A Bug Flu of Christmas

Caught the flu bug in early December and towards the end, we are still battling it out as a family. Ethan was much better and then had a new bout, Jianming and I are recovering, and Jethro - seems like we have just about seen the worst of it.
The first among us to catch it I shall not say, and anyway, it wasn't obvious. But Ethan got the fever first. 2 to 3 days of highs and lows, and he still went out in the middle of it - Jianming took him to listen to Christmas Carols on 14 Dec and he came back with another bout of fever.
Then I think I had the fever, a much milder one but I was feeling devastated - Jethro had been given to sleeping almost throughout the day and being wakeful at night. I am not one who can get used to such overturn of hours and I worried over how I was going to cope with a fever. Luckily the fever subsided soon enough. Jianming probably had one too, but it was mild as well.
Next came Jethro's turn to have the high fever. He had continuous fever for at least 3 days. On Sunday morning, it went up to 39.4 deg C. Jianming called up the National Health Service and they arranged an appointment for Jethro at the outpatient clinic in the Royal Infirmary. So, off we went to the hospital again. The doctor was not too concerned about the fever. He's more worried about chest infection and the difficulty of breathing for babies with chest infection. He said Jethro seemed alright, sleeping peacefully (after a taxi ride, no doubt). He examined his chest, his toes, his fingers, and his ears. He said Jethro had a mild chest infection, and in case there was bacterial infection, he prescribed antibiotics for him. It was to take another 2 days or so for Jethro's fever to subside. Meanwhile, he started to have very frequent bowel movements. And we suspected stomach flu this time. Oh sigh sigh sigh.
Early part of December, Jethro had his 5-in-1 DPT and Meningitis C vaccination (poor thing, and he is going to have 3 jabs next week - an additional Pneumococcal. Wonder how he would take 3 jabs! Is there really a need for so many vaccinations anyway?) and the doctor did an eye examination as well. He couldn't see the red reflection when using the ophthalmoscope so he referred Jethro to a specialist. There followed some rather anxious one week wait for the appointment at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion (fancy name, that). Well, the Eye Pavilion turned up to be a rather old building. The doctor first gave Jethro some eye drops to dilate his pupils. After about 40 minutes, he proceeded to examine his eye. However, Jethro refused to open his eyes for the critical examination. He went to get a more senior doctor, who faced the same problem. He tried to pry Jethro's eyelids open, which only elicited more resistance. He also changed the lens. In the end, he told us he did not see any problem with his eyes. I asked him twice if he did view the internal structure of the eyes, and he said yes. Well, one could only take him at his word. We left the hospital, I resolved to treat it as if the incident never happened at all. Because that's what it feels like, the whole thing, a little pointless.

Meanwhile, the two big guys went out to enjoy the Christmas cheer when weather and health permit.
There was a bell-ringing performance followed by some traditional dances at the National Museum of Scotland. Ethan enjoyed the bell ringers. I saw the website of the bell ringers afterwards and found it a rather unique and beautiful musical performance. You can see some sample videos from this website: http://www.dunkeld-handbells.co.uk/


Then Jianming took Ethan to the St Patrick Square's Lights-up, just one street away, and had free food at the Southside Community Centre nearby. There was also a Santa Claus handling out candy bags to little children. Of course, Ethan got one and also his fill of pizzas, sandwiches and mince pies.


The activity-filled weekend of 13 and 14 Dec passed without us doing much because Ethan had his fever then. On 20 Dec, they went to the Grassmarket to look at the angels there, and then to Princes Street Gardens. There, Jianming told me Ethan enjoyed the reindeer and the story telling in a tent. But the train ride (which he did last year too) seemed too crowded for him. However, to be able to indulge in Christmas cheer at busy Princes Street was uplifting enough.


We had glutinous rice dumpling for winter solstice. Jianming mashed some boiled split mung beans for the filling. But we could not really taste the filling as it was not sweet enough. For the red colouring, Jianming had some red rice ground into powder and added them to the flour.


Oh, as for Christmas dinner, we had a simple one this year of roast duck, mashed potatoes, boiled cabbage with apples and nutmeg powder, and some left over naan bread. The duck took a long time to roast as we need to roast out the fats to get a crispy skin. It turned out okay. Most importantly, we had ready-made duck meat for the next few days.


Christmas Day's treat:

And church:


We did not go for the torchlight procession this year which was held on 29 Dec. But we took some photos of the fireworks seen from our window.


Live music at the Ceilidh dancing at the museum on New Year's eve:

Since Ethan was at the museum, a trip to the Connect gallery is quite unavoidable:


New Year's eve, Edinburgh was alive with the Hogmanay celebration. At midnight, I was up because of Jethro and so had a glimpse of the spectacular fireworks (not so spectacular from our window).

Jethro's sleeping pattern has sort of reversed a little and I am having slightly more restful nights. But I am keeping my fingers crossed, who knows when he would reverse again? And he's not sleeping throughout the night yet, so I am still grappling with the sleepy hours (for me).
He's also getting more aware of his surroundings now and as a result, cries more often - whenever he finds himself alone. He is rather interested in his elder brother's exploits around the room and follows him around - with his eyes of course. That is rather a good thing that comes out of Ethan's overly active behaviour as he can keep his baby brother entertained at times. This could be part of the reason for Jethro being more awake during the day recently.


He's also been sucking his thumb/fingers/hand more and more and I haven't the time and energy to stop him all the time. Here are some photos. What's worse is that Ethan seems to have caught the habit from him!


As for Ethan, he's into masquerading as a lamb for a few days. Here is he insisting on wearing something white:

But he prefers this outfit better (I refused to let him wear it all the time as it means more washing):

Ethan 'posing' after wearing the jumper that he had not worn for sometime:

Telling a story with the pirate figurines that Jianming bought for him after church on Sunday:


Everybody seems to be in a mood for some summing up of the year that was. However, I am still catching up on precious sleep time and don't hang around the computer much. Suffice to say that I am glad I went out when I could and made friends with some of the mothers here because I am missing that freedom sorely since the beginning of the last quarter of last year. As for the mothers, I hope to be able to 'resume' my friendships with them again sometime this year. Another thing I discovered was that everytime there were some new challenges that I felt I couldn't surmount, on looking back, I had survived and they did not seem so daunting afterall, always compared to what challenges the future would bring. So, what does this say about me? A constant worrier. I should try to take things easy.

Happy 2009 to all!