I know it’s beginning to sound like we rush our children to hospital at the slightest provocation, but Ruth has just taken Henry to Alder Hey with Croup.

I suppose once you’ve gotten one child who is susceptible you’re next isn’t going to have much luck either. Henry woke up about 20 minutes ago. with the same wheezy sound, We had a (very short) go at ignoring it - but it was obvious really. the hospital probably won’t call it croup. If only because he’s under 1. but hopefully they will give him the drug that calms it all right down.

I think if you don’t live 6 minutes from a specialist children’s hospital your doctor would tell you that if it happened in the night to do the steam in the bathroom / take them outdoors thing and limp on through, but - and I do feel a bit like I am defending it a bit; our Doctor and the ones in the hospital have made it quite clear you bring them in if they’re having breathing problems.

I just hope Ruth is as lucky as I was, and they will be home by 3am, but It is Friday night and while not many 3 year olds go out on the tiles. I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t change the nature of A&E.

I’m going to see if i can get some rest, because It could be a long Saturday for some.

Henry is 9 Months and 1 day today. It was only yesterday - except it has been forever. Given how we gave Daisy an 8 Month progress report. I though our Henry should get the same (and yes it’s a month late, sorry second children it happens).

So what can henry do now he’s 9 months old?

He can crawl. it’s not a full on on your knees crawl - Henry has gone for much more of a thrust and pull crawl. he straightens his legs to get a bit of leverage, and pulls. It’s very effective, and gets him around the room way to fast. In the last day or two, he has started to pull his knees up, but to be honest I would be suprized if it gets him around any faster.

He can say ‘Dada’ - he’s being saying it for a couple of weeks now, but over the last week or so I am becoming more convinced he means me! … or Daisy somebody anyway.

Rolling over? - Yes Henry can’t stay still! he has yet to learn the perils of the change mat. and while he hasn’t gone over the edge yet I’m not convinced he knows what would happen.

The One thing people notice about henry when they see him are his smiles - he almost always smiles (between the hours of 6am and 7pm), we use to think Daisy was a contented baby but Henry just loves everything. We could put that down to his fantastic parents. I do think the Baby wearing has done a lot to make him happy, but I do credit quite a bit of it to Nature - with one baby you can see things come out as they learn with two you can see the bits that are already there.

Henry is really quite a physical baby - he currently is going through a banging phase (next 16 years?). anything and everything is tested to see if it makes a noise when banged against something - usually the table. when he is on the floor, he can reach, grab and genrally make a mess in seconds so we’re not worried about any of that.

Food - With Daisy food was the accepted worst bit of the day. not because it was horrid, or that she was bad at it .. just that it takes ages. Henry is no different. feeding him takes and age, and both Ruth and I detest having to do it. Mainly because Henry is eating the same as we do (much more than Daisy. mainly because we are less paranoid / more lazy). so while you feed him, your tea is going cold. this is why we are encouraging finger food at every opportunity.

Henrys sleep is something worthy of a mention, We’ve never been the best at getting our children off to sleep. we are good at routine, and keeping them asleep. but actually getting a child to sit in a cot awake and choose to lie down (something our friends children can do to annoying affect).

Daisy took hours of tricking and sitting with hands, we always vowed we wouldn’t do that with the next. So henry doesn’t get that. but he doesn’t just accept it, when he is upset (not always) he has a 7 minute switch. It’s hard to do but if you let him cry, you can almost guarantee that at 7 minutes not matter how hard the crying has been he will stop and go off. It’s uncanny I almost always don’t believe it’s going to happen, and it almost always does.

Things Henry likes: Daisy, being carried, Loud Noises (see Daisy), crawling around

Things Henry doesn’t like: poo (he doesn’t like soiled nappies!), being told to sleep. not much else he’s very happy.

we moved Henry last night, from the uber hammock to the cot bed. it turns out it’s almost 3 years to the day since we moved Daisy into her own room

He only woke up twice, and once he had been tricked to sleep in our bed, he went down in his own no problem. we are? doing a few days of put him down already asleep, and then we will try seeing if he can settle himself. it’s a bit worrying because the hammock is great for self-rocking and a cot bed doesn’t do that.

Still we are trying to remember Daisy wasn’t easy; and I suspect Henry won’t be that bad.

Things are almost back to normal in the Jumps house, Ruth is now not noticeably dizzy, I’m back at work, and Henry’s ears are better - although he does appear to have developed a nasty habit of waking up 30 mins after I fall asleep, it’s getting quite tiresome, in more ways than one.

Oh and daisy has just done the same! happy night all round!

Not to much to report at camp Jump today. With all the illnesses we’re basically running on backup power. Ruth is an easy patient, it’s just Henry with his sore ears that’s causing all the problems - and because Ruth is ill. I’ve got no one to really share the load. It’s just taken the best part of 45 minutes to convince him to sleep and I am expecting him to wake up in about an hour or two when the drugs wear off.

Last night we woke up at 3:00, went to sleep at 3:52 woke at 4:30 and didn’t go back to sleep until 7:00 by which time Daisy was up. Like I said backup power.

Still everyone is on medication now, so it should all get better soon.

Illness abounds the Jump household. Ruth Still has spinnyhead-itits. Henry has sore ears and is on Antibiotics, and Daisy has Daddy germs apparently “You had a cold, but now I’ve gotten it haven’t i?”. I did think that was her way of getting in on the act, but she did have quite a cough this morning.

I’ve got a slightly sore ea, which lead Ruth to say “you do know ear infections aren’t contagious, don’t you?” which I do know, but that doesn’t alter the fact that my ear is sore.

Yesterday saw a trip to the doctors but only for Henry, because Ruth was ‘better’, Daisy didn’t have Daddy germs then, and I didn’t have a sore ear. Today is going to see another trip to the doctors because Ruth isn’t ‘better’ and I have a sore ear (Daisy just has a cough, we can handle that one ourselves).