Month: October 2014

Returning to work

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The day is looming on the horizon and the past nine months has gone far quicker than I would like! The last month I have found myself getting maudlin about what I am about to give up! I have loved being a ‘real mum’ and collecting my bigger kiddiewinks from school and preschool; the last month I have even helped in my eldest a class once a week! Lovely lazy mornings are about to come to an end, daytime naps with my baby(although, granted it didn’t happen much with number three), play dates, after school activities, all gone in the blink of an eye! Soon it will be chaotic rushed mornings with me out of the house by 7.30am and Granny taking over the school run and pick ups. My baby girl will no longer so dependent on me as the main adult in her life! That makes me sad! Not returning to work is not an option so 4 days a week it is.

A big hurdle we have to face is feeding. For the last month Kiddiewink 3 has refused a bottle, given she still has a morning and afternoon feed, my return to work may leave a hungry baby and a mummy with balloons for boobs at work!
I also didn’t realise for children under one, childminders ask you to provide all the babies food, cue a mega cookathon this week!

When Kiddiewink 3 is napping and I am putting off doing jobs in the house, I really think returning to work is for the best and I get quite excited at the thought, but when she is awake I look into her beautiful eyes and think how much I’ll miss her! Not to mention I am not sure how I will have time to work, so much child vision related stuff I want to finish, this will all be completed but may now take years, given my evenings will now be taken up with planning and marking!

But looking at the positives…
A) all the time I have with my kiddiewinks will become quality time.
B) I will have money again
C) I get to spend my days with 200+ other gorgeous kiddiewinks
D)less cleaning ( domestic goddess I am not)

Who am I kidding…. I am gutted my maternity leave is over but I know soon enough we will all have adapted and settled into our new routine!

Another two week wait…

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Rushed to the opticians after school with the three children to get Poppy’s drop test. Unfortunately as the optometrist had been on holiday ad didn’t know poppy was booked in, they had no baby strength drops. I am really upset it has had to be delayed, irrationally so really. Not upset with them it’s not their fault, just upset we have to wait. All it means is delaying everything two weeks but I just wanted to get cracking. I am back at work in three weeks and had really hoped I would be the one who helped her adjust to them. I also wanted to be able to help her see clearly sooner rather than later. I know it’s only two weeks which is nothing in the grand scheme of things but right now it seems an eternity away!

Prescription Swimming Goggles

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After lots of umming and ahhing, we have decided to take the plunge and order kiddiewink 2 some prescription swimming goggles. He loves swimming, particularly swimming under the water, he sees himself as a deep sea diver in training…

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He can swim without armbands, not amazingly well, but he is getting better all the time, and he is desperate to get the stick from the bottom of the pool. He can do it with help but is not quite there. I have been watching him in his swimming lessons for awhile and occasionlly he seems to set off doing the wrong stroke and it has got me wondering if his ears aren’t enough to listen properly in the loud swimming pool enviroment. It could also be simply that he is a three year old not listening of course, but I am sure if he could see, focusing on the task in hand may be somewhat easier.

I asked him the other week if he could see what the instructors were doing, he looked at me like I was a complete muppet. “Nope because I haven’t got my glasses on have I”

I had seen people buying them online for a bargain price of £30, but these would only match the +7, +8 not the astigmatism. The optometrist explained that laws had changed and it shouldnt be possible to buy prescription eye products online for children, so I have decided to spend considerably more to get a pair properly fitted and to his exact prescription. It will cost around £100!(I could have a spa day and night in a hotel for the price of a pair of goggles-bonkers). But hopefully it will be worth it, hoping to bring his prescription check forward to ensure they are made with the most up to date prescription. It would be just our luck, that we’d order him some now, and then his prescription would change in February.

On another note, both children behaved quite embarrassingly at our last visit to the opticians. We had gone to try on goggles for KW2, so I suspect KW1 was bitter about that. But both of them were just a bit bratty really, although I think it was amplified because daddy was there. KW2 was stuffing his pockets with sweets and then arguing with his daddy about it, KW1 was trying on every pair of glasses she could but wanting us to admire each one. They weren’t particularly bad… No tantrums, (well not quite). The person we saw was different to the usual so KW1 was gutted as she had wanted to show her what the tooth fairy at brought her (don’t ask, that’s another story). KW2 was just complete blasé about the whole experience and a lot less chatty than usual, but again the staff member was quieter. I am hoping our next trip is better, although taking all three of them for KW3’s eye test tomorrow may be a challenge…

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Just want to know now!

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Now I know kiddiewink 3 is very far sighted, I just want to know how far sighted we are actually talking. +11 without drops so possibly even higher than that! I just keep looking at her and feeling sorry for her that she can’t see properly! She has been a bit of an unhappy bunny this last week; teething again I think, but I do keep thinking is it her eyes too (only now I know there is a problem). I am the type that once I know something,I just want to move forward and sort it, to say I am ‘doing the hubby’s head in’ is putting it mildly, I can’t stop talking about it and just want to know now and have her glasses NOW!

Despite not realising she couldn’t see clearly, now I know I am seeing signs. Whether they are only just happening, or whether it is my heightened awareness I am not sure. But Now when I watch her playing with her toys, I watch her eyes intently and I they do indeed go a little cross eyed the closer the toy gets to the face. She also rubs her eyes a lot -which can also be a sign! Having one kiddie wink in glasses already I thought I was paranoid and on one occasion prior to her eye test, she did go cross eyed, I even got it on camera. Everyone reassured me that she was just getting used to seeing her thumb when sucking it! I did wonder then, but forgot about it, as she never did it after thwt, she also seems so interested in everything around her. She looks and grabs everything she sees and smiles at everybody.

I am starting to get nervous about tomorrow. What if her eyes are considerably worse than initially suggested? What if there is a bigger problem? How will she find the drops? Will her glasses look daft with milk bottle lenses? Will we get her to keep them on?
Will Wendy even be happy to prescribe her? She was so far sighted she was going to discuss her case with other professionals before she was happy to prescribe her, with her being so tiny, if they are not sure either, we would have to wait for the hospital appointment, I so hope that isn’t the case though, as the it could be 13 weeks.

Keeping everything crossed that tomorrow goes smoothly…

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When I grow up I want to be…

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Kiddiewink 1 wants to be a teacher like her mummy, although I am sure that will change.
Kiddiewink 2 wants to be a deep sea diver, and has done for two years now! He is a keen swimmer and mainly swims with his head under water, he sometimes stops and it looks like he is drowning! When you try and ‘rescue’ him, he bats you away, insisting he is trying to see the interesting things on the bottom! Bless his little cotton socks, imagine the excitement when he gets his prescription goggles and he can actually see the bottom clearly!

Today is book day at pre school….. No surprises there, once again he is the deep sea diver from Tiddler. Bad mummy didn’t think though, I should have fashioned an oxygen pack using bottles, oh well there is always next time. He took a mermaid costume in his bag ‘in case I get bored of being a diver ‘ (also from tiddler). He even put on his turtle patch….

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