Self-pity

I'm currently suffering from a sinus infection, which has caused my asthma to go bananas and my airways to shut down with frightening regularity. I went to the GP on Friday, faced with a Bank Holiday weekend ahead of me and several empty inhalers, and following a night of constant struggling for breath and very little sleep.

The lovely GP gave me some new inhalers, some steroid tablets, antibiotics for my sinuses and a nebuliser to help me calm down and get as much of the good stuff into my lungs as possible. Having pumped myself full of drugs on Friday, I had a much better night, managing to sleep from midnight to 4am, and then 6am til 10am (lovely Jamie got up with J-cub, despite him also having the sinus stuff going on). (The reason for me being up at 4am was because I woke coughing, popped a Strepsil in my mouth, and then took a puff of my inhaler. And swallowed the Strepsil whole. Doh! I had to get up to make sure I wasn't going to die and then I couldn't get back to sleep).

Last night, however, was a repeat of Thursday night, with me not managing to stop coughing long enough to fall asleep until well after dawn broke. I was up again at 9am to take all my meds, and then spent several hours back in bed, trying to make up for my post-5am bedtime.

The consequence of all this (apart from getting to indulge in a lot of self-pity) is that we really haven't done anything all day. It's been a day of trying to encourage J-cub to entertain himself, which thankfully he is very adept at.

He's all about the sense of touch at the moment, he loves to follow up his pointing with a careful one-fingered touch of whatever he's looking at, which might extend into a full-palmed touch and even a grab-and-hug-to-his-cheek if the item is particularly lovely. When my mum came to stay last week, she brought a large square of gorgeous red fleece for me to make nappy liners out of. I only needed a small strip off one end for that, so the rest of it was left as a lovely soft floor mat. J-cub loves fleece more than anything - when we put fleece mats on the floor he spends his time alternating between gently touching it, doing downward dog, and having a full face-down rest so as much of his skin as possible is touching the mat.

We arranged the mat on the floor and set up stations of toys around the edge, and he delighted us by crawling around, selecting the toys he wanted, then taking them one by one to the centre of the mat to sit and play with them. Cups featured heavily, as did his 1st birthday balloons which are still going strong.

I took tons of photos, and many fulfil my 'Look Up' brief, so I've stored some away for days when I forget. I love this photo, it captures him perfectly: sitting with his ankles crossed, holding cups, wide-eyed and incredulous.