Annika starting to drink

Day 5: Friday 16th October 2009 – Annika weighs 11.04kgs
Annika is to have 200mls nutrini while asleep tonight.
Today we found out that breakfast is included in the tariff for our hotel. We’ve missed a few breakfasts so far, but we slept in the first 3 mornings because of jetlag and would have missed those ones anyway. Wow! A buffet with eggs, bacon, cheese, fruit, chocolate cake usually (which Bella loved the first time but now sticks to cornflakes!), cereals, breads and tea and hot chocolate for our table.
11am: PT (physiotherapy) which actually involves cranial sacral therapy. Eva held Annika’s tummy and near the back of her neck for about half an hour. Eva was very happy with Annika and we only have to go for half an hour at the next session.
12noon: spielessen – Annika was trying to drink lots from her bottle but most ends up spilling down her top.
1:30pm ish: The doctors are quite happy though and seem to think that she is swallowing quite a bit of the liquid (soup at lunch time, but seems to love juices). They say she is medically fine. She’s happy, alert and still as cheeky as ever. It will just take time for Annika to learn to control her swallowing more. We are told there will be a play picnic on Saturday at 12noon.
Tram into the hauptplatz (town centre) and find out where an internet café is from the information centre. We have had a hard time finding a computer where we can easily access the internet. Find one very close by, 20mins cost 1 Euro. Yay, can now do my first blog of the trip, very quickly, while the kids go stir-crazy. The hotel is supposed to have internet access which turns out to be using the hotel computer when the main receptionist is not using it. Also tried at the hospital (you’d think students would have something at the university hospital) and one of the PhD students said we can use their computer when they’re not using it, which again hasn’t been ideal, and their computer is in the actual play picnic room where the spielessen is held!! Had time to use it for the first time yesterday.
3pm: While in town we get to see the Glockenspiel, with statues of a man and woman dancing. Bella is entranced. Photo below
4pm: Afternoon tea at the Hof backerei, yummy cakes, tea and hot chocolates.
Tea again at the Häuserl im Wald restaurant. It gets dark early here at about 5:30pm and cooking on 2 hot plates has been too hard to contemplate so far. There is not much cooking utensils either with a bread knife, a grater and the usual knives, forks and spoons is the extent of it.

Day 6: Saturday 17th October 2009 – Annika weighs 11kgs (1kg lost already)
Drop Annika’s feed to 150mls nutrini tonight.
Have had problems with mum’s laptop and we have busily saved all our pictures onto a USB stick instead. It seems to be a trip where all our equipment breaks down. Annika also threw her glasses on the ground on Thursday. Gareth ended up standing on them and scratching the lenses beyond repair, the frames were pretty knackered already but there was no fixing them this time. Prof. Marguerite was able to get us an appointment to get Annika’s eyes checked on Monday. Did she need glasses for the next few weeks? YES. Don’t you have her script with you? NO. It’s been nearly a year and she’s due to have her eye’s checked again. What if her prescription has changed for her glasses? Ok then we’ll get them to check her eyes here then. They speak English at the sehschule (eye clinic). The drama of Annika’s glasses continues on Monday.
12noon: spielessen – some of the other kids are eating small amounts of solid food now. Wow!!
Off to the hauptplatz again. This time we walk passed the kunstel (big slug looking building, housing a museum of course), onto the Murinsel (man-made island in the middle of the Mur river- see picture with Bella on it below), ride the Schlossberg Cave railway (“fairytale scenes through tunnels once used as a safe haven from the allied bombings during WWII”), up the glass lift to the Uhrturm (clock tower on the hill - see photo below with Gareth, Bella and Annika with her juice bottle in her hands). Then it started to rain so we run to the funicular (schlossbergbahn) and had a very steep ride down the hill again. The funicular reminded me so much of Wellington I kept looking for the harbour!! We then went for McD’s at the Jakominiplatz where Bella could get a Barbie doll with her happy meal!! Annika then fell asleep. It's been a very busy and tiring time for her.

Day 7: Sunday 18th October 2009 – No weight monitoring, no playpicnic! Free day.
No bacon at breakfast but a big bowl of strawberries instead. You can guess what Bella ate for breakfast then. Annika is continuously wet, messy and with a bottle in her hands. We make sure the plate is set up with food on it for Annika and Bella. We have a quiet walk in the woods which takes you right passed a restaurant. We end up going there for lunch. Seafood for Gareth, tafelspitz for me (like corned beef), pomme frites (chips) for Bella and soup for Annika. A family was having a celebration with a big cake and lots of pastries. They saw Bella looking and brought over 2 pastries for the girls to have. They looked very much like the pastry horns we have in New Zealand but instead of cream inside they had like a mock cream. Bella didn’t like them at all. But Annika wanted to try them. She licked the mock cream off my finger. She ended up swallowing about a tablespoon full. Very exciting.
We tube feed Annika 100mls of nutrini tonight. ANNIKA’S LAST TUBE FEED!!



More in 2 days.