Leila Rose Petal

Laughing it up by Nicky P

Leila was asleep when it was time to pick Finn up this afternoon. I was tempted to leave her in bed while I went to get him, but I just know that the day I do that will be the day the house burns down with her in it. So I woke her. And that was my first mistake.

When we got to childcare Leila was drowsy so I left her in the car, since I have no fear of it burning down in the few minutes I’m away from it and I feel bad about shoving the baby in and out of her seat repeatedly. I was a little held up inside the centre talking to the kindergarten teacher, but I was gone for no more than 5 minutes and fully believed the baby was asleep the whole time. That was my second mistake.

The baby was, in fact, screaming her lungs out. And continued to do so on the trip home and for the next half hour until Mark got home.

There were 2 issues: Leila was hungry and she’s constipated. The first would have been easily rectified if there’d been any clean bottles, but there weren’t and the Little Princess had to suffer the indignity of waiting 10 minutes until they were washed, sterilised and the formula prepared. She made sure we knew that this was unacceptable.

The second issue is less easily fixed. The poor poppet has been trying to poo all day and suffering in the process. During one nappy change I watched the it get right to the point of exiting before the pain and effort became too much and Leila stopped trying. Much as I desperately want to ease her discomfort, there’s no quick fix and for the moment she will just have to suffer.

We are trying to help her. The formula Mark gave her was three quarters of the usual strength and later tonight I will try to the old wives’ remedy of some sugar in the bottle. If that doesn’t help I’ll either be on the phone to the maternal & child health nurse or into the chemist to see what they recommend. Afterall, painful poo is no laughing matter.