Goodbye Aunty Dink xx

Aunty Dink, Nonna, Me, Uncle Keith

When I was born I had 6 grandparents 2 great grandparents a great great Aunty and a great great Uncle. Slowly they have passed away one by one leaving 2 grandmothers and my great great Aunty and Uncle. Until yesterday. My great great Aunty Dink passed away. She was 88.

Aunty Dink (whose real name was actually Ivy Grace) was my mum’s great Aunty on my grandmothers side. From England, we would only get to see her and Uncle Keith when they came on holiday to Australia. They loved to travel and would always hire a car and drive up to Tamworth to visit us. A block of toblerone for my brother & I was a given! And sometimes we were lucky enough to receive 50£ for our birthday! We also loved visiting them when they stayed at Manly right on the beach. Whenever I think of Manly I always think of Aunty Dink and Uncle Keith.

Aunty Dink was always a character! She loved to chat, always wore the same style of dress, below the knee, short sleeves, buttons down the front, and stockings and always wanted to know if anyone had any ‘hot goss’!

I’m so grateful that despite their ailing health they still managed a trip out to Oz not long before John & I got married in 2009 and they were able to meet John.

Sadly they’ll never meet Sophie their great great great niece, but apparently Aunty Dink understood that I’d had a baby and that she was Sophie’s great great great Aunty, which makes my heart smile.

Aunty Dink was one of those people in my life who you just expected to always be around.

Bye Aunty Dink we’ll miss you and you can be rest assured I’ll eat plenty of toblerone in your honour. xx

Tears

Last night I went to bed and I cried.

I cried for my dear friend who lost everything in the QLD floods. I cried for the mother whose baby daughter was ripped from her arms in the QLD floods. I cried for all the people of Queensland, northern NSW and now Victoria. I cried for the animals who couldn’t be saved. I cried for Lori who tragically had to bury her husband, her children’s Dad last week. I cried because I was tired.

Every single Australian is affected, whether you know someone or not. Our country and our people are going through an enourmous heartbreak.

I cried  because I was thankful my family were ok, because we are fortunate enough not to be going through a living hell. I cried because I could.

The 1st night.

I missed this beautiful face!

I never really thought about having a night away from Sophie, because there just wasn’t a need, or really a want. Ok so there was a want for a full night sleep! But as she’s a solely breastfed baby and not overly keen on the bottle I just thought if and when I did have a night away from her, it would be many many months down the track.

Then last Sunday I started to feel unwell about lunchtime. By 5pm I could not stop throwing up and about 8pm I collapsed. My poor husband had to call an ambulance, deal with a screaming baby and watch his wife lay on the bedroom floor, totally out of it.

Thankfully 2 of our dearest friends were over for dinner and lent a very big helping hand. So the ambulance came, started pumping me full of drugs and fluid and took me off to hospital. I barely remember anything from falling on the floor, to ending up in a hospital ward.

According to my friend who came with me to the hospital I spent quite some time in Emergency yelling for anti-sickness drugs and a blanket. Eventually the drugs came, but no blanket as I had a temperature, and even though I was shaking uncontrollably, I still wasn’t allowed a blanket.

As they took me down to the ward where I would spend the night, I suddenly worried about Sophie. Jen assured me that Sophie had guzzled a bottle of milk and John was busily defrosting the frozen milk stash we had in the freezer.

I felt relieved, but quite upset that this was how I was spending my first night away from my baby girl. I got a text message from John saying ‘get a good night sleep’. Unfortunately this wasn’t to happen, as the nurses took my blood pressure and temperature EVERY HOUR, and blood numerous times throughout the night.

So needless to say my first night away from Soph was not what I had imagined. No relaxing, romantic getaway for hubby and I. Nope me all my own, well with some nutjobs, in the hospital being pumped full of fluid like there was no tomorrow.

Amazingly Sophie and John survived without me. Well it shouldn’t be that amazing considering what an awesome Dad John is. I’m so thankful Soph took the bottle. I guess she was hungry and just didn’t care where the milk came from! I was very relieved when the doctor said I could finally go home at 4.30pm the next day and that I should be ok to breastfeed. John had 60ml of milk left when I got home. So it was very lucky I arrived home when I did!

I’m even more thankful that Sophie didn’t get sick. Resilient little bugger!

I can only hope that my next night away from Sophie is more enjoyable!

Do you remember the first night away from your kids?