New Year Update

William has settled into Cabrini well and was very spoilt for Christmas. He is feeding well and has had the nasal gastric tube removed from his nose along with all of the sticky tape across his cheeks. It took Paul and I at least 5 minutes to notice that he had nothing on his face anymore - funny how we had become so used to them we didn't notice them when they were gone.

The family photo was taken on Christmas Day - William slept through the presents being opened. One of the nurses made me a birthday card from William using his hand print and the photo of William sideways in his cot was taken on 1st Jan.

William now weighs 3070 grams and tomorrow the monitors which be switched off in favour of a "grasby" or apnea monitor - one lead on William's abdomen connected to a machine the sounds if he stops breathing for more than 20 seconds.

Over the last week or so we have been disconnecting William from his monitors for cuddles and feeding - it is amazing how liberating it feels!!! we can concentrate on him rather than listen the the machine go off at times when the reading is obviously wrong because we can see he is breathing!!

William has moved to 4 hourly feeds today and is starting to wake and demand his feeds which is great - he is having a mixture of breast and bottle until he learns how to breast feed properly - as technical he still shouldn't be born yet - he is 38 weeks gestation this weekend but 12 weeks old.

Christmas Update

A lot has happened since my last update. William has had his 2 month immunisations, he weighs over 2.9 kilograms, he is learning to breast feed, he has come off oxygen and he has been transferred to Cabrini Hospital in Malvern. His ETA for coming home is around the 10th January after his hernia operation on the 8th January.

It took us three attempts to get William transferred, the first attempt didn't happen because William had a reaction to his immunisations so we had to wait for him to stabilise and then the second attempt was at the end of a big day activity wise for William and he simply didn't want any more interaction so his stats jumped around a lot and the nurses decided it was best to leave him where he was. So the third attempt was successful and we arrived at Cabrini on Wednesday 19th Dec. He has settled in well, it is a much quieter nursery with no sick babies as such and the plan is to get him feeding well and to have his hernia operation before coming home around the 10th January - 10 days before his due date and 3 months after he was born.

The beauty of being closer to home means I can go in and out of the nursery across the day instead of spending 8 hours there in a row - it means I can have a break, get a few things done at home and be back in time for his next feed.

The photos above are of Williams transfer via NETS (Newborn Emergency Transport Service) in a humidicrib, his wonderful doctor, Lisa Fox and of bath time at Cabrini.

Paul, William and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to introducing you to our gorgeous boy when he is home and settled in.

William's Nursery & First Bath

Paul and I put William's nursery together last weekend, so it is all ready for him to come home.

William had his first and second bath this week - the first one he didn't enjoy at all but he seemed to enjoy his second bath better - even having a little poo in the water!!!

William is now out of the humidicrib and into an open cot, but he has caught a cold which he has been fighting off for the last 4 days. Once he has recovered from the cold the doctors are talking about transferring him to Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, much closer to home.

He now weighs 2244 grams and knows Paul and I and you can see him settle really well when he hears our voices and especially when he is lying on mine or Paul's chest.

Williams New Outfit

This is William's first outfit from me - it's great to get him out of the tiny hospital supplied outfits.

William is slowly being weaned off oxygen and is doing really well - both Paul and I try to have a cuddle every day now that he is stable enough to cope with all of the handling. His feeding tube is now in his nose so he can learn to breast feed.

He now weighs 2028 grams and will be weighed again tonight