Aidan’s 1st Birthday Adventure

It was Aidan’s 1st birthday on the 17th and we all had a bit of an adventure.

It all started last Wednesday when Aidan rolled off the changing table in his room and broke his collar-bone. Here he is after he got back from the emergency room.

On Thursday morning, he woke with a 38.1C (100.5F) fever. That’s low, so we just gave him some Paracetamol and he seemed ok with it. We were alternating Ibuprofen and Paracetamol anyway, to help with the pain of the collar-bone, so we didn’t worry too much about it.

Here he is on Thursday.

Friday morning he woke with a slightly higher fever of 39.1C (102.3F)so Chris decided to make an appointment with our GP just to make sure everything was OK. I thought the fever might be related to the break, but it wasn’t. The GP looked him over and didn’t really find anything major other than his left ear was a bit red – not infected, just red. She prescribed some antibiotics for him just to be sure and thought that should do it.

So Saturday rolls around and Aidan wakes up very hot with a 40.1C (104.7F) fever. We were beginning to worry but thought we would see if the medicine would bring it down. We also gave him a cool bath which he didn’t like at all. It worked, however, and he was back to almost normal temperature in about 30 minutes.

Through all this he never really seemed overly clingy or upset. He just got on with it.

Anyway, everyone came around for his birthday party around 2pm. Chris’s parents, Catherine, Frank (and his g/f Catherine), Elizabeth, Sally and Christine were all there.

I took a load of video that I’ll try to post later, but suffice it to say that everyone had a good time and Aidan was a star. The fever stayed down and he was really happy all afternoon.

We put him to bed at the normal time, but we weren’t able to get him to take the antibiotics. He really hates them and refused to take any. We didn’t give him any of the other meds because it was too close to the last dose. We knew that meant he would wake up later in the evening (probably with a fever) because he was in pain, so we were ready for that.

We weren’t ready for him to wake up with a 41.1C (105.9F) fever!

He was very unhappy when he woke and wouldn’t stop crying. First off we tried to get him to take some Paracetamol to help with the fever, but he just gagged on it and vomited instantly. Hmm, not good. So we tried to get some drink in him but he wasn’t having any of that either.

Chris got on the phone with NHS direct immediately, while I ran another cool bath and got him in. This didn’t really help a lot, and NHS said to take him to A&E immediately. This was at 11:15pm.

We went to A&E and they saw him instantly. One good thing about the NHS is that babies are a top priority so we went to the top of the list straight away.

A nurse did a quick exam and sent us back the the pediatric ward for a Dr. to take a look. We waited for a while but someone came around eventually and gave him the most thorough exam he’s had yet from any NHS doctor. (This made me a bit more comfortable, I have to admit.)

In the end, they took urine and blood samples, a throat culture and maybe a few other things and decided he should be admitted. Here’s some of the blood that leaked when they were stabbing him.

At 2:45am.

Mum trying to kiss it better. His fever was coming down a bit by now, but you can still see how red his cheeks are.

It was now 4:30am Sunday morning.

Chris and I had been up since around 5:30am Saturday so we were working on 24 hours awake and it was starting to show.

Once we got in the room and got settled, I sent Chris home to get some sleep and I stayed with Aidan. This was the first time Aidan and I really got any decent rest and it was well needed by both of us.

Sunday Aidan felt better, but still wasn’t himself. He didn’t really want to crawl around or do too much and was pretty clingy. To be expected, I’d say.

I went home and took a nap in the morning once Chris came back, but nothing really happened of note.

Chris stayed with Aidan Sunday night and I went home to get some sleep. Aidan had been getting a bit better through the day, so we hoped that he would be able to go home on Monday, but nothing was for sure.

When he woke up on Monday morning, Aidan was much better. The light was back in his eyes and (most importantly) he was hungry. Chris gave him some Frosted Flakes for breakfast and he wolfed them down.

All this time, Aidan had been quarantined in his room since they weren’t exactly sure what he had.

He was going crazy in the room now. All he wanted to do was walk around and get out the door. We asked the nurse if he could go walking around a bit since he hadn’t had a fever all day on Sunday, and she said it was OK. WOOHOO! He was SO happy to get out and go walking.

There’s a playroom on the ward so we headed there first. Here’s me in a goofy hat.

He had a blast. He was really, really happy and playing like normal. In fact, he was even starting to use his arm again like it wasn’t even injured. That was good and bad – good in the fact that it was obviously healing and bad in the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be using it yet.

We had a few walking trips around the ward and a few more sessions in the playroom, and he seemed perfectly fine.

Finally the Dr. came around and checked him over and gave us the all-clear to go home!

We have to continue the antibiotics for another 7 days, but he’s out and as well as can be expected.

Clapping!

Aidan decided to start clapping today! He’s done it once before when I was holding him, but hasn’t done it since until today.

More walking

So Aidan is getting better and better at taking steps on his own now. He will even let go of furniture and take off for a few steps now and then. It’s all downhill from here.

Spring!

I’m feeling good lately. The weather is changing and it’s getting nicer!

First Steps!

Aidan took 4 unassisted steps yesterday!!!

He hasn’t got the confidence to let go and walk on his own yet, but he’s got the balance now for sure. Chris tricked him into thinking he had her finger when he was really holding onto his toy instead.

Very sly, mummy…

Anyway, we are going to work with him this weekend and see if we can get him to let go on his own. We’ll try to video the process as well, although I’m sure due to Sod’s Law we won’t get his actual first steps on film.

Easter Weekend

Well, it was certainly an interesting weekend from a weather perspective. Waking to find almost an inch of snow on Easter Sunday certainly wasn’t expected, nor was sleet, freezing rain and snow for most of the rest of the weekend.

Thursday

The holiday weekend didn’t start off well beginning on Thursday afternoon. I was on my way home from Tunbridge Wells when I found the M25 was completely closed due to a major accident where a semi-truck had overturned onto a VW Polo.

The accident caused the motorway to be closed for at least 2.5 hours  and I was stuck sitting in the freezing rain for about 90 minutes of that before they started letting a single-file trickle of cars through. It’s times like this that I’m really glad to be on the bike. I was able to get to the front of the queue so when they let people through I was able to go immediately.

Friday

Friday was pretty uneventful. I spend most of the morning puttering around working on my bikes.

I was able to get the TM all back together and pretty much ready to go race now except for the clutch. I also managed to break the fuel tap that controls the flow of gas from the tank to the engine by dropping the tank awkwardly, so another £10 down the drain. (After buying it, I found out that “TM” really stands for “Time & Money”)

Here it is with everything back together.

I didn’t do too much with my road bike other than put the baffles back in the exhaust. It’s now back to being a bit quieter and easier to ride.

Saturday

Even though the weather forecast was ominous, Chris and I decided to go to an enduro race around mid-day. The trip there was easy and the venue wasn’t hard to find. The road to get to the ‘parc ferme’ was entertaining to say the least. (I later found out that the reason the road is in such bad repair is that repairs are not allowed since it is an ancient Roman road and thus protected.)

Once we got there and got settled, we tried to put Aidan in his backpack and walk around a bit so I could take some pictures, but he wasn’t having any of it. It was freezing cold and he was NOT happy about being out in the wind. He doesn’t like strong winds on the best of days so it wasn’t any real surprise that he was pissed off.

We took him back to the car after about 15 minutes and Chris ended up staying there with him for the next hour while I wandered around taking pictures.

Here are a couple.

After we got home and had a chance to thaw out a bit, we decided to go to Aylesbury to see Chris’s  parents. Originally we were going to wait and go up on Sunday morning and just stay the day, but in hind-sight I’m glad we didn’t.

Easter Sunday

Sunday was a nice day in at Chris’s parents’ house. Aidan slept in until almost 9am – which never happens. When we finally woke up, there was almost an inch of snow on the ground! (I’ll post a picture later.)

Some of her family came over for Easter lunch and it ended up being quite a nice day. We left late in the afternoon, but all the snow had melted by then.

Monday

The weather didn’t get any better on Monday and we stayed in the house as long as we could before going out to meet some friends at the White Horse Pub in Richmond.

Cold Fingers

Right, there’s a bit of back story that I should explain before getting to the point of this post.

When I started riding last August, I didn’t have any proper motorcycle gloves. One of the guys at work (who rides) had an old pair of leather gloves he let me borrow until I got my own pair. Since it was in the summer and still warm I didn’t think too much about it and just kept wearing his since he wasn’t in any hurry to get them back.

As it started getting cooler, I switched to my Windstopper gloves. I know they don’t offer any real crash protection, but they are warm and comfortable so I wore them. Again, telling myself that when it got ‘really cold’ I’d get some proper gloves.

Well, it got even colder and instead of getting new motorcycle gloves, I went and bought some thin wool inner gloves to wear under the Windstoppers.

This was perfectly fine when commuting back and forth from Richmond to London. I never got above 50mph and the wind wasn’t really a problem – until I started riding to Tunbridge Wells (TW).

The ride to TW is much longer and at motorway speeds. Combine this with 1-6C temperatures and it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see that even the Windstopper gloves have a hard time keeping my fingers warm.

I’ve looked into some ‘winter’ gloves, but everything I’ve tried is too bulky. I was almost sold on a pair of Gerbing gloves, but since it is almost the end of the cold season, I thought I would hold off until next winter.

So in the man time, I’ve soldiered on with the old gloves.

I bought myself some Racer Sting ’summer’ gloves the other day that I’ve been wearing on my commute back and forth to London, but I hadn’t tried them on the longer ride until today. I thought I’d try it as an experiment since my hands haven’t really been too cold with just the gloves and no liners so far. Maybe I’m just getting used to it, but they seem a lot warmer than they should be for summer gloves, but hey, I’m not arguing.

Anyway, they did about as well as I expected. My hands were freezing about half-way into the trip. However, I noticed something a bit weird today. My right hand, and particularly my right index finger, was much colder than my left. So much so that I was finding it quite distracting.

The only theory I have is that maybe there was a slight cross-wind coming from my right side so my right hand was getting more wind, but I didn’t notice it if there was. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens on the way home tonight. I brought my Windstopper gloves with me ‘just in case’. If my hands get too cold I might pull over and try to get them on over my summer gloves. That should be interesting… more later.

Clutter

I can’t stand it. The amount of crap we get sent in the post these days is mad. Bills, statements, menus, etc… We’re getting buried under it all!

SO…

We’ve decided to get a scanner and scan everything as it comes in so we don’t have to keep all the paper in the house.

Scan it – Shred it. That’s going to be the new mantra.

It should also give us plenty of packing material /recycling to boot.

Not only are we getting shod of all the random paper, but we are working on getting rid of all the other clutter as well. Loads of unused stuff is going on eBay.

I’ve already sold a couple of cameras, Chris is selling her amp at the moment, and I’m working on getting rid of my old American football kit.

I’d like to get some boxes and pack up a load of old books and shove them in the attic. That would visually clean up a lot and give us more space for new books when we get them.

Aidan’s Big Adventure

Aidan had another big adventure last weekend in going to Skipton to see Chris’s friend Emma and her baby Jasmine (Jazza).

Here’s Aidan at the start of the trip.

He’s very happy to be in his new car seat since it means he can now see out of the car like a ‘big’ boy.

We left around 10:15 in the morning and didn’t make it to Emma’s house until 3:50 in the afternoon. This was mostly due to the fact that there was quite a bit of construction with average 50 mph sections. We were even stuck not moving at all for about 15 minutes at one point. Not what you want when trying to escape on holiday.

The first night was fairly calm. Aidan had trouble getting to sleep in the travel cot even though we brought an extra pad for the bottom of it. Can’t blame him really, I’d probably cry if I had to sleep in it.

On Saturday, we got up and went into town and went to check out Skipton Castle. The website says, “Over 900 years old, Skipton Castle is one of the most complete and best preserved medieval castles in England.” You can read more about it here.

Skipton

We had a good time in Skipton over the weekend and I’ll write a full blog entry about it tonight or tomorrow.

Nothing else to report really.