As the name suggests I am a mum of 5. I have 3 beautiful girls Chelsie 17 (nearly 18 as she likes to remind me), Charlotte or Charlee as she calls herself is 16 and Gabrielle AKA Gabbie is 13. My two little men are 7 yr old Alexander and my baby Noah 3 months.
I am Helen 37 and I am married to Mick who is 56....quite an age gap but we have been together since I was 18 so I think we're doing quite well. The rabbits are smokey and fudge and Gary the fish is Alexs.
Both Mick and I are what you would call cuddly or as we put it short and fat and go to slimming world. The only child who's build is anything like ours at the moment is Noah and I suspect that's more to do with his age than genetics at the moment. We've been going to SW for a year now. I found out about 2 weeks after we joined I was pregnant. By the time I had Noah I had only put on 4 lbs. My first weigh in after having Noah I had lost 19.5lbs....funnily enough I won slimmer of the month. Sadly due to Noah having some health issues I didn't keep on so well with the weight loss. My way of dealing with stress is to eat. First of all he couldn't gain weight and any weight he did gain came off. When he was born he spent 5 days in SCBU due to low blood sugar. I'd had gestational diabetes and he did suffer because of it. Then he lost 14% of his body weight. Not good when you are tiny. So 1 1/2 days after his discharge from SCBU he was admitted to the childrens ward. I was made to feel so bad as I was trying to exclusively breastfeed. They kept asking if he was my first child, when i replied no 5th the comment that always followed was....oh so you do know how to breastfeed. By the time we got home he was on boob and bottle. After 2 weeks he still wasn't gaining weight and the health visitors were worried enough to insist he saw a doctor that day. The duty doctor at our clinic was amazing. He did want to refer him back to the hospital but he listened to what I had to say. Noah threw up....a lot. I had told them at SCBU and the childrens ward but no one seemed to take much notice. The doc prescribed him infant gaviscon and asked the HV's to weigh him for the next 2 days and then a decision would be made....and the weight gain was amazing and he hasn't looked back since. My poor babe had reflux. Though he was better I thought he was still bringing up to much milk (thank the lord for leather settees) and I mentioned it to our GP and she prescribed a lactose free formula and the vomiting stopped. So I still combi feed as he has to have the gaviscon with just booby milk anyway and at 12 weeks he weighed in at a very chunky 16lb 12. That put him on the 98th centile line on the growth charts. At his worst he was on the 2nd centile so quite an improvement.
Sadly that's not the end of his problems. At his 6 week check up we mentioned to the HV that he looked out the corner of his eyes and didn't seem to fix and follow. She referred him to an opthamologist and on the 29th December he said he thinks he has Delayed Visual Maturation (DVM). His eyes are structurally fine but at the moment he just can't see. He does respond to bright light and will, if able to spend hrs starring out of windows. But other than that nothing. If it is DVM he should hopefully gain some sight by 6 months. But the odd thing with DVM is that it can't be truly diagnosed till after sight has been gained. So really just a waiting game now. He has to see the opthamologist again on the 26th. I think he wants to see if there is any change. His HV is trying to sort out help for him now as he is already very developmentally delayed. Most of a babies development does seem to depend on sight. He is a very happy little fella though. He chats away for hrs. Just figured out how to suck his thumb and if you tickle his face and play with him he smiles loads and laughs away. I long for the day when my little man just looks at me and smiles. Its possible that might not happen as the blindness might be permanent.....but for now all I want is that smile.
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