Our first A & E experience....

I have to admit, I have always been a worrier.

So I knew as soon as I was pregnant that I would inevitably be the kind of Mother who spends a lot of time at doctors surgeries and hospital waiting rooms.

I suppose I'm quite luck that we managed to get to almost 8 months old before we had our first real sickness episode.

Tyne is a very very easy baby most of the time, I have to admit.

I'm not too sure why or how that happened - I don't think its anything that I can take credit for.

My sister insisted that I cuddled him too much when he was little and that I still do, we don't believe in routines, we don't really have any set rules on anthing - so it's not as though any kind of active parenting decisions have led to the way he is. I think it's just how he naturally is.

He very very rarely cries. He is almost always happy and smiling. He entertains himself easily and doesn't demand much attention. He eats well. He's only ever thrown up maybe 4 times as a newborn and never since. He never even has a nappy rash or anything that requires any kind of attention!

The only issue we have ever had is some skin dryness and irritation once or twice - that is literally all that has ever happened to us since he's been born. Other than that there has been none of the hair-pulling out moments of frustration or head-scratching moments of not knowing what to do that I expected to experience.

But I guess it had to end sometime....

Last weekend, after the bloggers meet, I noticed that Tyne was very under the weather.

He seemed sullen which isnt like him, he wasn't smiling much - something seemed to be wrong.

We tried to give him his tea but he didnt want to know - very unusual for him!

I thought he felt warm so I took his temp and it was 39.

I gave him calpol and was prepared to just watch over him, but then I noticed that his hands and feet were very cold.

Alarm bells started ringing as I was almost sure I had once read that cold hands and feet could be linked to meningitis in children.

I stripped him off and checked him over and saw a pinprick rash on his tummy and his back.

I practically threw him in his car seat, yelled at Jon that we were going to the hospital and within 2 minutes we were on our way.

It may seem over cautious but the thought of meningitis is terrifying and all too real to me, after my next door neighbour as a child died from it at 3 years old after going out shopping with his mother one morning in perfect health - he suddenly took ill and was dead by the evening.

So if ever I think there is any slight possibility of it, I am going straight to hospital.

We got to the hospital and told the receptionist our concerns - unfortunately there didn't seem to be much urgency there or any triage system in place, and we waited almost half an hour (as drunk men and teenagers with sprains went in ahead of us) to be called through.

When we eventually went through, a nurse did some checks. She worried me when she shone a light in his eyes and seemed concerned that he didn't like the light.

After some more tests, we were put into a cubicle and told to wait for a Dr.

A while later the Dr came, she did some more tests, checked the rash and to our relief said it didn't look like it was linked to meningitis but rather a rash from the fever he had.

His fever was still at 39 despite the calpol, and so she gave him some ibuprofen and took a urine sample. We were told to wait an hour or so, if the fever didn't break he would need to be kept in.

An hour later, his fever had dropped to 37 and so we were allowed to go home - told that it was probably a virus but didn't seem to be anything serious.

Unfortunately since then, although his fever has returned to normal and there's been no more rash, he hasn't been well at all.

He won't eat, he sleeps all the time, he has the worst cough I've ever heard and he is so unlike his usual happ self - he's full of cold, very whiney and miserable.