We had made plans to meet my friend Melinda and her two daughters at the mall today at 12.30 so we had a fairly relaxed morning, taking time getting ready to go out. Penri dropped us off at 12.15 and Melissa went off to do some shopping and I took the children up to the 2nd floor to the play area. Melinda wasn't there yet so I took DJ and Abi into The Early Learning Centre which has just opened up in Ambience. It was amazing in there … really well laid out, lovely background music (which wasn't overpowering as most of the shops are here) and the toys they had were really nice. There was a two (or three – I can't remember) storey garage with matchbox cars laid out as soon as we got in the shop so you can imagine what Dylan was doing the whole time I was shopping in there. I didn't actually buy anything – I just priced a few things up and had a good look around.
After we left there I walked a couple of shops down to Mothercare and saw Melinda in there on her phone. DJ wouldn't stay in the pushchair as he had now seen the play area so there was no way he was going to sit still! I took him out, put him in the play area and then went back and told Melinda that I was going to sit just behind the play area so I could feed Abi.
When I got to the bench there was a security guard sat there and I asked him to move so I could feed the baby, but because there were quite a lot of people around, in the end I decided to sit on the floor to feed her because I can disguise what I am doing better by putting the pushchair in front of me. Pretty much as soon as I started feeing her, two guys came and sat on the bench and started watching me. Literally, just sitting there to look at me! When Melinda came back she mentioned it (that they were staring at me) and I told her they had come AFTER I had started feeding and were just staring at me. Anyway, I finished feeding her and then we went into the play area with Dylan and Charlotte and the two babies. We stayed for about 40 minutes and then went back into ELC to look at the toys. After that I needed to feed Abi again to try and get her to sleep as she was really tired! I fed her and Melinda went off to go back to Mothercare with her two children. When I sat Abigail up from her feed, she immediately threw up. She was just sick and sick and sick. I was sitting on the floor in the play area of the mall surrounded by sick, it was all over Abi, all over me, I just couldn't believe how much there was. I asked the lady who worked there if she had tissue or a towel or something. She didn't seem to understand what I was saying to her so because I couldn't move, I phoned Melinda and asked her to pop back (Mothercare is right next to the play area). The woman from the play area appeared back with what looked like a floor towel and I asked her to pass me my green bag off the pushchair. Again she looked at me like she hadn't a clue what I was saying. Anyway, the long and short of it is – I got some wipes, a floor towel and started to clean up the mess. I was drenched. I had a change of clothes for Abi (as I always carry spare clothes for both the children) but I had nothing for me, so I just had to clean it as best I could.
While all this mayhem was going on and I was sitting on the floor feeling completely helpless, the woman from the entrance to the play area came up to me and told me that our time was up and we had to leave the play area. I looked at her with a shocked face as there was literally only one other child in the play area – it's not like we were in the way or anything. I replied to her that as soon as I had cleaned up, I would leave. Then in the next minute, a woman approached me from outside the play area and started talking to me through the net. She told me I have a cute baby and asked if she could take a photo!! Again, I just looked at her totally shocked! SERIOUSLY!! I said to her 'This really isn't a good time'. She seemed a bit taken aback that I hadn't let her take a picture, but really!!!!
We left the play area and went up to the Food Court where I had arranged to meet Melissa. I got DJ some food and sat down where I was trying to calm Abi down to get her to sleep. She got a lot worse very quickly and started burning up with a temperature. I phoned Mel on her Doha mobile and told her that we had to leave because Abi wasn't well. I then called Penri and he came and picked us up and took us home.
The afternoon wasn't good because I couldn't get Abi to sleep and she didn't want to feed and her temperature was up and down. Dylan was so well behaved and spent most of the afternoon entertaining himself, bless him. I finally managed to get Abi to sleep at 8 p.m but in my bed. It was my dad's idea actually because I spoke to him on Skype and I was telling him how I can get her to sleep on my shoulder but then as soon as I lay her down, she wakes up. He suggested laying her on my bed and I lay next to her and it worked like a charm!! She didn't get up again until 10.45 p.m but when she did, she seemed a lot worse and her fever was raging so we took her to the hospital. The doctor said she has a viral infection and gave us Calpol and some nasal drops. We brought her home, gave her medicine and I put her to sleep in our bed.
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