How many bloody birds live in the trees opposite our house?

Things are a little testing. I am battling a cold that makes me feel like I have been run over by a lorry and Zack has decided to wake up in the middle of the night, no sorry, at stupid ridiculous o'clock in the morning for two nights on the trot now.


Dan is losing his patience and I am losing the will to keep calm and carry on. It's amazing what interrupted sleep does to you. 


The first night Zack decided it would be great if we could all get up and entertain him. In an effort to save at least one adult's sanity I took him downstairs at 3.15am. Yes. 3.15am.


Do you know what's on the t.v at that time? Luther with a sign language man. And whilst I sat there with a happy Zack wrapped up in his fleecy blanket and hot drink (I had the hot drink he didn't fancy a horlicks) all I could think was, do people who have a hearing impairment never sleep? Surely that isn't very fair putting sign language on programmes at that time. This lead to an in-head debate about the discrimination of hearing impaired people. It was short lived. Zack fell asleep and I managed to get him back in his own bed and me in mine. All the while Dan was happily snoring away. I was then met by the dawn chorus which lead me to think how many bloody birds live in the trees opposite our house? I think I managed to get to sleep by 6.30am.


Night number two was the night of bed swapping. Following the need for a large nappy change and frantic sneezing Dan could not settle Zack. I refused to move out of protest of being so ill. After several attempts at trying to get Zack back to sleep I suggested we put him in our bed and I'll sleep in Zack's cot. What a stupid idea that was. I felt like a giant person, crunched up with a teeny tiny blanket for warmth. Too top it off, the cat got in so I had even less room. Meanwhile Zack would only relax with the light on so he could see what was going on. As soon as you turned it off he started punching Dan in the back. We even tried three of us in the bed but that was just awful. By 2.30am, pissed off mummy put one small child back in his own bed, snuggled him in, switched his music on and shut the door. The end. He went to sleep. I went to sleep and Dan was already asleep.


I am hoping tonight will give me back my good eight hours that I am used to. I do like my sleep.

Zack has purchased his first pair of shades

I'm back. God I missed him. I couldn't look at his photo for two days, but in having said that, by the third day I could have quite easily remained for a week.


Zack and I had an emotional reunion. That is I hugged him for a good ten minutes complete with tears and he had the hiccups. Not sure if he knew it was me but he did lift his head up to have a good look at me. 


It seems he had a rather good time with his dad so much so that he has reserved his smiling quota for just his dad. Oh yes. When daddy is home it's all oooooh I love you daddy, as for you mummy, you left me for three days you tramp so now you are going to be punished for at least a week.


Summer time has hit us and Zack has purchased his first pair of shades........oh does he rock them. See below.

In an effort to enjoy the summer weather here in Blighty I made Zack a den complete with mosquito net, toy selection and comfortable bathing area. The cat also quite liked it too. 

It was such a shock going away and leaving him but I am so glad I did it. It was as though someone had plucked me from my little Linzi and Zack world and tossed me back into a lifestyle I was living in my twenties. Talking of which, why are these twenty somethings high fiving all the time, I had to do it a lot in Spain and I now find myself making Zack do it. Is high five and a whoop the new way of celebrating achievement?  It took me a day or two to get back into our routine but nothing is as fabulous as spending time with my little man, even if he does at the moment prefer his dad. I'll soon fix that minor problem.

So, this is my first post into the Boy With Five Names.....no pressure!!

I'm reporting on the events of the long weekend that Zack spent with his Dad, whilst his mum was away sunning herself on a Hen Party in Magaluf...the details of which are still emerging.

I think the most important thing to say is that Zack was an extremely good boy and a pleasure to spend 4 days solid with. The second thing I feel compelled to say is how every second of your day gets filled when you've got the pants.

I wanted to make absolutely certain that I made our time alone as stimulating s possible and I think he really enjoyed it.

We packed mum off at Liverpool Airport on the Saturday and I was left alone with Zack (with only a freezer full of 'man food' to last me until Tuesday evening) .... all was well until bedtime came and I got ready to do his stretching exercises from his baby yoga book. No sign of the book, so we went free radical and made up our own set of exercises - this reminded me of one of the many episodes of Friends (which is repeated on Sky 365 days a year) I have been subjected to. One where one of them ...Ok I know it was Ross, but I'm trying to retain a shred of dignity here.... pretends to be a masseuse and ends up running toy cars up and down some fat bloke's back. It probably wasn't as bad as that, but the youngster found it all extremely amusing.

Sunday - our first full day alone - involved playing in the ball pool, doing his therapy (for which he fell fast asleep and let me watch Hurt Locker) and going for a nice long walk and carrying out and impromptu meet and greet with the Bank Street members of his Fan Club.

Sunday was also the day when the dreaded volcanic ash cloud returned to UK airspace and put us in serious danger of having our time together extended for an indefinite period. I did get worried for a bit, because I only had enough episodes of Something Special to keep us entertained for a couple more days....we are big fans of Mr Tumble...particularly his cousin, Cool Tumbles.

For being such a good boy all day, I let Zack stay up and watch the Mountain Bike World Cup on Eurosport, which he really enjoyed and he was delighted for Gee Atherton getting 2nd place in the Men's Downhill and Rachael Athertons First place in the women's race. He was a bit disappointed in Dan Atherton's quarter final departure in the 4x...after which there were tears and it was time for bed.

Monday involved a trip to his Nan and Granddad Price's. Zack has been an excellently behaved little boy in his car seat too of late, which is really encouraging. I've also managed to get him to spend longer in his sunbeam seat. Small steps, but I wanted to be able to tell Linzi that we had made some more progress.

Tuesday came all to soon and by the time we'd done our daily routine it was time to pick mum up. I have been really proud of Zack, he's been a delight to be with and I've grown even closer to him. I've noticed him doing things he's not done for me before, like having a go at standing up - - albeit with a lot of support at the moment, but he likes the idea of having a go.

I am leaving Zack next weekend.

Been a little busy of late and haven't had much time to blog. So here's an update.




Reflux


Zack has been given a medicine called Domperidone to help stop his reflux problems. This has helped a little and we are now at a stage whereby we can go out for a few hours and not have him vomit two hours after his last meal. 


The doctor has also sent us a prescription for another medicine to go alongside this one which will help to combat any additional acid that his stomach is producing.


All in all, we should hopefully see a difference. 


Moodiness


Zack has started to become  a little moody of late. Don't know the reason for it, could be his teeth, could be his tummy, could be behavioural or it could be that Over the Rainbow is nearing the end. One thing is for sure, he can be comforted quite quickly so I tend to think it might be him moving towards the old, look I've learnt how to get what I want and if I don't I'll have a strop child. We are trying to leave him to moan for a bit rather than trying to appease him all the time, this is easier said than done.


Speech therapist


We had a good session with the SALT the other week. We have agreed that Zack needs to go for a videofluoroscopy so that we can see what is he is doing when he swallows liquid or food. It is really to rule out the suggestion that he may be aspirating liquid into his lungs when he swallows. If he isn't, then we are going to push him harder with the food eating. I told the SALT about his chewing and sucking which are all good signs and I asked her about the process of weaning a child off the PEG. If all goes well with the videofluoroscopy then we can move forward and try and cut some of his food down so he gets hungry enough to want to eat. If all does not go well, then we remain where we are for a while longer and carry on doing everything slowly.


Guest Editor


I am leaving Zack next weekend. I am trying not to think about it but I have agreed to go on a Hen do abroad for, gulp, three nights. I haven't left Zack since he was born and the thought of it fills me with both dread and to be honest, excitement at the chance of three days in the sun. I have asked Dan to update his blog in my absence. This should be fun. I must also tell him not to be more amusing than me, (when I know that he is much funnier). So, yes, I am leaving my baby with the baby daddy. I hope I don't come home to find them both in their underpants watching cartoons amidst an array of empty take-away cartons.