Spoke far too soon!!!!!!!!!!!

Well after saying on my last post that Jess seemed well on the way to recovery, she wasn't.

She woke on the Monday morning with a raging temperature and vomiting so it was decided a trip to the doctors was in order. Thankfully Kath (ever knowledgeble about the Island) was on hand to help out with the running around.
On arriving at the doctors Jess was assessed by Becky (nurse) and we were told we would be in soon, there were a couple of sicker children that needed to be seen first. Not to bad. Only after 40 minutes her temperature sarted to rise again and we were sent in straight away. None of the obvious things appeared wrong, chest was clear, throat was fine, ears Ok so she was sent for blood tests and a chest x-ray. Again all fine other than the lab and clinics weren't on site and had it not been for Kath i would have been stressing big time as Jess was really fretful and didn't want to be put down, so there was no way i could have driven her safely anywhere!

The bloods and x-rays were all taken and the results back in about 1 1/2 hours, thankfully her chest x-ray was clear but her white blood cell count was very high which meant somewhere she had a major bacterial infection, but with her chest, ears and throat being clear they didn't know where it was so hospital was sugested, for 2 reasons really, one she urgently needed antibiotics and fluid via an IVand two we needed to find out what the hell was going on.

Now ordinarily this wouldn't have created any problems but Scott was off Island and i was in the position of neding to take Jess to hospital urgently and to stay with her overnight. OK, but what about Hannah and Lauren, well you guessed it Kath and Roman stepped in again and voluntered to have them overnight for as long as needed (i know you guys read this, so once again many many thanks for all you have done over the last week). All that we had to do then was pick up all the children from school, pack overnight bags and get Jess to hospital.

Roman very kindly ran me to the Adelin Hospital as i had no idea where it was and stayed until we were settled in, even nipping out to bring back chicken, chips and chocolate (thanks Roman). By this time it was pretty much determined that she had a urine infection so an IV was set up to give fluids and antibiotics. Jess was a star through all this, not happy about it but not as bad tempered as she could have been, bless her.
After about an hour her temperature started to come down and she settled quite well, but the drip was in her right arm which is the side she sleeps on so she found it very hard to get off to sleep for more than about 40 minutes at a time, which meant we both had a really unsettled night.

As her temperature had come down and stayed down and they had identified which bug was making her ill and that the antibiotics she was on were OK she was allowed out on the Tuesday evening. This meant that she had a good 12 hours sleep on the Tuesday and woke up bright as a button on the Wednesday. We had to change her antibiotics on the Wednesday as the ones she had left the hospital with weren't 100% right so we did that and she seemed fine untill tea time Thursday when she started to run a tempertaure again. I phoned her doctor who said that her bacteria were only midly sensitive to the antibiotic and that the next step was tablets! for a 2 year old. This didn't turn out to be too bad though as they needed to be quartered, which meant they were small enough to pop onto a spoonful of food and she didn't even notice, much easier than pinning her down and forcing a syringe ful of medicine down her throat!

Anyways she woke up this mornng bright and breezy and i got a 'mornin mama dindins' so for breakfast she has polished off a big bowl of cheerios and then a plate full of beans and cheese. Which since then has been followed by a banana, a few cookies, popcorn and pork casserole and mashed potatoes. Her temperature has stayed down and she hasn't been miserable, so dare i say this time i think she is well on the road to recovery.......just keep everything crossed for me, because i don't think i can relive the last week again in a hurry!!!!!!!

Peace at last!

Why the strange title for tonights blog.......well all 3 girls are watching 'The Little Einsteins' and i am sat writing this with a nice cold glass of wine. Hannah and Lauren aren't happy about what they are watching but Jess is quiet so.........

Jess has been poorly for the best part of the last week with a cold and it has floored her. She has been tired, whingy and clingy, all to be expected from a poorly 2 year old, but OMG it really grates on your nerves at times and i am sat here typing this hopeful that she will remain quiet for at least another 10 minutes. It's not too bad when there are 2 parents around as you can take it in turns to listen to the whining, but Scott left the Island on Friday and i am left home alone. To be honest she hasn't ben too bad today and she has eaten 3 meals, not much of them but eaten just the same. I was begining to get worried as she was hardly eating anything and it was also a struggle to get juice down her, but hopfully we have passed the worst of it now, but she may just stay home from pre-school tomorrow to be on the safe side.

Hannah has had a new girl join her class this last week and it has been a blessing in disguise. Only 2 days into the new term and her best friend Zoe transferred to a new school leaving Hannah mortified and really upset. However Jade (new girl) transferred from Island Academy, Hannah's last school, and she now has someone else to play with.

Lauren's friend Nikita cam over for a play date last week and it went really well. She is a lovely little girl and there was none of the usual bickering and tale telling that normally goes on when girls get together, which was an even bigger bonus.

My long awaited trip to Puerto Rico is nearly upon us, Kath and i fligh out on October 11 for a 1 night stay. Why i here you asking, well it is September and for those who know me really well, it's time to do the Chr***mas shopping. I got quite a few things in Florida last month and i have got a few from Antigua also, but for the rest i need to leave the Island, alone(ie no husband and children) with 2 empty suitcases. That's my excuse anyway, Scott sees it as an excuse for a girls night out!!!!!!!

Speaking of Scott he is back in the UK for the next week. He finally managed to get home mid afternoon yesterday, after taking a detour via London, due to the BMI flight never leaving Manchester due to 'technical problems'. This as you can imagine was not a welcome detour and he wasn't a happy chappy.

Well for now i think that's about it. Nothing too exciting has been going on, mainly due to me having a cold, then Jess getting it, and if i think of anything else i'll let you all know.

Jessica's first week at school.

Well it's over that first week of pre-school for our little Jess, and yes mum was far more stressed than Jessica was.

On her first day, which was last Tuesday, everyone was up nice and early all ready to put on clean uniforms and set off to school with new books, pencils and all the other stuff that was needed. Good start i thought, no arguing, no grumps from Hannah and Lauren and a willingness to do everything asked of them the FIRST time!!!!!

Then it was time to get Jessica up, no problem, she always wakes up smiling and is eager to do pretty much anything, so up she gets, we change her bum and start to put on her school uniform, that's where it all stopped being perfect!

Since arriving back from the States Jess hadn't been eating much and the size 18 month old beige shorts that we had bought for her fell straight down as soon as i'd pulled them up, (yes we had tried them on her in the States and yes they did fit her then) now at any other time this wouldn't have created a problem and i would have laughed about it, NOT TODAY!!!!

I have been meaning to get a sewing kit since we arrived here but as i hadn't needed one up to this point i kept putting it off, now i find myself in desperate need of a needle and thread at 6.40 am and i don't have one, so what do i do, find a belt of course, and who better to assist me in this..... Hannah. So having found a belt and secured Jessica's shorts for the day we headed of for breakfast.

This was dealt with quickly and painlessly thank-goodness, although Jess couldn't quite understand why Hannah and Lauren kept saying "it's your first day at school, who's a big girl now" and just kept responding with "nannan, lolol ool"

We managed to leave without any further mishaps, but i reminded myself that making sure 3 bags were packed, 3 lunches were ready and 3 lots of water bottles were filled took a little longer than just 2 of everything and resigned myself to getting up a little earlier the following day so i wasn't rushing around like a mad women again.

The trip to school was uneventful, if you forget the fact that you're driving in Antigua and it can get pretty hairy!! And once at school we deposited Jess in her pre-school room with no problem at all, she was excited about carrying her lunch bag and puttng it into her cubby and was fascinated by all the little chairs in the classroom that she could get into and out of, withput it seeming as if she was climbing Mount Everest. I said my good-byes and told i'd pick her up later after lunch. Now at this point i don't know what i was expecting to happen but it wasn't "see you late mum!"
Feeling rather lost and unsure what to do i headed out of the room, half expecting her to realise i was going and get upset, but no, she just kept climbing onto the chairs then getting off again!

At this point reason sets in and i figure if she's ok, go now and make sure she stays that way, so off i went.
Next on the delivery run was Lauren, who had obviously got fed up of waiting for me to finish with Jess and had already settled herself into her new clasroom and was telling her teacher about her trip to Florida. After giving her a kiss and saying hi to her teacher i was again redundant.
Now Hannah through all of this has stayed by my side and wanted me to take her to her new classroom and help her settle in, so feeling needed i treked up the hill and take Hannah into her new (brand new, built over the summer classroom) and think OMG they are never going to fit 17 children and a teacher in this shed!!!! But apparently they were. Now i'm not exagerting here, but there was not a lot of room. With all the children seated those who were seated in the centre rows couldn't get out, and if you were slightly on the large size you couldn't pull out your chair to sit down, not comfortably anyway. Now realising that this is the first day i advise Hannah to sit on an end and assure her that it will be ok and that things will get sorted out during the day. I introduce myself to her teacher and enquire about her holiday, then sets of to head home.

I stand just outside Jess's classroom to make sure she is still ok and find her still climbing on and off chairs, so head off to the car and back to a nice quiet house.

Now what i did the rest of the day i can't eally remember, but i do know i checked the phone numerous times to make sure school hadn't rang and did a lot of aimless wondering around complaing about how quiet it was! This after saying i couldn't wait till they were all in school so i could have 5 minutes peace, turns out 5 minutes of peace is all i can handle then i need chaos again.

At pick up time i was all excited at seeing Jess, Han and Lol again and finding out how they'd settled into the new classrooms and routines and had roped Scott into coming as well.
I raced in to see Jess and found her playing with a "ellow tuck"(yellow truck) outside when we first arrived, was she pleased to see me....NO, but see was really pleased to see her dad! whom she then insisted play truck with her. I leave them to it and go in search of Lauren who's had a fab day and can Nikita come to tea. After assuring Lauren and Nikita that i will arrange a playdate next week, i send Lauren off to find dad and Jess whilst i go in search of Hannah.
Hannah comes out of her classroom some 20 minutes after the end of school (i later find out that Grade 4 finishes at 2.10pm and not 2.00pm) and looks rather bedraggled, she's had an ok day but doesn't like all the new rules in her new class and complains that it is sooooo small. But other than that she's ok and can Zoe come for tea! Not today i assure her but i will arrange a playdate soon.

The rest of the week is uneventful, letters coming home with more school supplies to buy, term dates and holiday dates.
The only things to change are Jess's shorts are now tacked and fit her, and she's discovered that mum saying see you later means she's being left at school and she's not keen (on the being left initially, the rest she loves) so we now have tears for aproximately 30 seconds when i say bye, they have stopped by the time i have gone down the steps and i am out of sight. How do i know this, well i wait where she can't see me and listen, then i come back and check again after seeing Hannah and Lauren in, then i stop the car outside the classroom and have a quick look before i drive off!!!! Not that i'm obsessed, honest!!!

Jessica's Birthday

First of all thank-you to everyone for all her presents she really enjoyed opening all of them, although unfortunately not on her birthday, but the day after ( i have learnt after having 3 girls that it's best not to question why they do certain things).

Anyway Jessica didn't want to open all her presents on her birthday and very kindly kept telling her ever persuasive mum "no thanks" whenever i offered to help her!!! But she did keep saying "appy birday" to herself which was sweet and very amusing, or to quote Hannah and Lauren "she's so cute!!!"

Jess had a nice quiet morning, not getting up untill 9.15am (after all it was her birthday) and spent the morning taking Hannah and Lauren's dolls off them, which as you can imagine created no end of problems. After lunch she went back to sleep for a couple of hours in preparation for her party.

Her party was a small affair, after all she's only 2. And her guests were Kath, Roman, Alyx and Kazia. Scott, Roman and all the older children decided to get the jet-ski out along with a couple of inflatables and head off to have fun, which left me, Kath and the birthday girl to, well chat (something i'm told we are quite good at!!)
After a couple of hours playing the kids decided they were hungry and came in to demolish food. This didn't take very long and before we knew it they were on the beach playing again only to be herded back inside to sing happy birthday to Jess very quickly as all the candles were melting.

Everyone then decided the best thing to do would be to have a swim as it was getting hot and spent the next hour and a half in the pool.

After that it was all children showered and hairs washed, including Jess, who is now officially a big girl. Said good-bye to guests, popped all 3 girls in front of the TV for half an hour while i finished clearing up and then sent them all of to bed.

All in all a great day was had by all, but we dearly missed grand-parents popping round and all our friends who would have done so had we been back in the UK, we were thinking of you all.

WOW what a busy first week back we have had.
After our initial panic in Orlando (due to not knowing where the airport was!!!!) we arrived safely in Puerto Rico only to find out that our connecting flight was delayed for 2 and a half hours. Now ususally this wouldn't create any problems at all as there are many shops in airports and a good look around can take about and an hour and a half, add onto that lunch time and your laughing........ Not so in this case, for those who haven't been to Puerto Rico airport it is SMALL!!!! and a walk around it and the shops takes half an hour and lunch about the same time. So we were left with little to do for an hour or so. Luckily enough Jess went to sleep, which only left Hannah and Lauren to amuse, which was easily sorted as we had taken the laptop with us as hand luggage and they amused themselves playing games.
We finally left at around 3.00pm on a jet (not a little prop plane, thank god!!) and 50 minutes later touched down in Antigua. Now AA airlines have a long way to go as far as customer service goes, but when they want you somewhere quickly, they get you there!

The only problem at Antigua airport was a lost bag, now out of 8 plus a car seat that's not bad going. So once we'd reported it missing and been assured it would be delivered to us the following day we were on our way, Oh this only took around 60 minutes from landing so not to bad.

We were back home by 5.30pm and by 5.40pm all 3 girls were in the pool as if they'd never been away! Full of excitement at being home again surrounded by their favourite things and the pool!!