Six weeks

For five weeks everything was fine. We adjusted to being a family of five. Emma had developed a lazy eye or a squint, but nobody seemed very concerned.I went back to work as a childminder after a week of maternity leave, I felt great. The only cloud on the horizon was the prospect of losing the children I was caring for as their parents were all facing redundancy.

Then on the evening before her 6 week doctor's development check, Emma pulled her head forward as I dried her following her bath. I felt a soft lump inbetween her shoulders. It was like an extra thick pad of flesh. Andy took a photograph of it for me. There were still the red marks around her neck from where the cord had been wrapped around, but the midwives and health visitors did not seem concerned by the length of time it was taking for them to fade.

The following morning, I took Emma for her check-up. The Dr commented on how alert she was. Whenever he paused in his speech, she started to babble. He commented that she was already a chatterbox! I mentioned the lump on her back as I stripped her off for the physical check. The Dr explained that it was a hemangioma, a birthmark, and that for a girl, your back was a good place to get one. He explained that it would shrink over time and go, but he was more concerned about her lazy eye, or squint. The Dr wanted to get it checked out, and referred her to the paediatrician at the local hospital. He expected the appt would come through quickly, but would be in a month or two.