Rowan Tree and Red Thread

Back in Cork after an eventful Christmas down with Sam's parents. Christmas Day was great; lots of cool presents, Rowan having a ball with her new toys, particularly the play-tent we got from the Early Learning Centre (thanks Eoin and Noora for bringing it down from Dublin) and the Fisher-Price garage that Sally got for Rowan. Together they've received the lion's share of Rowan's attention.

Unfortunately after Christmas things went downhill a bit. Rowan fell sick with some ear infection and tummy bug. We spent an early morning vigil with her before getting her down to Clonakilty to see the on-call doctor. He prescribed Augmentin, an anti-biotic that Rowan has had before, and paracetamol to deal with her fever (which peaked at 39.5 Cent/103 Fahrenheit). This seemed to work, but about an hour and half after her first dose of Augmentin she vomited and had pains in her abdomen. We didn't associate this with the antibiotic at first, and completed our packing and got ourselves back into Cork for about 6 o'clock. Rowan's second dose of Augmentin at about 7 o'clock left us in no doubt, however. By bedtime at 8.30 she was doubled up, crouching on her hands and knees to try and relieve the pain in her gut, and in absolutely miserable condition. The on-call doctor (thank you SouthDoc) phoned in a new antibiotic prescription to the late-night pharmacy, and we just had to huddle together, all three of us in the one bed, until Rowan got comfortable enough to go to sleep. Throughout the night she woke and Sam (bless her!) cuddled her back to sleep, so we managed to go from about 12.30 'til 6.30 before Rowan woke up properly.

She's in much better form this morning. I've never been so pleased to hear her laugh as I was this morning. It's not over yet as we've got to get her through the rest of the course of the new anti-biotic, and deal with her diarrhoea (aggravated by the anti-biotic no doubt), but she's made such an improvement over last night that I'm greatly relieved.

Poor, brave, little bug.