The not so relaxing morning

They say that once you have kids you'll never stop worrying again. After this morning I don't think we will. What do you do when your baby boy stops breathing?

Having a day off work on a fine Melbourne day such as this is a gift. Our plans included a lazy breakfast at Apte in Fairfield (great place by the way - and lot of room so it's baby-friendly), a short nap at home for the little man and then off to the beach (since it's started to warm up and he's never seen the sea).

TJ got agitated just as my ricotta hotcakes arrived. No problem - this is part of the deal with eating out these days. I took him outside for a bit to get some fresh air and came back in. He settled down a bit. Actually, he settled down a lot. That was easy I was thinking. Then he starts convulsing.

Shit.

"What the hell is going on?' A few seconds later, he'd gone completely limp, turned blue and stopped breathing. "Call an ambulance!". We had him on the ground. People around us were trying to help. He wasn't choking, he'd just stopped. Stopped everything. And he was frikkin' blue. This has been the single scariest event in our lives to date. Period.

A nurse and a paramedic (off-duty) just happened to be enjoying their breakfast nearby and jumped into action. He regained consciousness but was really groggy for the next hour or so. The ambulance arrives yada yada yada. Long story short, this is apparently relatively common, although we're still trying to find out which of the several possibilities these symptoms belong to. These range from the malfunctioning of the reflex that stops babies from breathing when dunked in water, to learning how to regulate temperature, to epilepsy. I actually think doctor's need to learn to say "I dunno. Sometimes shit happens". Anyway, the little man went through a traumatic EEG scan (where they stick electrodes on to his head and scan brain activity) which likely won't be able to tell us anything. If this sort of thing is as common as the paramedics, nurses, doctors etc we have spoken to say it is though, I reckon it might be worthwhile mentioning in pre-natal classes so that if and when the brown-underwear moment comes, new parents aren't as freaked out as we were.

So if you're a new parent or parent-to-be, listen up. You will get told that every baby is different and there are no rules, yet everyone will still be offering their 2 cents on what and how you should be looking after your kid. But it is unlikely anyone will tell you "Oh by the way, your baby might start convulsing and turn blue", so we're telling you now.

All good things must come to an end

We had postponed it already by a month, but the time had come for bananas to doff the flannel pyjamas and don the uniform of the office worker. Both of our enlisted babysitters were off on holidays so I got my chance to play house hubby for a week until Banana's mum returned from Vietnam.

I learned two things that week. Firstly, that there is no such thing as routines or consistency when it comes to babies - every day is as different as Melbourne's weather. Incidentally it was the weather that made or broke our day since being stuck at home in the cold brought about the worst in TJs disposition, but he never stopped smiling while strolling out and about in the glorious sunshine on another day.

And secondly, that you get serious kudos from soccer mums for playing house hubby with the little man. Which is cool, because I actually quite enjoyed doing the stay at home dad thing. I just need to get Bananas to earn more dosh so I can do this full time :)

The little man it seems, would rather hang out with his grandparents though. His first week with the in-laws he slept better than he ever has during the day and seemed to be having a ball when I went to pick him up. Where's the loyalty??? Then again, we did ditch him last weekend to go see "Wicked" - which was awesome by the way. Anthony Callea was born to play a munchkin, "Millsy" held his own, and the two female leads were simply outstanding.

But I digress. Lucky we are that our boy has a happy home away from home. And lucky we are that we don't have to rely on child (no)care in order for Bananas to return to the workforce. Bananas still misses the boy suring the day and I miss doing the "honey I'm home" after a day's work but at least we know he's a happy lad, even when we're not around.