Easy on the Ears & Cocktails at Naptime

After four week’s of listening to Sophie’s hacking cough night and day I made the call to the doctors; surely it wouldn’t be ‘just a cold’, ‘just a virus’? Alice had also come down with a thick, vile, mucus producing cold and with babies it’s always worth checking all is okay.

They managed to fit us in at 1.15pm – but did say the doctor may be running behind schedule, so phone nearer the time for an updated time.

Well, with the sun shining and fresh air always a good antidote to a cold I headed into the city at 10am, parking up in an all day park. The girls scooted along the waterfront and had a great time at the skate-board park – Alice slept and I wished I’d bought along my copy of ‘Cocktails at Naptime: A woefully inadequate guide to early motherhood‘, which had arrived in my mail-box the day before.

I was SO excited to see it, as I’ve been waiting with eager anticipation, whilst reading the hilarious interviews and reviews on the Cocktails at Naptime book tour. It will be my turn to review this book on 30th October – which makes me rather nervous as many of the esteemed bloggers that come before me are brilliant.

I’m already at Chapter 3 and really should work on my pelvic floor muscles as the book is laugh out loud funny and should be mandatory on every baby shower gift list. I wish it had been around when I started out on my parenting journey. There’s a plethora of baby books out there, but the mixed advice is so overwhelming and sometimes, as authors Gillian Martin and Emma Kaufmann write, “…out of postnatal nastiness and the human struggle with sleep-deprivation, couch stainage and perineum bruising, comes forth humour; lots of it.”

Anyway, back to my post (but don’t expect me to write too much over the next few days as naptime will be ‘cocktail’ good reading time).

After a morning playing we needed lunch and to get to the doctors. Wellington city between the hours of 12.00 and 2.00pm, Monday to Friday, is pedestrian heavy and I had two children on scooters, a baby and a buggy to manoeuvre from one end of the city to the other. Remarkably we achieved this feat without taking out anyone’s ankles or annoying the people in suits and had time to spare.

So I decided to treat my gals to a little something from Toy World. Their first impulse was to go for whistles – the kind teachers delight in blowing at ear-piercingly loud levels. I had visions of us walking into the doctors waiting room and deafening half the patients who weren’t already in need of a hearing aid and losing my sanity in the process. It was then that the gleam of a harmonica caught my eye. A ha! Musical, fun and easy on the ears.

So we arrived at the doctors, harmonicas in hand, and waited… for an hour!

The diagnosis:

Sophie: ‘It’s what we call a ‘100 day cough’. We could give her something to blow in morning and night, but she’s better off beating it naturally.’

Alice: ‘It’s a rotten cold, but her lungs and ears are clear. Her throat is a little red, but she’ll be okay in a few days – though you’ll have a rough few days of it.’

Meaning:

‘You will have to endure your 4 year old’s hacking cough for 100 days, with passers by looking at you in disgust that you dare to take your child out of the home with such a vile sounding cough and she will be tired due to not sleeping well.’

‘You will also have to endure a week of sleepless night’s, cradling your baby in your arms, propped upright on pillows as though you’re travelling on a long-haul flight. It’s school holidays, so you will have zero chance of a power-nap and will just have to battle on.’

Well, THANK GOODNESS I have ‘Cocktails at Naptime’ to make me laugh!

And the girls were awesome for me in the doctors (entertaining everyone with their harmonicas!).

On the scoot back to the car they talked me into letting them have a go on the vertical bungy and I just couldn’t resist my crazy clowns, even though I really wanted to get home for a strong cup of something!

And back at home they continued their musical melody, like a pair of gypsies in the garden summoning the fairies.