The Gift of Life

Erin’s been quite talkative these days. Her speech is not limited anymore to just cooing. She gurgles a lot and I think an emerging “Ba” is on the way as she loves making bubbles with her saliva. “Gi” is also now part of her vocal gymnatics repertoire.

The other day, J reckons he heard her say “Daddy.” Now, that can’t be really true, right? I spend almost the entire day (24/7) with this kid and her first word is “daddy” ?! Maybe J heard something else, like the “gi” syllable which does sound like the last syllable of daddy. Anyway, whatever it is, I have yet to hear it for myself to believe it. So far, nada!

-o-

Yesterday was Erin’s cousin C’s 18th birthday. Lunch was held at the second floor of the Canberra Football Club in Deakin. It was eat-all-you-can Yum Cha at AU$15 per person. The food was delicious but their service was terrible. The place was packed at 12 noon. And since our tables were located in the farthest corner from the kitchen, the food couldn’t get to us. I think we were able to start really eating at past one when some of the other customers had left.

While waiting for the food, the little girl got passed around to other family members and friends. And she did not cry! Looks like this kid is turning into one social butterfly! And she doesn’t cry anymore in her car seat (except of course, when she’s already tired). Thanks to endless playing of nursery rhymes and toys dangling everywhere.

-o-

The three of us haven’t been getting much sleep these days. Erin’s eczema still flares up every now and then. What’s worse is that these episodes occur late at night or at early dawn when we’re all supposed to be sleeping. We know it’s occuring when she suddenly wakes up, rubs her face and starts screaming. J and I don’t have eczema so we don’t have the slightest clue as to how she’s really feeling. But I reckon it’s so damn itchy judging from her terribly loud cries. After applying creams, the most that we can do is just wait for the rashes to subside. And it’s only then can we go back to getting some shut-eye, which isn’t easy, by the way.

I realise eczema is actually pretty common in kids, especially after talking to family and friends. Extreme weather temperatures (either the cold or the heat), I think, are majorly the culprits. So I’m guessing this’ll be back to haunt us in the summer time. Oh dear…

-o-

Shameless Plug
Thanks to my brother D for ‘photoshopping’ one of Erin’s photos. He’s a graduating Fine Arts student at the UP in Diliman and he’s trying to build up his portfolio. Here’s his ‘Erin’ project:

I was just going through some of Erin’s photos when it came to me that it was exactly a year ago today that J and I first found out we were pregnant. I can clearly remember how ecstatic we were when two distinct blue lines appeared in the home pregnancy test kit we bought earlier that day from the chemist.

From this little peanut:

To this bubbly bundle of joy:

Our own ‘little’ miracle!

The little girl developed nasty red rashes all over her body last Monday night. This gave us quite a scare because she kept on crying and had difficulty sleeping. We stripped her of her clothing and discovered that the redness was mostly found on her face, neck and tummy. She didn’t have a fever, which was a relief. But just to check, J rang up Health First to help us in determing what was really bothering Erin. They just said that if she didn’t run a temperature, it could be just the heat that’s making her uncomfortable.

But that wasn’t enough for me. I was still worried because it could be an allergic reaction to the milk that she got from me. You see, our dinner had some eggs in them so that could also have been the culprit. And since it might have been an allergy, she could have trouble breathing later on. So, to put our minds in ease, we left home at 12:45 AM to go to The Canberra Hospital.

When we got there, there were quite a number of people waiting to be called. We were informed there was only one doctor on duty to see all six/seven patients. You heard me, just one! And this was for the emergency department, mind you. (It was appalling to know that there is such a huge shortage of skills in a first-world country such as Australia. )The nurse though, seeing that infants needed more immediate attention than the rest, took the time to examine Erin. Her impression was that it could be just eczema. She reassured us that it was not meningococcal in nature or anything of that sort. She gave us 2 options — wait for our turn (which was like a 6-7 hour wait) or go home and just see our GP in the morning. Duh! We chose to go home.

We decided to just observe Erin in the meantime. We gave her cooler clothes to wear, lowered the thermostat, and applied moisturizer liberally on all her rashes. In the morning, they all subsided. Thank God!

We saw our GP this morning though, just to get a final diagnosis. And it is confirmed that it is atopic eczema. All because of the chilly weather this season. The heat and milk from me could have triggered the flare-up last Monday. So, we’re being careful these days. We’re also told to stop using harsh soaps (sorry J&J!). The GP also prescribed us a low dose corticosteroid during flare-ups.

Well, it’s no wonder she developed this. I read somewhere that kids whose parents have asthma (J has it), hay fever (I do) and other allergies are susceptible to getting eczema. Poor Erin! Hay naku, I’ll be really glad when this winter season is over. I am sooo looking forward to Spring!

Look, new shoes!

Today, at fifteen weeks, I heard our little girl Erin giggle for the very first time! Yes, giggle, as in “to laugh with repeated short, spasmodic sounds.”

It was after our short trip to the city. She was all cranky and bawling her eyes out on the way home. But as soon as we got inside our house and placed her on the bed, she quieted down and gave me one of her smiles that never fails to melt my heart. So I engaged her in some play and in a short while came the giggles. Too bad J wasn’t in the room at the time. I tried to elicit the same reaction from Erin when J was around but was (and still) unsuccessful at my attempts. Oh well, maybe next time… whenever that is!