Sneezy, Wheezy and Squeezy

This morning followed a very long night which began just before "X-Factor - The Results!" I made the mistake of checking Chick. As soon as I entered his room, I knew he had made a deposit in the Botty Bank. The Fluffy Mummy in me said, "Arrrgh, you'll have to wake him up and change him. He can't spend all night in a dirty nappy - he'll get a rash". The Bad Mummy said "You'll regret it. You know he'll be a nightmare, he won't go back to sleep and, most importantly, you're going to miss X-Factor".

Bad Mummy was right. He was a nightmare, he didn't go back to sleep, I missed X-Factor and he ended up sat on my lap watching "I'm a Celebrity" wide, wide awake. It got progressively worse from there and overall, we probably got 4 hours sleep all night. I've been subsequently knackered all day and Chickie is still not a happy chappie. I plucked 6 grey hairs out of my head this morning - what does that tell you?

We went to visit our friends, Bri and Anne-Marie, this afternoon in Tunbridge Wells. I worked with Bri, ten years ago, at my first job in London, before I started going grey! Accountant was a bit snuffly during the car journey. Chickie was Calpol'd to the max and we thought a change of scenery might lift his spirits. We were wrong.

Bri kindly enquired if Chickie really had had all the Calpol legally allowed and suggested a stronger version used on farm animals, "COWpol" might be more effective? I politely declined and apologised for the zillioneth time, explaining that he was usually a very sweet natured little boy and not the screaming minion of the anti-christ they saw before them.

During all this, I did remember looking up at my husband and thinking he didn't look particularly well but I was too stressed to care. First the sneezing started, then the wheezy request to our hosts for an inhaler. At this point, I did look up and noticed his eyes were swelling and he had a red, blotchy rash covering the top half of his face.

As he's asthmatic and allergic to most things, we assumed it was their cat which had caused him to have an allergic reaction so the cat's bed was moved out of the living room. However, Accountant seemed to be getting worse and worse. His eyes started streaming, the sneezing stepped up a notch and he was doing the really long blinking thing he does when his eyes are stinging. I mentioned to him that he was sneezing on the way up in the car and that maybe it wasn't the cat. This is when he asked me if it could have anything to do with his jumper as he had got it out of the other wardrobe which I had moved his "winter-wear" too. Then it dawned on me - that was the wardrobe all my horseriding gear was in and he's really, really allergic to horses! When we were in New England, I persuaded him to come to a horse stud with me and exactly the same thing happened there. That photo is him sneezing his little heart out in the waiting room. Whoops. I didn't even think when I moved all his jumpers to the horsey wardrobe. Now I've got to wash them all - damnation, which in turn means more ironing. The swelling seems to be subsiding now he's taken an anti-histamine. Sorry darlin' x

The finale to our fun-filled outing was my suffering with stomach pains all the way home. I can't go into detail as my parents won't allow it but let's just say I'm never missing another bowl of All-Bran again. It's just not worth it

Chickie seems a bit happier now and went to bed without any crying so fingers crossed he'll have a lovely sleep and wake up feeling better tomorrow. Us too.