Bethany Update - Month 19

We go from walking to now running, we go from cheeky to mischief, forget turning my back to do anything while she's awake ever again!

This month was discovering the new freedom she had with being mobile. Trying to keep her in her pushchair is now proving a huge challenge, so I have dug out the reins we got given for Christmas. Her first trip with them was along our local road after some rain. She has never seen puddles before and was soon jumping up and down in the muddy puddles and covering herself. She was soon covered in mud and water but had the biggest grin on her face.

Beth has (at the last count) 4 molars breaking through with two more of her front teeth starting to show. One minute she'll be fine and the next crying in pain, her appetite also goes up and down. We have temporarily give some extra milk if she hasn't eaten much as well as some softer foods so it doesn't cause her too much distress. I also am bulking buying teething powder!

Her babbling is becoming less babble and is now starting to mimic when I talk, which is really exciting. There are words trying to emerge and is proving to be a bit of a chatter box, nattering away to random people. I love the way people just talk to her back!



Lunch with Doggie

As you can see there is a lot of boxes in the background in a few pictures. We have brought a house and just weeks away from completion. We are off to South Yorkshire!

Bethany's Ezcema Dianosis

A few months ago, Beth wouldn't settle to sleep, she was quietly crying for attention. In the end we gave her a cuddle, a clean nappy and she fell asleep soon after. It wasn't until the next morning as I did her morning change that I noticed something very seriously wrong. She had been awake scratching her bum red raw which had bled.

I used some protective cream as it had healed over and kept an eye on it every change. Then a few nights later I woke at 3am to the sound of rustling and scratching, I grab her straight out of bed to find that she had scratched all the scabs off for it to start bleeding again.

We departed for the doctors the next day, who had given us an instant appointment after a triage phone call. The doctor took one look and instantly said that it was infected, not only that that she had been scratching in other places and that the main cause was eczema.

I was so upset, how did not notice this? I felt such a bad mother that my poor little girl had been suffering and I did not know. It has been inherited from both Hubby and I as we are both hay fever suffers (I then found out it is in our families too), and I felt even worse. The heat wave has added to her misery.

We finished a week long course of steroid and antibiotic creams to heal her as well as 3 times a day of cream (Cetraban) to keep her skin from any more break outs. We've been told for now that we have to cut out all soaps like bubble baths (which she loves) and using any to wash her skin (I do use a tiny amount of hair shampoo as she likes to rub food etc. in there!).

I am a Star

A few months I wrote that I was nominated for an award for the volunteer work I do with the NCT, well I found out Sunday that I won! (Inserts cheesy photo with certificate).

"Helen is doing great work in promoting the branch locally. She deals with all parents’ membership enquiries and also manages the branch’s social media presence. She makes sure everything on Facebook is up to date and regularly posts relevant articles and starts general discussion threads aimed at engaging parents. She has also set up and run live Twitter chats and we have many more followers and Facebook visitors. Helen also volunteers at Nearly New Sales and has made a huge contribution to making the branch reach more parents."

It was and still is a huge shock, to me I don't do a lot and anybody else would do the same. I just want to be a support to parents and makes friends myself. This now means I go into the national nominations announced on 20th October at House of Lords. I had enough problems worrying about my outfit for an regional training session, this goes out of the stratosphere!

A huge thank you to Katie, Jodie, and Tessa (with Jenni, Henry and Charlie) who came along too and made our district the noisiest ones there! All 4 other nominations for the team got High Commended in their categories and this was us receiving the one for Helen D, our hard working branch coordinator. Such a wonderful day and a great reminder of the hard work that everyone puts in for the charity.

Bethany Update - Month 18

I spent many months wondering when Beth was going to walk and leave crawling behind, I'm glad to say we are finally there. A week after my last update she started to gain her confidence walking and over the next few weeks her crawling got less to nothing. There is a another side to this as one day chasing her I slammed into out chair and fractured my little toe chasing her to stop before SHE hurt herself. This now is added to the fractured nose I got over Christmas last year when she hit me with the TV remote.

I had her weighed recently and she is still a petite 16lbs 5ozs (she still can wear some of her 6 - 9 month clothing!) but I think that may change as she of seemed of got her appetite back. She will eat her food and then hand over the plate seemingly asking for more (or sniff round anyone else's food). Peas are still the favourites but don't mix them with anything else or she'll know and dribble it out.

Beth loves being outdoors now she can explore, pointing to things, feeling them and seeing what they do. It's a wonderful but tiring development, especially if she's going for a walk round. It's a still a wonderful thing to see, dogs are her favourites or "daw" as she calls them. We went for a tea once in a cafe and I was wondering why she was going nuts and pointing outside. There was 5 dogs having a rest and she wanted to met them all, give them a stroke.

Much to my joy she also seems to of taken a liking to anything on four wheels. put out a trike and she's in heaven. Of course she's starting to get the hang of real cars, at this rate she'll be driving before me....