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The next chapter of my battle against EDS….

For those of you that don’t know, I have been suffering from Excessive Daytime Sleepiness. This doesn’t just mean that I get a little sleepy in the afternoon like we all do, but means that I fall asleep often without notice for a few seconds to minutes. I have been known to fall asleep in a number of situations at work and at home including during a conversation amongst many worse times….

It appears that this has been going on longer than I thought and just put it down at first to having a busy lifestyle, then due to having an under active thyroid. But when my thyroid medication levels were correct or even high and the sleepiness hadn’t reduced I decided that it was time to take some action and seek some.

I have been assessed mostly in Oxford for diabetes, Thyroid medication levels, Obstructive Sleep Apnea and now Narcolepsy, all of which have proved to be negative which is good in some ways but bad in others as I don’t know what is wrong with me.

The plan from today;

So tomorrow I start taking the tablets and see how that goes and now wait for the appointments to come through. Any new developments and I will keep you updated.

Forced to Decorate

I few weeks ago our lovely son Callum who is toilet training decided to take himself to the downstairs bathroom and wash his hands. He managed to get the taps on but couldn’t turn them off resulting in an overflowing sink, and what can only be described as a small swimming pool in the bathroom and a paddling pool in the hallway.

After a few frantic phone calls Niki managed to get her sister to bring a vax round to suck up the water (I was at work). Unfortunately the carpet then started t smell awful, and no matter what we cleaned it with it didn’t get any better. Enough was enough, so I ripped it up a few days later and chucked it out the front door. Now we have a lovely laminate floor!

Just need to get the skirting board on and paint the walls now……

Its going!

As you probably know, I have been battling with trying to loose weight for quite a few years. I have tried loads of different diet and exercise programs with little to no success and had all but given up.

I went to see my Dr about trying to increase my Thyroxine in order to combat my Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and all that he could say was that I needed to loose weight.

I get frustrated with Drs at the best of times and came away even more upset than normal. Having said that, I did make me go and talk to one of my neighbours. We live in an estate built in the 60s (I think) where all of the houses are on top of each other and you can see what everybody is doing, and yet you never seem to talk to your neighbours unless its about the amount of noise that each other is making. One of our neighbours is always in her garage at the end of our garden, and she is always putting stuff in her car and gets big deliveries every Monday morning. All a little bit odd, but then one day I saw that she put a weight watchers sign in her boot….

…Its quite a big deal, a bloke asking a woman who he doesn’t know if she runs weight watchers and what it involves. I had tried it once before online, as I’m not really into this group hugging and meeting malarky. But she convinced me that its not like Little Britain’s Fat Fighters, and they
don’t talk about dust…..

Fast Tube by Casper

She convinced me that I should go along and see what happens – so I did!

At my heaviest I was 17.5 stone, but when I started going to Weight Watchers I was 16 stone 5.5 pounds, and 7 weeks later I have managed to loose 1 stone 6.5 pounds!!!!

The thing that I like about weight watchers is that I don’t actually feel like I’m on a diet – OK, I need to say no sometimes when others are eating food that I don’t really need, but I still eat my full fat cheddar cheese, still drink beer and occasionally have a Kebab…. is this really a diet – who cares – it works!!!!

Well its official!

Make a pregnancy ticker

Well its official, Niki is pregnant again and we are expecting another baby in March 2010. Its obviously early days but people notice quicker when you work for the Ambulance Service as you are not aloud to work on the road, so people ask questions quicker!

As and when we have more news we will look to update the blog and facebook, so check back soon for regular updates.

If your not organised enough to come back, you could always subscribe to the RSS Feed, and if your not tech savy enough, you could always enter your email address in to the little form on the blog to be emailed updates!

Happy 1/2 year Birthday!

I have just realised that we haven’t updated our blog for ages!.

Callum has been with us for 6 months now and so much has changed since we updated the blog last. Lots of people told me when I got married that I would want to do the ceremony again, but this time I would want to be in the audience so that I could see what happened and remember it! They couldn’t have been more right.

People have said to me that I should make the most of Callums first few months as babies grow up so quickly.

This is oh so true!
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Life has changed forever!!!!

Well as of today Callum has been here for exactly 8 weeks!

It already feels like a lifetime (in a good way) and huge amounts of learning have taken place. I have to admit it doesn’t matter how prepared you think you are it is totally different when wheeled onto a ward in the middle of the night, with your new baby who is then put into a crib beside you and you are left completely alone to “get on with it” I was so scared!! I was exhausted from 2 or so days without much sleep, I couldn’t feel my body from the chest down was given a glass of water (no champagne for me!) and then I had my defensless little man stirring in his crib and I didn’t have a clue what to do. With some shushing and gentle rocking he seemed to settle and I could get a few hours sleep.

After we got home I had got into a kind of routine with Callum. I had found out that he liked to have his nappy changed before a feed and was generally in about a 3 hourly routine. Then came a growth spurt!!! Feeds every two hours, even at night. Crying seemed almost continuous. Daryl was frustrated as he couldn’t really help much as I was breastfeeding. I was exhausted and in the middle of the night just felt like crying out HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!!

That all soon passed after a couple of days. Callum was changing so rapidly now.  he looked nothing like he had at the hospital. He was now our little boy and not just the general baby look. He had started to smile although I knew it was wind, but you could see that he was going to have the most cheeky smile. His routine was much better and was sleeping a good 5 or 6 hours at night HEAVEN!!!!! Callum had now got his Mummy and Daddy trained and they could even tell when his crying was just for attention or whether he really needed something.

Callum has even got Guinness and Scrumpy trained!!! Guinness seems to have taken on the role of overall protector. He is always nearby and pops by Callum now and again to make sure everthing is ok and gives him a quick lick on his hand. Scrumpy on the other hand has taken it upon himself to be a babysitter! Every small noise Callum made he would run over to us and nudge us. If we happened to be out of the room he would run up and jump or nudge us and then run back to Callum and continue this pattern (in his search training it is called a refind and can take a while to master). When it comes to changing Callum is picked up and Scrumpy sits there looking at Callum and looking at the changing mat as if to say “well that’s where he goes get on with it” If Callum is taken out without Scrumpy, when we get back Scrumpy runs about making sure that we are all home safe and well and then Callum gets a quick lick on his hand or side of his head as if to say “its ok you are home now and I can look after you again” Somehow I think those two are going to be as thick as thieves and get into all kinds of mischief together.

So, now we are nearly 2 months old. Callum has grown out of all his newborn bits and is threatening not to be in the 0-3 month clothes for very long. Not surprising as he has an apetite like his Dad, can’t really complain as it is better that worrying as he doesn’t eat at all. We are all alot more settled and life is all the more exciting. Callum has started smiling a lot and very nearly giggled properly last night. Daryl and I were in stitches. He has a great personality but can wrap us round his little finger. Occasionally I get moments sat there watching him asleep thinking “I love you so much I just hope that I am being a good enough Mum for you” but I guess I will always feel like that, especially when he gets sick or hurts himself.

Now we are starting to look forward to his first Christmas. He won’t really understand this year but it gets the adults in training for next year. Although Callum already has shown an interest in all the twinkling lights. His Grandad has booked him for his first visit to see Father Christmas in 3 weeks so we will see what he makes of that (if he is awake)

Introducing Callum

As you can see we have been rather busy with the arrival of Baby T and haven’t really had time to Blog.

Callum arrived at 23:30 on the 6th October 2007 weighing 6lb 15oz

Niki endured at long and tiring labour……
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Baby Update

Just for those people we haven’t spoken to for a while.

After being told Baby T (Maggott) would come early there is still no sign!

Baby is due to make his big entrance into the world on Friday so I guess there is still time. Had a Midwife appointment on Tuesday and the head is now engaged so that good news and everything else is fine just waiting for Baby to decide what day they would like to be born.

I personally think that he has seen the weather and decided not to make an appearance until it is warmer and drier and who can blame him!

Well that’s all for now until there is news on Baby T making their big debut.

Foundation Degree Course

I recieved a letter yesterday notifying me that I have been offered a place on the FOundation Degree Course in Portsmouth University starting in October!

I have very little information to be honest.

I believe I will be expected to attend Uni 1 day a week, a training school 2 days a week, and then will have 2 shifts on the road a week leaving me with 2 days off.

This will continue for the next 3 years where I can then practice as a Paramedic. Should I wish to continue onto a degree, I will have to re apply after a year qualified on the road and then complete a further year at University, this should end up with a BSc Hons!!!

If you want to find out how I am getting on, have a look at my Ambulance blog.

Baby T – Update

Well we went to a Midwife appointment this week – everything seemed fine, blood pressure, weight etc

Niki’s tummy was a little larger than it should have been (I said he might have shoulders like mine! Ouch!!!)

The midwife then asked the due date – and then suggested that we might like to pack a bag for Niki (if we hadn’t already) as we might need it a little sooner than might have been suggested.

The nursery has now been emptied of Boxes, and the walls have been stripped – best get a move on!!!