my entry for the stand an deliver competition

what do you think??? feedback will be very welcome as its my first writing competition

Kay

xxx

sick on my knees

Isn’t it always the way that when you put on your favourite jeans/top/outfit clean from the wardrobe and your ready to go out, you pick up your baby for a quick cuddle goodbye just before you go out…and the baby is sick all over you.

Well when you have a baby with reflux you get thrown up on at least 4 times a day it becomes normal. so i have given up changing my clothes everytime i get puked on (my washing machine couldn’t handle it). i always have to have at least two muslin clothes with him at all times because one can very easily get soaked in a matter of minutes

My friends and family now know i will always smell of milky sick and that i will have bags under my eyes (thank god for thick rimmed glasses that help hide them) because along with all the sick there is the screaming,

with the pain of the stomach acid burning as it escapes up his esophagus and the pain that the constant trapped wind causes him. The trapped wind that is always there no matter how much his back is patted and rubbed or how much we cycle his legs. and the fact that he is breastfed and so shouldn’t get as much wind is a loads of rubbish (in his case at least) at his favourite time to start the screaming is about 11pm and it lasts until about 3am when we both pass out from sheer exhaustion.

we also have the choking on the sick when he is lying on his back or reclined which scares the hell out of me and make us so scared he will choke that we put him on his front to sleep, even though all guidelines tell us not to and that he will turn his head to be sick…well he must have missed that class as he NEVER turn his head

Also along with having reflux he has a dairy allergy and every time i have any dairy he has projective vomit that can rival a scene from the exorcist and another lot of screaming with pain from the moment he drinks my cows milk contaminated booby milk until it has worked its way out of his digestive system (stupidly my GP thinks this a load of tosh and nothing i eat or drink can effect my milk)

my Two year old son has learn’t to get a muslin cloth an wipe the sick off his little brothers face when mummy and daddy are busy and that mummy’s knees are always wet so to avoid touching them when he climbs up for a cuddle

my baby will be Four months old on the 18^th and i havn’t managed to leave the house once without a wet sicky patch or keep a pair of clothes clean for more than a few hours since he was born

we have tried the usual baby gaviscon and its a bit hit and miss working because when he doesn’t throw it all up it makes the poor boy constipated so we are waiting for his appointment with a paediatric doctor to see if we can sort something out before too many more of my husbands black jumper end up with white stains

so in an effort to lesson the ammount of sick and screaming i am now completely dairy free…you would be surprised how much contains dairy…and i am also caffeine free because that is supposed to aggrivate reflux too, i drink (nasty tasting) fennel tea and avoid spicy foods. i have also decided to remind my darling baby boy of this when he is being a wayward teenager of how much i put up with and gave up just to make him happy and healthy in hope that he will be nice to his mummy and stop being a pest…well i can live in hope

i would never wish this on anyone or their child because it can be hellish but even though my little baby boy is always sick/chocking/in pain he always has a smile for everyone and an extrra big one for me…the one that makes me sit with him at 2am patting his back to relieve the trapped wind, that makes me just sigh and wipe myself u after he is sick on me for the twenty second time that day and the one that makes me smile back when he wakes up it the morning when we are both still tired but have to get up

i love my baby boy sick and all