It shouldn't happen to a Mummy

What a week it's been! Really it shouldn't happen to a Mummy... first my little one starts to suffer from separation anxiety and will not go to bed. She wants to sleep on Mummy, or be touching Mummy or have Mummy cuddles. I'm hoping it's a phase, as neither of us is getting much sleep. If she wakes in the night then she really needs Mummy and we both doze from 3.30am to 7.30am when it's up time.

So what? A little sleep deprivation is something parents are used to. What's so tough about that? Well it was the second thing to happen that has really hit us hard. This was an allergy (we think*). A severe reaction to something that has caused huge painful blisters to appear on the soles of baby's feet and all over her hands. Blisters on her knees and small sore red marks on her bottom. They started as a small rash and grew into big painful fluid filled blisters... they were so bad she couldn't walk or pick up anything.

Now I don't suffer from any allergies and couldn't understand what was causing the blisters at first – it looks like she's walked in acid or on hot coals and burnt herself.** I've racked my brain for anywhere we've been where she could have come in contact with something awful. There's only one new thing in our lives – horse chestnuts.

Old photo of the horse chestnut covered back garden

In the area of Surrey where I live we are surrounded by huge mature horse chestnut trees and we're having a fantastic harvest this year. The chestnuts are ripe, loving this hot weather and are coming down like hailstones (big, fast dangerous to be under the tree type hailstones). If you want chestnuts for roasting on an open fire, then I'm your gal – we have boxes and boxes full already. It really is a good year for them. I have two huge mature trees in my garden, so our lawn is a carpet of “ow-er ow-ers” as we've called them to let baby know they are prickly. They fall as soon as you pick them up, so I'm constantly hoovering them out of our way with the lawn mower.

5mins of collecting!

So with this recent discovery of Kathryn's reaction to horse chestnuts & their casings this means the back garden is now out of bounds. For my little nature girl this is torture; she can see the garden from our lounge and has quickly learnt to say 'door'. Heart breaking as I want to go outside and play in this lovely October sunshine as well.

But we've found some indoor games for outdoor people and we'll share them on tomorrow's blog!

*I'll let you know about if these are the cause of the blisters once we've taken her to the nearby allergy centre.

**Blisters improved with a day at the seaside playing in the salt water, we've been using bicarbonate of soda in her evening bath and calamine lotion to help calm the red sores.