July

July saw us going on our first family holiday as a 4 (well it was a couple of days gatecrashing my parents holiday really), we took Zara to the seaside for the first time and had her first experience of paddling in the sea and I shared my guide to Life with a Baby and Toddler

August

August was a pretty quiet month on the blog, with it being school holidays it meant my husband was home and so our days were filled with trips out and about. These included Washington Wildfowl and Wetlands and Adventure Valley,  oh and I got a new car and had to change my views on School Run Mums!

September

September saw Oscar meeting a Dragon, one of my favourite posts of the year as I admitted I Don’t Like Babies. I caught up on our summer holiday adventures and shared our experiences on days out to The Alnwick Garden, Blue Reef Aquarium, South Shields and The Seaside and Durham Botanic Gardens.

October

October saw lots of reviews and competitions on the blog as I launched my Knees Up Mother Brown Christmas Guide, we had a fantastic time testing lots of toys and gifts and I’d like to thank all the PRs and companies for allowing us to feature your products.

November

November saw Zara turn 2 years old and I wrote her a letter, I expressed my concern over the Mammy, Mummy, Mam, Mum issue, I shared Oscar and Zara’s first nursery photos in My Beautiful Children, I shared the story of how I made my husbands Birthday Wish Come True, we went to Durham Lumiere Festival, Kirkley Hall Zoological Gardens, Beamish Museum and I shared the fun we had making our Annual Christmas Cards.

December

After a really busy year of blogging, it was time for Mother Brown to take a blogging break in December.

I’ve had great fun looking back through all my blog posts in 2011 and I hope you’ve enjoyed looking back at them with me. It was a crazy year but a fantastic one. Stick with me for 2012 to see what adventures the Brown household gets up to next….

Sofa gymnastics

There is something so cute about them playing together whilst the bath is running!

One of the nicest things with having 2 close together in age is how they will sit and play with each other

Somebody is feeling quite proud of his new skills, wonder how long it will be til he is walking!

I don’t know what it is about doctors that has the effect of making me feel incompetent and useless. If I have to leave one more appointment and sit in the car crying then I think I will lose the plot completely. If I hear the words “he is still gaining weight so there can’t be much wrong” once more I think I am likely to strangle the doctor.

You see I am not just a paranoid new mum. I’m intelligent (I’ve got a first class degree and I’m a chartered accountant for goodness sake), I’ve had a baby before, I spend 24 hours with Oscar and I know him better than anyone and I’ve asked 100 questions, researched so much online and tried so many things to see if it will help.

I’m not just moaning because he cries a lot, I am concerned because babies aren’t born “miserable” they cry for a reason. I’m concerned because something is causing my baby distress and seeing as he can’t tell me himself it’s up to me to fight his corner.

Looking back the signs were there from about 4 weeks old after I switched to formula. The HV commented on him being so snuffly and the rash on his face. The doctor at his 8 week check up prescribed us some cream for his face and some nasal drops for his snuffly nose. We also had gunky watery eyes which we thought were an eye infection so they gave us an antibiotic cream.

By about 8 weeks things were getting more difficult, Oscar was bringing back up large quantities of most of his bottles and screaming, arching his back and going rigid when we tried to wind him. Zara had colic and this didn’t seem like colic it seemed more like reflux so we go back to the doctors who prescribed gaviscon.

The gaviscon reduced the amount of sick but Oscar was still unhappy so I decided to try a soya based formula to see if the lactose was upsetting him. This helped slightly but it seemed to go straight through him, he had really runny poo and we were getting through about 3 nappies a feed. He was pooing so much it was making his bottom bleed.

Because I wasn’t convinced the soya milk was agreeing with him, I am now trying Staydown milk. We’ve been using it about 36 hours now and already the rash is back on his face, he has a snuffly nose again, gunky eyes and wheezy breathing. It’s only seeing this happen that I realised he didn’t have any of that when on the soya milk.

So yes he is gaining weight but I’m
Suspecting a milk allergy now as the rash, runny eyes, runny nose and wheezing have all reappeared really soon after introducing milk back into his diet. It’s also seems like the soya milk is also upsetting his stomach but I need to feed him something.

I’m going to ring the HV today and see what she thinks and then try to see if the doctors will at least listen to my concerns and maybe prescribe me some hypoallergenic formula for us to at least try. I’m running out of options of what to feed him otherwise!

So yes he is gaining weight and yes I may just be overtired and stressed but I need somebody to listen to me and take me seriously. His health may not be being seriously affected by it but he is so miserable I have to keep trying for his sake. When a 13 week baby doesn’t do anything except feed or cry when awake there is something not right. We don’t have happy times with smiles or giggles like I did with Zara.

I’m sorry for such a rambling post but I need to get it off my chest somewhere before I explode

This is a photo of the eczema type rash which has come up just 36 hours after putting milk back in his diet.