lovely ending...and what's more I get to hand him over...the 'icing on the cake' for me!

Has he got croup??

Poor baby still has a hoarse cry and I am waiting for him to come down with croup or worse still whooping cough...geez, I hope not!

babycakes went off to an access visit with his Mum today and again he came home with more goodies, this time a summer romper that will fit in beautiful mint and aqua, which he looks lovely in. I have a garage full of stuff that arrived with the little man and each access day more arrived. I feel mean but I have asked that no more arrive and if Mum can take what's here back...DOC's probably won't be impressed with my request but hey, do they think I own Kennards??

I have enough junk of my own, I need no more.

Finally the rice cereal which I am adding to his formula is working and his what were runny poops are becoming more like real poop which is great, now maybe his nappy rash may go for good.

babycakes went off on an access visit and was dead tired and then after returning he was an absolute 'rat bag' who wouldn't drink his bottle and threw himself around so I put him to bed at 5pm and had to wake him at 9.30pm, I think he would have slept all night had I have let him...he is exhausted, poor baby!

He fed at 9.30 and was happy to go back to bed at 10.30pm.

Tomorrow I will get him back into his normal routine whereby I only let him stay awake for one and a half hours and he won't get overtired and he will be more settled.

Back on air.

Thank you Telstra...finally after one week of no phone or internet we are back on air.

Babycakes has had a mixed week, he has had a few off days which is quite acceptable as its expected that baby's have one unsettled period during the day and one off day per week...so he is acting very normal.

His off days have been after visits with Mum, not that Mum is causing them its just that babies don't cope with being kept up for hours at a time. access visits are 3 times a week for 2 hours but it takes up four hours with the couriering of baby there and back so we have had long periods of crying on those days until he falls asleep exhausted and my hand is falling off from patting bottoms and rocking prams...I don't make a habit of the rocking as baby needs to learn to settle himself.

I have started adding a few teaspoons of rice cereal to his bottle as I think he could be also suffering from a bit of reflux, he is very gaseous after his bottle still but not as bad as when he arrived and was on normal formula so I will see if this helps over the next few days...if not back to the drawing board.

Nappy rash has come back too, thats baffling, so my other thought is that the added cereal will solidify his poops and lass surface area of his bottom would be affected...again we will see how he goes over the next few days.

I think babycakes could also be coming down with croup as he has a horse throat, no temperature but I am keeping my eye on him, I rang Doc's today to see if by any chance Mum has a throat infection which I was told was possible, that will be a problem if I have to spend any time in hospital or worse still contract it as I have Melinda to care about who cannot come into contact with any sickness whilst she is undergoing chemotherapy.

we have had lots of photo sessions during the week, he was shy with a camera at first but now I think he poses...soooo cue, Ced thinks he looks like Harry Secombe still and I have to agree but he is far more cuter>