Tuesday 10th July 2007

Today I am still coping well without my vapotherm, so they removed the vapotherm unit from next to my incubator (which had been there just in case), so that another baby could have it. I think this means that they are confident that I won't need it again, which is good news. I am still on my antibiotics though, as the doctors still think this infection is hanging around - they can tell this from my CRP levels which are too high for their liking. I need to show them that it's gone completely before I'm allowed to move into the Special Care Nursery from the High Dependency unit. Can you spot the difference between the two photos? Well, now that I'm not on vapotherm anymore, my feeding tube has been moved to my nose from my mouth. This means that I can learn to breastfeed with mummy more easily, as I haven't got a silly tube obstructing my mouth. I tried to breastfeed with mummy again today and did quite well sucking, although my mouth is still a little bit too small at the moment to do it properly, so we'll try again tomorrow, and keep trying until we get it right. I got through loads of nappies today - I keep making them dirty whilst they are being changed - mummy says I'm going to prove to be very expensive! I spent some lovely time with daddy tonight, he read me a story about Eeyore's birthday, and changed my nappy.

Monday 9th July 2007

I wore this lovely vest today, which my Auntie Emma bought for me - It's about the only piece of clothing that I own that isn't pink! Today I spent the morning without a cannula in which was nice - you can see the plaster on my head where the canular was yesterday. Mummy cleaned my head this morning, as it was bright orange from my antibiotics. I then had another breastfeeding lesson with mummy. I slept through most of it, but was rudely awakened when I sucked a little bit in my sleep and got a mouthful of milk by mistake - that made me cough and splutter. The doctors have given me a new cannula in my arm, so I have an annoying board on it again - at least it means that I'm less likely to pull my feeding tube out, which is my favourite party trick. This afternoon mummy noticed that my eyes looked a bit gunky and that I had trouble opening them, as my eyelids were a bit stuck together. The nurses took a swab from my eyes to check whether I've got anything nasty in them, and mummy wiped them to make me feel better. I hope they are better later so that I can open them and look at daddy when he comes to visit me this evening.

Sunday 8th July 2007

I had another nice day with mummy and daddy today, and I made them very proud, as when they arrived this morning, they discovered that I had been taken off my vapotherm, and that I was breathing completely by myself - aren't I clever? I came off it at 10am this morning, and I am doing ok so far, so lets hope I keep managing by myself. I also gave mummy and daddy a shock, because the cannula that was in my leg yesterday had stopped working, and the doctors put one in my head, as that was the only place they could find a vein. This means that I can wave my hands and feet around freely, but my head is turning orange, as the nasty orange antibiotic that they are giving me keeps leaking out of the cannula onto my head. I'm turning ginger!! Mummy did skin to skin holding with me today which was lovely, and I sucked my dummy right after daddy fed me through my feeding tube, to get me to associate a full tummy with sucking. I have had fun pulling and holding things today, including my feeding tube - not very clever as then it comes out of my tummy, and they have to put it backdown again, and tape it to my chin to stop me doing it. Mummy and daddy also put scratch mits on my hands to stop me pulling my tube out. I also held onto my toy giraffe, which was fun. Mummy and daddy had to cope with another monster poo today - it's a lot of fun to do the poo whilst they are changing my nappy.....

Saturday 7th July 2007

Today being the weekend, I got to see mummy and daddy together. I also had a lovely visit from Granny Judy and from Mel and Simon, who met me for the first time. I wore the lovely hat which they bought for me. It says 'tiny and very special' on it, which I think sums me up nicely!I had over and hour and a half with mummy this afternoon, and I had my first lesson in breast feeding. It's not something that will come easily to me, but I will get there eventually I think! I also held daddy's hand so that he wouldn't feel left out as you can see from the picture. My weight seems to be fluctuating a lot, and today it looks like I'm only 3lb and 3oz, but the nurses will double check tonight to see what my actual weight is. My vapotherm is only on 3 now, which is the lowest it gets before it is switched off altogether, and I am now drinking 20ml of milk every 2 hours. A good day all round I think!

Friday 6th July 2007

I am officially very fat today! I was weighed last night and I was a whopping 1,524g, which is nearly 3lb 6oz. This means that I have gained 1lb 1oz since I was born - wow! As you can see, I have been wearing some fancy clothes today, which Granny Judy bought for me. i think I look quite cool in them. Mummy was not very happy with me today, and I'll tell you why. One of my antibiotics is bright orange, and it turns my poo orange too. When mummy changed me this afternoon, I waited until she had my legs in the air to wipe my bottom, and then I did a big, messy bright orange poo all over my nice clean incubator. The nurse said she'd never seen anything like it before. It went everywhere, and mummy had to use a lot of cotton wool and tissues to clear it up! Whoops - I'll have to make it up to her somehow tomorrow. I had a lovely time with daddy tonight. He held me for almost an hour, and I was very relaxed, I think it was really a cunning ploy to avoid changing my nappy after the orange poo incident with mummy, to be honest! My friend Oscar is also getting very big. Word on the street is that he is now past the 3lb mark, so I am very pleased. There are rumours that he may be transfered to Banbury though, which I am not very happy about. I hope he stays in Oxford with me. It would be good if we could graduate out of the High Dependency Unit into the Special Care Unit together. Special care is where you go to get fat and learn to breast feed before you go home, so hopefully I can go there soon. I need to be off my antibiotics and off my vapotherm to be allowed in there. Granny Judy is coming to see me tomorrow - hooray.

Thursday 5th July 2007

Well, I've had a super day today. I had a lovely night's sleep and was wide awake when mummy came to visit me this morning. My blood transfusion made me feel full of beans, and I was awake for most of the time that she visited me. I was moved into a new incubator last night. It's not as new and trendy as the one I was in before, but they need those incubators for the new babys coming in to the hospital, and I don't need as much room as I haven't got as many wires attached to me now, so my new incubator is smaller than the old one. My milk regime changed today. The doctors took me to the next step, which is to have 18ml of milk every 2 hours rather than 9ml every hour. This is to get me used to filling and emptying my tummy, and to get into a normal pattern of feeding to prepare me for breast feeding with mummy in a few weeks. I coped with it pretty well today. The next step after this is to increase the volume of milk that I have with every feed. I have also worn some clothes today - look at me in this attractive babygrow from Mothercare that mummy and daddy bought for me. Plus I've got a new toy, which mummy's friend Nina bought for me - this lovely colourful giraffe which is now decorating my new incubator. Nina has a baby due in August, a few days before I was due to be born - so I'm looking forward to meeting him. I am on a new antibiotic to help to kill this infection that has been hanging around. My latest blood cultures were negative, so I am hoping that it has disappeared, but the new antibiotic is bright orange, and it makes my poo and wee wee orange as well - urghh!

Wednesday 4th July 2007

Well, today being Wednesday, I had to do something to worry mummy and daddy. It was definitely a day of 2 halves. This morning I was very stable as usual. Mummy was allowed to do 'skin to skin' holding with me for a whole hour, and we were both very relaxed together. Then the doctors told mummy that my haemoglobin levels had dropped below 8 which means that I needed a 'top up' of red blood cells. So they started me off on a blood transfusion. I didn't like that at all. My heart rate kept dropping, I was breathing too quickly and I was very pale and floppy - mummy was very worried about me, so she stayed at the hospital all day until daddy arrived at 7pm. I didn't like having the blood transfusion - half way through it, they realised that the cannula in my arm was leaking so they transferred the transfusion tube to the other arm, but that one started leaking aswell, so they had to stop the transfusion and put a new cannula into my foot! The good news is that the blood then started to go through well, I felt better and calmed down, and both my hands are now free of cannulas, so I can stretch them out nicely, and hold mummy and daddy's fingers! I was much better by the time daddy arrived, and opened my eyes and gave him a nice dirty nappy to show him that things were back to normal! Hopefully tomorrow will be less eventful, or mummy will get very stressed!

Tuesday 3rd July 2007

I have been sleeping a lot again today. This is partly due to the fact that the doctors have increased my dose of antibiotics and this makes me all dozy. The reason they've done this is because my blood cultures showed that the nasty bug that I had 2 weeks ago is still hanging around in my system somewhere. It's weird, as I feel fine. My sats are really good, my platelet levels are nice and high, and I am putting on weight fast (now 3lb 3 1/2 oz). The doctors don't know where the infection is hiding. They have done scans on my tummy and my chest and it's not there - so it's a bit of a game of hide and seek at the moment! In the mean time I'll just sleep and drink milk and try to get as fat as possible, and hope that the antibiotics kill the bug for good. Talking of milk, I'm on 7ml per hour now!I was very naughty today and did a big messy poo when one of the nurses was changing me. It went all over her, so she was not very happy. Mummy and I giggled about it when the nurse wasn't looking! Mummy read me a nice story from Winnie the Pooh again today. I like it when she reads to me, her voice is very soothing and helps me to relax. Daddy will come and spend time with me later. Last night we had a lovely time together. I held his finger for a long time, which I know he likes.

Monday 2nd July 2007

I have mostly slept today. As you can see I am busy trying to put on weight and I have succeeded in gaining another 50g - nearly a whole 2oz since yesterday. So I am nearly 3lb and 3oz now. I look very different to when I was born, you could almost call me chubby! The doctors were very impressed with my progress when they did their ward round this morning. So much so that they decided to reduce my vapotherm from 5.5 to 4, because I am breathing so well by myself, and also to increase my milk intake more quickly. This means that they will increase it by 1ml per hour every 12 hours, rather than just by 0.5ml. I hope my tummy behaves itself. Mummy and daddy are worried that I won't tolerate that volume of milk, as I have only managed to get to 4ml per hour in the past before they had to stop my feeds. Anyway by this afternoon I was taking 5ml per hour, and I wasn't too bad. I was a little bit sick when the doctor came round to give me an ultrasound scan. He scanned my chest and my tummy, and pressed really hard on it, so that's why I was sick I think. But the scan went well, and my chest and tummy look fine, which is good news. The doctors told mummy today that my blood cultures still showed signs of the nasty infection that I had about 10 days ago. I am still on antibiotics, and the doctors took more blood for testing today, so I am hoping that the infection will finally be gone when we get the results of these tests back. I am looking forward to seeing daddy this evening - he comes to see me every evening straight after work. I'm worried that he will get very tired, as it's a long drive, but I know he likes to see me every day and change my evening nappy, so I always try and make sure it's a good one!

Sunday 1st July 2007

I had a lovely time with mummy and daddy today. They put us behind a screen and I was allowed to snuggle down mummy's top and get 'skin to skin' contact with her. The nurses tell me this is called kangaroo care, because I can keep close to mummy like a baby kangaroo in its mummy's pouch. It was lovely and warm, and made me feel very close to mummy. I met my other godmother Jenny today. She came to visit me all the way from Birmingham. She brought me a lovely piggy bank to put my savings into, which is very bright and colourful. Hopefully Jenny will visit me again soon. I have put on another whole ounce today, which means that I am 3lb 1oz. I am drinking a massive 4ml of milk per hour now, and by tomorrow lunchtime this will be 5ml per hour, so I think this will mean that I get big and strong very quickly, so that I can come home and be with mummy and daddy all the time. I know they, and lots of other people are praying hard that this will happen as soon as possible. I am going to do my best to grow fast, so that we can be a proper family at home together. I hear that I have a lovely nursery decked out like a 'baby jungle' with elephants, giraffes, hippos and tortoises, which I am very much looking forward to seeing. I also have a very trendy pramette that Granny Meikle bought for me, which I am excited about taking for a spin!