After what had felt like a lifetime of struggling with Ellie's post-op care, it was finally time to return to Hobart and see Doctor Kimble again. It was 9 days since her surgery, and we were hoping to hear that she could return to bottle feeding and take the splints off.
Our appointments in Hobart are always made for early afternoon. This gives us time to get down there, and time to get home before it gets too late as well. But it still means an early start for the day. It's generally a four-hour drive, but of course we need to factor in stopping to feed Ellie somewhere along the way. We always time our departure for straight after her feed, but she is on a three-hourly routine, so it's unusual for us not to need to stop at some point.
We left home at the ungodly hour of 6.30am. Between stopping for fuel and breakfast, we lost a bit of time, and Ellie was awake within an hour and a half. We stopped at Perth, but by the time I finished in the bathroom she had gone back to sleep, so we continued without feeding her. The rest of the way we were certain that she would wake up any time, and we kept pausing in each town, but she miraculously stayed asleep.
Because we hadn't needed to stop we were running well ahead of schedule. We decided to stop in at the Cadbury factory for hot chocolates, and we would feed Ellie while we were there. It was the first time I'd fed Ellie with the syringe in public, and I was nervous. Unfortunately I had good reason to be, because as I sat there feeding my screaming baby in the only way we could, I was told by an old lady at the next table just how lazy I was to be feeding her without even holding her. I tried not to let it get to me, but to be honest, she pissed me off.
After that we moved on towards the city, and called in to Ronald McDonald House to say hello to Penny and one of the families that had been there when we stayed. It was great to hear that their little boy was getting better, and they were going home that day.
We left a little bit early to go to the appointment with Doctor Kimble because it was in his private rooms at the Hobart Private Hospital, and we'd never been there before. Luckily though his rooms were easy to find, and we arrived with 10 minutes to spare. His receptionist gave me some paperwork to fill out, and soon after Doctor Kimble arrived.
He has a great level of commitments to his patients, and was immediately chatting with us about he things were going, and if we were having any problems. He was happy with how the repair was healing, and said that the dissolvable stitches should start falling out soon and then the swelling would go down. The best news: Ellie could have a bottle, and we could get rid of the nasty splints!
We talked briefly about the next step in Ellie's journey, and he requested that we come back in July for another check-up, and to organise for her palate repair in September. It was good to know we had five months to get ourselves mentally prepared before going through it all again.
We left town straight after the appointment, because we wanted to get as far as we could before Ellie's feed. We made it to Oatlands. We stopped at the TKO bakery, and planned to have a coffee and feed Ellie before moving on. We should have just kept driving.
I've always been nervous about feeding Ellie in public, even before surgery. Prior to coming to Hobart for her operation, I'd always managed to be close enough to friends or family to call in and feed her, or just sat in the car and did it. She's a noisy and complicated feeder at the best of times, and I don't have the patience to deal with the stares and questions that I always anticipate when I need to feed her in public.
Drew ordered our coffees while I set up on one of the couches. Ellie was in a foul mood, and even though I was finally offering her the bottle she'd been wanting for over a week, she was fighting me big time. After a bit of struggling one of the waitresses came over and stuck her two cents worth of advice in, saying "have you tried feeding her on a different angle?" Now, I know she probably thought she was helping, but I was frazzled, frustrated, and really didn't need someone telling me he to feed my baby. I replied with "I actually think I know how to feed my child, thanks" to which she snorted and muttered something about having nine kids between all of the staff and knowing a thing or two about kids.
That was it. I was so wild. What made her think that I wanted her help, or that I cared how many kids she had? Her experiences were completely different to ours, and those nine kids wouldn't have added up to half of the challenges we face with Ellie. Some people should just really shut their mouths. So, pissed off and annoyed I told Drew we were leaving, and we stormed out.
The plan was to feed Ellie at the next town, 20 minutes up the road but she fell asleep so we carried on to Westbury instead. She was much happier by that stage, but because we were in a hurry to get home and pick Sophie up I cheated, and used the syringe.
Unfortunately for us, that was the end of Ellie's patience for the days travels. She cried the whole 45 minutes from there to Bec's house, where we stopped to have dinner and pick Soph up. She calmed down after I gave her a bottle and Bec bathed her, and she eventually fell asleep.
It was after 8pm by the time we got home. A long day, a lot of driving, plenty of Ellie's signature screams, and some great news from Doctor Kimble. The best thing though was probably knowing we wouldn't need to make the trip again for two more months.
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