We made it.

We did it, we got her home, words can't describe the relief.

I got down to the hospital at about 9 (I have taken 3 weeks off work to be with the girls) and the discharge process was already well under way. This really just involved paperwork and a final check from the specialist paediatrician. Deb had the car already packed up so all that remained was to wait for Sophie to wake up and have a feed, then to say goodbye to everyone. We took her up to the Lab after that had happened to see my old work colleagues and then it was into the car and off to Medlab to see my current work colleagues, they presented us with a big box FULL of gifts which was very generous and thoughtful.

By the time we got her home she was out to it and so we just let her sleep in the capsule while we made up her bed. Grandma Bertie was at home doing Debs flowers when we got there, it really nice for her to be able to be here when we first got Sophie home, and we have also already had a visit from Grandad Harry as well.

The family bassinet, which she is going to be sleeping in was still on it way to us so we had to improvise.....

Yes that right, into the bath it was! it's as good as anything really, the right size and portable, once we got all her bedding into it you probably wouldn't even know. It's only for a day anyway because Auntie Beck and Grandma Judy are coming to visit today and will bring the Bassinet with them. We do have a cot set up in the nursery but she is going to be sleeping in our room for the first 6 months or so.

We have had endless warnings about how hard it is going to be having her at home. The nurses at the NNU said that we might feel a little bit fragile without their support at hand, but so far no worries there. There has also been a lot of quotes along the lines of "now you'll know the meaning of sleep deprivation" or "once you've got her home you'll be begging them to take her back", said partly in jest I think but still. I don't know what they were talking about. It might be a little premature (excuse the pun) because it has only been a day but really there doesn't seem to be anything more natural to us. It's like she has just been away somewhere and has come back, and things are getting back to how they were supposed to be. Maybe that has something to do with the gaping hole left in our lives by Sarah's absence, but if we can pull that positive out of it then I think she would like that. We plan to take Sophie down to Sarah at some point, today is a beautful sunny, still, warm day so it might be a good opportunity.

On a lighter note I just had to include this pic, this is her having her hearing test done, the electrode on her forehead can detect if she is hearing the sounds played into the headphones, clever. We reckon she looks like a little alien! or one of those "I'm so serious about MY music that I don't mind looking like a twat" iPod guys we used to see on the tube.

Well now that she is home and settled I guess that it is time to wrap up this blog. I am as yet undecided but if I do I will probably start another under a different heading, this was really supposed to be about her journey through her weeks of prematurity, and now she is nearly "full term" and home I think that it is time to either call it quits or start another general "Greenwood family" blog, similar to Rach's. What do you think?

T minus 1 day

It's official; Sophie and Deb are coming home tomorrow (Thursday).

Finally we get to be a family, without nurses, doctors, wards, tubes, monitors, incubators, and charts. We can be together without a 2km car or bike ride to get to each other. Sophie can be in her own bed and we can finally just be together. It seems like a small thing, but to us it is everything.

It has been a long road.

We did have a couple of last minute bumps in the road. First she failed her hearing test, only to have it repeated the next day and pass, this is apparently not unusual. She got a rash on her tummy, with had to be treated with an antibacterial cream. She also had her 6 week immunisations, after which she had to have her heart rate and oxygen saturation monitored for 24 hours, which meant going back out into the unit (she had been rooming in with Deb) for that period of time. But despite all this she managed to have about 9 feeds per day (with a target of 8 to 12) and put on 60g in 2 days, which is about the same that she put on over the whole weekend.

So, the discharge process is supposed to be all over by noon and then we hope to go and show her off at work before taking her home. Will let you know how it goes.

Just a quick note

I just had to let you know that we had a couple of exciting steps forward today. They have taken out Sophies feeding tube! This is because we are now going to trial her without any tube feeds AND she is going to be rooming in with Deb tonight. This is basically like a trial before going home, Sophie will be demand feeding and has been doing so for most of today. If she can do this OK and still put on weight (we will probably have to wait for Wednesdays weigh in to be sure) then she can come home.

Sleeping on Dad's shoulder without a feeding tube.

We really are on the home straight now, looking forward to it immensely.

To the support crew

We seem to still be on track for a mid to late next week release from jail. Sophie had 5 successful breast feeds yesterday and is on track for another 5 today, she will need to be up to 8 or 9 by go home time. We are very much in the routine of things at the moment, I suppose that given long enough you will eventually get used to anything! It is good knowing that there is an end in sight, and having a clear path to travel to achieve it is reassuring.

Bath Time again!

Hanging with Mum.

When we chose to come back to New Zealand, we chose New Plymouth to come back to because our main motivators in coming back to NZ were to have a safer and more child friendly environment in which to raise our children and because of the proximity to family and friends. The best decision we ever made.

How could we possibly be where we are today without the extraordinary level of support and help we have received from others. So here we go, and please note in no particular order of importance.

The staff of the hospital. Although we have been let down by them in a most spectacular way in the past, it is likely that this was the failing of an individual. The neonatal unit nurses have been our lifeline, so knowledgeable, helpful, caring and professional, always there for us to ask questions and never failing in their sterling unremitting level of care. The Doctors although largely absent, nameless and unknown to us should get a mention too.

Angie, I know I have mentioned you before but without you where would we be? I don't care to think about it, so thanks again.

Harry and Bertie, how could you ask for better Grandparents? Harry who has been like a surrogate Father to me when my own father could not be there, always there for help and advice, always able to fix it whatever might be broken and who could deny his amazing efforts in transforming our home? Bertie always there for Deb, her friend and mentor as well as Mother, she has selflessly helped keep us sane during this hard time and enabled Deb to concentrate on Sophie by taking over Debs flowers for her while she can't.

Mum, what can I say? Our very own Matriarch. Always the first person there for me to turn to in times of strife, always there to pick up the pieces and be a shoulder to cry on. For coming to us, for being there, for being you, thankyou.

The Hara crew, Maria, Jo, Beck and families. For coming despite the distance and inconvenience, for making us part of the family. You make our family what it is, keep on doing what you do guys, we are proud to be part of you.

Family further afield. Rach, Pete, Lorisa and families, advice and support from round the globe! We know that you would be here more if you could, and you will in time.

The Staff and Management at Taranaki Medlab, special mentions to Joy and John. They have made my life so much less stressful and difficult by being the most reasonable, flexible and understanding employers that a person could hope for.

Everyone who has given us gifts. Everyone we know has been incredibly generous, it is staggering the amount of gifts we have recieved. We hope to return the generosity someday to all of you, but it will take some doing.

To all our friends and visitors, we appreciate the support you have shown us just by coming to see us, or being someone to talk to.

And finally everyone who I have forgotten to mention, I have a memory like a sieve and so am bound to have forgotten someone who deserves a personal mention.

Thankyou!

I feel like the recipient of a TV or Movie award, only with a much better prize!

The end is in sight.

We finally got a tentative go home date! Wednesday or Thursday next week!

She would have been 36 weeks gestation on Tuesday and is 5 weeks old today.

Stoked, but it is going to take some work to get there, and as always it all depends entirely upon Sophie. She now no longer has the apnoea monitor on, this actually happened a few days ago but i forgot to tell you. As stated earlier though it all comes down to the feeding and whether she can get off tube feeds. Today we have tried doing two breast feeds in a row and then a tube feed, this hasn't been totally successful but she is still getting more breast feeds than she was, so progress nonetheless. The plan is to cut her down to 1 or 2 tube feeds a day over the weekend and then maybe stop them all together in the first half of next week. If this all happens according to plan then we can go home mid to late next week. We are looking forward to getting back to normal, such as it will be. Not having the hospital in our everyday lives will be a dream come true at the moment.

Deb has been shown how to measure out and administer her medications, not really medications as they are only a multi vitamin and iron supplements but they still have to be given as prescribed. This basically involves measuring out the correct volume or liquid and either putting it in her tube milk or dripping it into her mouth (for later when she doesn't have the tube).

Deb has moved into a better room now too, closer to the main ward and lounge, bigger and with windows to the outside world (which the old room didn't have). The only draw back being that there is no en suite bathroom which the other room did have.

There was a wee boy came in the other day, don't know exactly how old but only a newborn. He has pneumonia and the poor wee chap does not stop crying from dawn to dusk, he quite literally cries 24 hours a day without respite. Can you even imaging how distressing this must be for the parents, yet alone for him? He went into the isolation room because he had been in the community for a little bit, and this room can be closed off from the rest of the ward but you can still hear him, and it breaks your heart every time. His parents are both under 20, both smoke like trains and the Mum smoked during her pregnancy. I don't know if there is a link there, but it makes you wonder. This has also reminded us that no matter how bad things seem, there is always someone worse off than you.

Some thoughts on changing and dressing a baby.

First, and probably most important of all: HAVE THE NEW NAPPY READY BEFORE YOU START, I cannot emphasize this enough. As sure as the sun rises every morning and sets every evening so the baby will wee or poo or both the second you have that nappy off. Also have ready all the other things you will need, wipes, clothes, a cloth nappy to lie her on etc etc.

Second: Don't waste any time, their patience will only last so long.

Make sure all clothes are folded well up babys body before removing nappy, they WILL drape into the poo when you least expect it.

Don't ask how the poo got there, baby poo has magical powers and can teleport to anywhere on the babies body it feels the need to go.

Baby skin creases are deeper than you thought.

Whoever thought that pants for babies was a good idea was an idiot.

Keep cool when they start to gizzle, you CAN finish before the first cry, if you stay calm. If they do cry before you finish, resist the temptation to hand over to Mum.

Babies arms and legs have similar range of movement to your own, yes you can bend it at the elbow and it won't break. Try to get your head around the fact that they are facing you though, and so the movements are mirrored. This can take some getting used to; it is a long time since you dressed anyone except yourself.

Baby thumbs don't like to go where the rest of the hand is going, especially when it is going though a sleeve.

Just grab the foot and hold it still, as soon as you touch it with the booty they WILL kick so no point in mucking around eh.

Learn that male domes will only click into their female counterparts, no matter how hard you push.

If you think you can wrap those arms up enough to make them immobile, you are wrong, but try anyway.

When it is over, and you pick them up and look lovingly into their eyes and whisper that you love them, try not to be disappointed when you hear the rumble from down under. And yes, is was a poo not just a fart; you WILL have to start again.

I hope you enjoyed my observations, I know this is nothing new to a lot of you parents out there.

Constantly moving goal posts.

As predicted the little champ made the 2.5 kilo mark (2.54 to be exact) and was consequently taken off her fortifier, and up to 59ml per feed.

Baby steps for a baby girl.

The waking for every feed thing has been put on hold and at the moment they are trying to get her to breastfeed every second time, so every 6 hours. Honestly the management of her breastfeeding seems to change with the day of the week, it is really hard for me to even keep up with what is going on. I think that what will eventually happen is a progressive change to demand feeding, sometimes waiting to see if she will wake up and cue for feeds by herself and at other times just giving her a tube feed (if she doesn't wake up) with the final goal of her being exclusively demand breastfed. Once that has happened and she continues to gain weight at an appropriate rate she can come home, oh Hallelujah and happy days, I am looking forward to that day so much I try not to even think about it.

Here is the video as promised on facebook:

This is what she does when she can find a break in her busy schedule of sleeping, weeing, pooing, sucking, hiccoughing, grizzling, sneezing and the odd bath.

For those of you not on facebook, here are the pics I put on today again.

Isn't she just adorlable? Well I think so anyway.

Finally I want just just give a big thanks to everyone who has left feedback and advice. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave your comments and your thoughts and experiences are of great interest and very helpful. At the very least it lets me know people are tuning in and taking an interest, which makes this whole exercise worthwhile. Keep up the good work. Oh and I have had three people recommend La Leche League so i will encourage Deb to give them a call once we are home, but I suppose at the end of the day it will be up to her. They might think it a bit odd if a guy gave them a call!

Till next time.....

Blue, Brown, Green or Hazel?

Weight = 2460g as of Wednesday, 40 away from the 2.5Kg needed for her to be taken off the fortifier.

Feeds = having 3 - 4 goes on the breast per day and not getting tube top ups, up to 55ml per feed.

Baby steps for a baby girl.

So the plan at the moment is for her to get off the fortifier first, this will almost defiantly happen tomorrow because she will be over the 2.5 Kilo mark at tomorrows weigh in. This will unfortunately mean a check in her rate of weight gain but is a necessary step towards getting her home. Then they will start trying to wake her for every feed and see how she goes with that, this seems like a big leap to expect her to make as at the moment she only managing up to 4 feeds a day from the breast and so will be almost doubling that at a stroke, I guess we wills see though. Also those that have read the article that Rach so kindly linked us to in her last comment will know that breast feeding works much better when it is demand driven. I don't know whether they intend to keep her strictly to the 3 hour schedule she is on now when they start waking her or not, I certainly will be quizzing them about it. It might be that as she will be getting tube top ups at every feed all of the well referenced evidence referred to in the article might be irrelevant to her situation. For those of you who missed the article, click HERE it is well worth the read.

One other thing of note is that she has been started on Iron supplements, not because she is known to be iron deficient but rather as a just is case, something they do for all the premmies apparently.

We bathed her tonight, not a daily occurrence (on advice from the Nurses) which she really seems to love. It seems to be a great way to wake her up too, not that that was the main objective but a welcome side effect nonetheless. She just LOVES bathtime already, she seems really relaxed and alert, kicks around the place and is a generally an all round gorgeous, active, engaging, sweet little girl. It makes me very happy to see it, a glimpse I hope of what she might be like all the time when she is older, I can certainly envisage a time when we have to pull the plug on the bath to get her out of it! A tactic that had to be used on me once upon a time.

I can't wait to see what colour her eyes are going to be. She will be beautiful either way of course and we can make a fairly good guess that they will be brown but the genes for blue are in her pedigree so who knows. It is quite a strange thing that the eye colour should take so long to come through. I suppose I will just have to wait.

More pictures to come.

The family has landed.

We had Debs (or was it Sophies?) baby shower yesterday and it was a great success thanks in no small part to the Hara Brigade. They showed up in force, brought everything one might need for such an event, food and snacks galore and a wonderful new sheepskin for Sophie, took charge and got everything sorted. This was great as we had only been back in the house for 5 minutes when they showed up, having been at our home away from home most of that day (I had also had to work in the morning). So thanks to everyone who came and helped and participated, and gave such wonderful gifts, we appreciate the time you take out especially when you have to drive all the way from Hara first to be with us and show us your support, and to those who couldn't be there for reasons out of your control we thank you as well for your support from afar and your positive feedback.

Check out the Cheesy grin on Rachel!

A lucky few were able to come down to the Hospital afterwards and see Sophie, she was due for a feed anyway and woke up for it. We got some photos of the oldest and youngest of the Greenwood cousins, that is to say of Rach and Soph together, which was cool. Sophie put on a display of smiles and general gorgeousness that we were all proud of, she doesn't have to try hard to be gorgeous though :)

This one is Sophie getting burped, we just thought that she looked so cute even with her face all mooched into Deb's hand.

Finger in the ear! This happened just as her next door neighbor Charlotte was breaking into one of her very frequent wailing sessions. I guess it was one of those "you had to be there" moments but still made for a good photo.

I have to admit to getting my information a little wrong, they did on one or two occasions suck out the contents of her stomach to see how much she had been able to get from the breast but it turns out that it is not a routine thing. They do always aspirate some fluid but it is only to check that the tube is actually in her stomach. They test the pH of the aspirate which should be acid, if it is not then the tube might be in her lungs, in which case putting milk down might be a catastrophic thing to do. So for the most part we are playing the guessing game that most new parents make with the exception that we have to put an actual number on it so that they can top her up to her full feed (49ml now). Rach you are quite right when you say that the inexactness of all this rubs me the wrong way, but I will have to just get used to it eh. She had three attempts at the breast today and counting, and we have also discovered that it is probably best not to let her comfort suck for extended periods of time but to just take her off and give her a tube top up, this is much more convenient for Deb anyway.

Back to work tomorrow, the start of another week of disrupted lives and long long days. Every time we say goodbye to Sophie we say "sleep and grow Sophie", if only it could happen a bit quicker.

The Doldrums

We are really starting to hit the doldrums now, after the initial rush of progress and milestones we are hitting an area of calm seas. She is doing great really, continues to gain weight at a steady rate and is healthy and happy (for the most part). The process of getting her off tube feeding however is a long and slow one, owing mostly to the fact that she was just so early. She is spending longer and longer on the breast, up to an hour at a time but it is not solid effective sucking and swallowing the whole time, she has long periods of comfort sucking with short burst of effective sucking. Last time she got about 7ml, they know this because they can suck it back out her tube before they tube feed her. Her total feed is now 45ml because it goes up as her weight increases, so you can see she still has some ways to go.

I got another few good smiles today, which was great and really does seem to make it feel not so bad. I feel frustrated that I cannot be at the hospital with them more, the days at work feel very long now. I keep telling myself that it is not forever and that it is worth being back at work now so I can be home with them when the time comes but it is starting to wear thin. Deb and I have never been separated like this for this long and it sucks.

The next thing is that the unit is getting packed now, I think they must be at capacity. Our little room that we had to just Nikarhn and us has now got four, two of which are in incubators so it is significantly more crowded. Some of the other families are not easy to get on with either, the weird hat wearing lady who came in and woke Sophie the other day is right next to us, Deb says she swears like a trooper too, what crap luck. At least Deb has her room down there and we can just kidnap Sophie and go hang out down there by ourselves, and it is less likely that she will be kicked out now as most of the other babies are younger or further away from going home than Sophie.

She is still not out of the woods but the path is getting clearer and the trees thinner, we can't quite see the edge of the forest but we know that it is there, somewhere.

Sorry about no pics but there just didn't seem to be anything new to make it worth getting the camera out.

Mummys a silly clogs

I discovered two new things today, things that have been going on for a while but it has just taken a little while for me to realise.

The first is that Sophie has a nickname that we and everyone at the unit has been using since she was born: "Miss Sophie", everyone calls her that, so much so that I think it has begun to stick. We don't mind it, and I guess most nicknames are given unintentionally so if that is what she is going to be known as in the unit then thats OK. Oh, and they don;t just call all the girls Miss, it is only her, maybe it says something about her personality already.

The second thing is that Deb and I have discovered a new way of communicating. We have discovered that you can say things to one another by ostensibly talking to Sophie. For example, I say to Sophie "Mummy's going to turn the naughty light off isn't she? Yes she is" said in a cutesy baby voice translates as "Deb will you please turn the light off". This works quite well and you can even be quite cheeky and get away with it, for example "Mummy's a silly clogs isn't she, Mummy doesn't know what she is talking about Eh? No she doesn't" means..... Well I will let you figure it out.

Something else I learnt today is that Sophie was the most popular girls name in New Zealand for 2008! We had no idea about this when we chose the name, in fact we do not know any other baby Sophies at all, nor even heard of any. Lilly comes in at number 6, Sophia at 21 , Sarah at 32 and Sofia at 88. Interesting. Click HERE for the full list.

Bye Nikarhn.

Weight = 1995g a 145g increase in 3 days, go Sophie.

Feeds = 3 hourly, had 2 goes on the breast today and got a little milk.

Baby steps for a baby girl.

We had a bit of Daddy daughter time today while Mum went to her SANDS meeting, we were just chilling, Dad watching Tele in the lounge while Sophie slept. It was nice until some rude young girls came in and talked over the tele loud enough to wake Sophie, some people just have no manners or sense. They didn't care either.

Sophie's boyfriend went home today. Nikarhn was the first premmie we met in the NNU, his Mum Jessie let us have a look at him when we did a tour through the unit the day before Sophie was born. He was about 5 days longer gestation and born 4 days before Sophie, his birth weight was exactly the same as Sophie and was therefore roughly a week ahead of her the whole way. It has been strange because he and Jessie have been a constant presence in the unit the whole time we have been there, his milestones coming about a week before Sophie and so giving us a heads up what to expect. Now they are home and we are still there :( The more astute amongst you will be now thinking, 'great, Sophie will be home in a week', but alas this is not necessarily the case. For a start Nikarhn was bottle fed, making it easier for him to get off tube feeding, and we also think that his Mum took him home early against advice because of home pressures, a shame really because if it all goes pear shaped and he has to come back then he will have to be in isolation, not fun and not good for him. We are going to take our time with this and get it right, she comes home when she is ready, and not before.

Still we troop on......

My diatribe on the philosophy of procreation.

Grandma Judy, Aunty Becky and Cousin Lily came to visit today. So we just had to take the opportunity to get some cutesy pics and video didn't we? So without further ado, here they are:

Simultaneous booby action!

Sharing a blanket.

In our Shawls that Grandma made us

Stop here, unless you want to hear me rant. Continue at your own risk.

We had an incident the other night, quite off topic but it really got me thinking. I seem to do a lot of that lately. Deb was staying at home and she had been getting up every three hours, as is her custom these days, it was 1:30am and half way in between two of her night time sojourns and we hear this flip flap patter patter thump on the bedroom floor. Our initial reaction was, 'oh, Gizmo has come to bed' but soon realised that there was more too it than that and so, very reluctantly I got up to investigate. To my horror I found our usually perfectly mild mannered and kind natured cat playing with an only half dead and remarkably beautiful Tui. She did it with the same casual playfulness and semi interest that she might with any cat toy we might buy her, indifferent to the suffering she was causing the beautiful bird. The real tragedy of it being that she was never going to eat it, just caught it and tortured it to death because she could, and because it is in her nature to do so.

It was this life and death drama being played out on our bedroom floor that got me started, contemplating the incredible beauty and cruelty of life. That we can, with relatively little active input create another Human being, and not just any Human being but one that is a fusion of Deb and Me, half me and half her and alive, kicking and as individual as all other people is so gobsmackingly incredible as to be almost too much to contemplate.

Now I have a very good understanding of the biology that makes this all possible, probably better than most. From the anatomy and physiology of humans, right down to the cellular, genetic and molecular level. I can put all this knowledge together in my head and know that it is possible and how. All this said, the science can't explain the perfection in beauty that is created at the end of it. The whole is truly more than the sum of it parts, even though the sum of the parts would in and of itself be extraordinary beyond words. How could anyone think that there is anything more worthwhile to do with ones life than to create these wonderful little miracles? It is the ultimate culmination of all our efforts in our short time here.

The scientist in me is now telling me that all this is nothing more than my biological drive to further the species and pass on my genes talking. If that is the case then so be it, bit it doesn't change anything I said.

I guess my point here is that having children certainly changes our outlook on life.

Sorry to bore you all, if you bothered to read it that is. I will try to stay more on topic from now on.

Milestones.

Milestones for the Day:

a) Now on 3 hourly feeds of 42ml. People have asked why she needs to be 3 hourly when some full term newborns will only feed 2 hourly. The answer is that it is not necessarily paramount but makes things easier for Deb, because she is expressing 3 hourly, it helps to prepare her for a good pattern of feeding for when she moves on to the breast and helps to prepare her stomach for receiving slightly larger volumes of fluid.

b) Up to 1850g as of Friday, this is a good weight gain and right on target.

c) Managed to get around 10ml of milk by herself direct from the breast. This is more than can be expected of her at this stage. Usually premmies suck and swallow reflex is not developed enough to effectively get any milk direct from the breast until they are the equivalent of 34 to 36 weeks gestation. Sophie is 33+4 days today, incidentally the same gestational age that Sarah was when she was born. Another point made (by my avid readers) is that she has demonstrated visibly in some of the videos her ability to suck, true she can suck and suck well but it is the coordination between sucking swallowing and breathing simultaneously that she can't quite get right yet. We are assured that this will come, and by the look of things sooner rather than later.

Getting dressed in one of the outfits Aunty Rachel sent over.

It is starting to get a little tiresome now, Deb and Sophie living at the Hospital while I live at home without them, not exactly what we had in mind for our first few weeks after Sophie was born. I think the car knows it's own way to the hospital and back, it has made the trip so many times, the odometer has clocked up 150km since this started, and counting. It is an inconvenience, and a big one at that but nothing more and every time I have to say goodbye to my girls I tell myself 'it's not forever', it is the only way i can cope with it.

I wonder if the Romans imagined that 2000 years later we would be using their road distance markers as a metaphor for reaching important life stages? I think not.

The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzley.

We are starting to feel like a family. As I sit here and write this Deb and I are sitting next to one another on the SAME bed, and our little girl is in her cot at the foot of the bed in the SAME room. Right now she is cooing and making cute little baby sounds, she hardly has any cords attached, bar one for her food. In fact if we weren’t in a hospital with the hustle and bustle of a Neonatal unit right outside the door the last few minutes could have passed for normality very well. She just opened her eyes and looked at me. Hi Darling :)

I had one of those epiphany moments last night where I stopped, looked at what I was doing and thought “what the hell”. I was doing something that would not be unusual for me with one huge exception. I had just spent about 20 minutes unwrapping, reading instructions, plugging in and figuring out how to use a new gadget. Now don’t get me wrong, this is something I quite enjoy doing, and having actually read the instructions before starting this time I had done quite well and was feeling rather proud of myself. The epiphany came when I looked at the assembled device in my hand: A BREAST PUMP. OMG.

If you weren’t able to gather it from the last post, Sophie is now in a cot and holding her temperature well and Deb has moved into the Neonatal unit. Momentous events (suck suck suck on the dummy in the background). She got weighed again this morning (they all get weighed every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and had put on 65g since Monday, making her 80g up on her birth weight. Baby steps for a baby girl.

With the good things that come with getting a little closer to normality come the bad. Believe it or not it has been some 2 hours since I started writing this, multiple interruptions you see. I don’t mind being interrupted, especially when it is to do something like bath the baby (which we did do, amongst a myriad other things) but now she is unsettled and grizzly and we can’t figure out why. This is very frustrating, you know there must be something wrong and you want to put it right for them, the fact is that if you knew what is was it would probably be quite easily remedied, but you don’t know what it is so you can’t fix it. Then they cry some more, your stress levels go up, they can read this in you and it only feeds their upset and so leads to more crying, a vicious circle of the worst sort. I know this is nothing new to all you parents out there, but it probably amuses you to hear someone else going through it.

Classic Facials

Well, she is getting a bit more settled now so probably time to settle ourselves too. Until next time, Sayonara, Ma Salaama and Au Revoir.

And in late breaking News...

Thanks Jim, I've been down here at Taranaki Base Hospital Neonatal Unit where events have been unfolding around me. We are getting reports here that that the young socialite Sophie Greenwood has been creating quite a stir here at the unit, mixing it up with the big girls.


Yes thats right Jim, none other than Sophie Greenwood herself has made the astounding move or leaving her incubator, the so called "plasticave" for the greener pastures of a cot. Reactions have been mixed, whilst young Sophie did not have much to say on the matter herself opinions of the main two witnesses to the event, parents Chris and Debra were ecstatic.


When questioned on the matter her mother Debra had this to say "Shes been building up to it for her whole life, it has always been a goal for her and she has been single minded in her determination to achieve it" and her Father Chris siad "I've always known she was going to make it this far, she was never fully comfortable with the plasticave, we are very proud of her"


In this TV blog exclusive Jim we have been able to obtain this rare footage of the event:

Notice how Miss Greenwood shows some dislike for her new surroundings vocalising her distress just as Dad notes how happy she is looking.

The smile says it all Jim.

And in realted News we have it from reliable sources that Debra Greenwood has been moved into a room in the Neonatal unit itself. It is understood that she has been Lobbying for this move for quite some time and it feeling quite vindicated that unit government has seen fit to acquiesce to her demands. This change in arrangements is going to mean some considerable gains in efficiency can be made, reducing the so called "milk miles" that Sophies milk has to travel to the milk storage and distribution facility. "enough can't be said for the convenience factor" Mrs Greenwood said and "to be right next to Sophie and to be able to wheel her down to my room is just magic". Husband and Father Chris is also said to have been over the moon at the move, and unconfirmed reports suggest that he too will soon be able to stay in this room.


Coming to you live from TBH NNU, this is Reporty Dude Makamanameup for TV blog signing off.

Can you imagine a better birthday present?

I got the greatest smile today, what a great present for my birthday. Sophie was awake and very happy, I held her close and was talking to her for a while, she looked very contented. It might be all in my head but she seems to really like it when I talk to her, I was mid sentence and had to stop because my heart skipped a beat when the most wonderfull smile came over her. Now I don't know about babys and smiling and when they genuinely can do it and/or mean it but to me it was real and awesome. It made my day.

In other breaking news Sophie weighed in at 1695g today, that means she is 15g up on her birth weight after dropping from 1680g when born down to 1560g a few days later. Don't underestimate the importance of this, at the moment her weight is key and the main indicator of how well she is doing. It also means she is getting enough nutririon from her fortified milk alone and as long they can gradually increase the amount she is taking, which they did today, then she will continue to do well. Baby steps for a baby girl.

We had a fairly hectic on today, we had the family over for a roast for luch to celerate my birthday and to have a toast and wet Sophies head. It all went very well and everyone had a good time. It was not quite the tree slashing beer drinking BBQing free for all I had originally planned but at least we all got together to mark the day.

Other short term goals for Sophie at the moment:

• Maintaining her core body temperature out of the incubator. They have been gradually reducing the temperature in her incubator and will continue to do so until it reaches room temp, about 24^C in the NNU. She is currently at 26^C having started at up around 35. The nurse tonight said she may well achieve this and therefore be out of the incubator by tomorrow. Wicked.

• Getting off the monitor. She still has the pulse oximeter attached, thats the one on her foot to measure her O2 saturation. We can remove it whenever we want at the moment but she still needs it when she is in the incubator. I don't know what the criteria is for having this removed but I suspect it will come off when she comes out of the incubator, so maybe tomorrow for that one too.

• Keeping up her feeds, pushing them back to 3 hourly instead of 2 hourly and putting on weight. As described above this is all important and a gradual process.

Sorry no pics today, didn't take anything new. She is getting a new outfit on tomorrow though so there is bound to be photos of that :)

It was a morning like any other....

I woke up this morning to find that I was full even though I didn't remember drinking anything, strange that.

Anyway, I was trying to open my eyes which I am starting to get pretty good at now (my eyelids are VERY heavy you know) when I see this face staring back at me, somehow I know I like this person, she had been around since the begining and allways seems to be there for me. Next thing I know I am being rudely turned over and all wrapped up, my arms pinioned down so that I can't poke my face with my ungainly fingers, which I have developed a fondness for recently. Then I had this nice tasting thing shoved in my mouth, I got this irresistible urge to suck it, so I did but got pretty tired quite quickly, it was hard work and even though I was getting some pretty good tasting stuff out of it I thought "why bother" my tummy fills itself every 2 hours like clockwork anyway.

So I lay there a while feeling quite secure and got moved around a bit, next thing there is another face staring at me, this one I recognise too, he isn't around quite as much and doesn't have those nice tasting things attached to him but I think I like him too. Then I decided that that was quite enough and dozed off for another quick nap.

I was starting to try for the eyelid thing again when it happened. There had been quite a bit of mouth moving and bli bli bla bla bla noises coming from the adults so I thought somthing might be up. The nice secure feeling blankets were suddenly whipped off me and next thing I knew I was butt naked and the nice lady who keeps calling herself 'mummy' was draping this pink and white thing all over me!

It was just awful, it wrapped all over me but i could still move my arms and legs and I am not used to that. Don't you worry, I let them know about it but they didn't seem to get the message no matter how loud I screamed and wailed.

After a little bit I realised it wasn't that bad and settled into it, and as it turned out it kept me quite warm, good thing for them I decided I liked it.

When I got back to my home, I like to call it the 'plasticave' it had magically cooled down a bit and so wouldn't over heat me, everything just seems to be falling into place, man I am good. If I continue on like this I think I might move out of the plasticave, if I feel like it that is, it takes a lot of effort to keep myself warm when I'm not in it you know.

Well that was just too much effort and so, a job well done, I decided to do what I do best: Have a nap.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring, I sure would like to.. see.. that..... nice.... lady.... a....g...a..i...n. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I got this idea from Aunty Rachel, so I don't want to take credit for that, you should check it out on her blog, it's far better than mine http://yokomatsu.blogspot.com/

Role reversals

A strange thing happened this morning which left me slightly bemused, Deb said to me "are you ready to go yet". This has never happened in the history of our relationship, it is a phrase often uttered by me, but never by Deb. Safe to say that she was fairly eager to get back down to the hospital as early as possible, and so thats what we did.

We came in to find that Sophie was on a new monitor, they had decided after her bath last night not to put new electrodes on her and so the monitor that she was on was now redundant, she still has the oxygen saturation one on her foot, which can also give a heart rate and she also has a little pad under her mattress that will alarm if she were to stop breathing. This is great because it means we have more freedom to get her up and put her down, we can take off her foot thing and then she is wireless! We are also getting pretty good at positioning her, we were complimented on it by the nurse today. It is not as easy as you would think either, she has to sort of be in the recovery position with a snake pillow or rolled nappy down her front, between her legs and up her back. This is to give her boundaries, to keep her mostly on her front which helps with breathing but to keep her off her direct front which helps her hips.

Cutesy pic for the day, this was before her electrodes came off.

One thing that I have neglected to talk about so far is Sophies weight, when born she was 1680g, a few days later she had dropped to 1540g, nothing too much to be worried about there as most parents will know. She stayed at about that weight for a wee while and as of Friday had gone back up to 1610g. So the main point here being that she has started gaining weight, meaning she is getting enough nutrition on her fortified milk alone.

She does the most cute little sneezes you have ever seen, I have been trying to get one on video but it is much harder than you might think. She seems to sneeze a lot, which I have been attributing to the fact that I sneeze a lot but in reality is probably because she is being irritated by the tube in her nose. So unfortunately no vid today, sorry.

Another interesting factoid: A good way to settle Sophie if she is a little bit upset is to gently cup her head and but and put gentle inward pressure on both. We are told this simulates the pressure and boundaries they would have in utero, and it really works! Jo also tried it on Lilly with some success.

There is one thing I know for a fact. Sophie is hands down the most beautiful gorgeous and cute baby in the world ever. I know this for a fact, the only problem is that I suspect that every other new parent in the world knows it for a fact about their baby too. I walk past the other baby's in the NNU and each time I see one I think, 'Sophie is much prettier than him/her', but I have seen the looks on the other parents faces thinking the same thing about Sophie.

I am right and they are wrong.

To bath, that is the answer.

Turns out her tummy was just too small to fit 26ml in :(

A little bit of a dispointment but there is a silver lining, turns out she is not the first baby to not get to her target feed level and that they have a back up plan, surprise surprise. They are going to fortify her her breastmilk with something that will boost the calories in it, in this manner she will get the food she needs in the 23ml she can fit in. So her drip could come out after all, and it did, choice.

So we got to give her a bath

Now this was my first time bathing a baby, yet alone one so tiny and it was an education. Filling the bath, unwrapping the baby, easy. Picking up the baby and transferring her to the water and holding her there whilst simultaneously preventing her constantly wriggling soapy slippery body from slipping out of your grip, not easy. Then you have to let her go and hold her with one hand while you use the other to wash her! A feat of co-ordination that I was proud of even though I chickened out half way through and held her with both hands while Deb washed her. Phew, that finished we got her dried, dressed (and this was the first time she wore clothes) and fed and what did she do? Why she chucked all over her clothes of course. So it was undress, clean and redress and then what did she do? Why she had a poo of course. Can you see a pattern forming here? Never mind, we love her all the same.

We covered out her privates to preserve her dignity a little bit :)

A bit more on Deb, as mentioned in the first post in this blog one of the symptoms of her pre-eclampsia was foot swelling. Paradoxically her level of swelling went up after the birth and was causeing her a bit of pain, despite my foot rubbing efforts. This was something to be expected apparantly, although we weren't warned about it and it can take up to 6 weeks for it to correct itself. Not my Deb though, just over 1 week and now her legs are coming back to normal, Yay.

Deb has come home for one night tonight, will do her good to get out of the hospital for a while although she has found it hard to leave I think it is good for her to come home now while she can, because when Sophie gets on the breast she won't be able to. She was given a breast pump to take home with her, great that they should supply her one but wait till you see it, it really must be circa 1950! It weighs in at about 20 kilos and is a VERY solid piece of engineering, we were a little bit disappointed with it at first but now that it is home and set up and we don't have to move it around it is actually quite good, not too noisy and does the job well. I bet the light little plastic ones she has been using up until now will not be working in 60 years time.

Thank goodness Debs friend Lorraine has been very generous and donated us heaps of baby stuff, including a small portable breast pump, so if you read this, thanks heaps Lorraine.

And now for the main act, todays cutesy pic and vid. The picture is of her in her first clothes, and in the video she got the hiccups, which was just a delight and so we just had to video it.

Don't know if I can keep up daily posts now, if you have ever written a blog you will know that it takes a lot of time and effort. So there might be a post tomorrow and there might not, so check back anyway.

The Marsupials will show us the way.

First of all I would like to say thanks to everyone for their positive comments about this blog and their well wishes for our family. At least I know that I am not wasting my time and people really are intersted and care about us, which is great :)

As predicted it was a pretty crappy day today so we didn't get to spend much time at the cemetery with Sarah. We gave her some first birthday preasents, which I think she would have appreciated and made her headstone a little more colourfull. Sophie now has a picture of her own personal guardian angel in her incubator with her, I am sure she can't focus on it yet, so I guess in one respect it was for our benefit more than hers but the sentiment is nice.

Here she is again, doing the "Dr Evil" post naso gastric tube insertion.

They moved the goalposts on her a bit today, they decided she would need to get up to 26ml per 2 hours not 21, but not to worry she is up to 23 and going strong. We have also been able to get her up wrapped in a blanket like you would any other newborn and hold her while she is having one of her ever more frequent wakefull periods. We seem to be falling into a bit of a pattern whereby she can be got up, changed, fed and have a cuddle every second or so feeding, so every 4 hours or so, it just depends on wether she wakes up enough to make it worth having a cuddle and to interact with her. Something that I havn't mentioned as of yet is that she really does sleep a lot, and I mean probably 22 hours out of the day, but that is also getting better.


She has also been moved into a smaller side room, still in her incubator but out of the main hustle and bustle of the main area. She was moved to make room for possible newcomers and there was indeed a few new additions to the neonatal community today, they really seem to be coming and going all the time.

Grandma Judy and cousin Gabi came and visited, they timed it well and she was having a feed and nappy change, during which she woke up, wide awake and so Grandma and Gabi got to have a hold. Both of them seemed to be delighted with her, and how could you not be? Gabi got all clucky which was nice, Gabi if you are reading this I think that you will be a wonderfull mother someday.

Another vid of her having awake time.

I mentioned Kangaroo care yesterday and promised I would explain so here it is. Kangaroo care is another way of saying skin to skin contact, this is something that is encouraged in all newborns and to put it simply involves having the baby naked on your bare chest (nappy on), and it is not only for Mums although Mum is probably best because she has the milk factories. There has been a lot of studies done on this and they show that the babys generally do better when they get plenty of this one on one contact. The name presumably comes from the fact that marsupials, kangaroos included rear their young (which are born earlier than in other species) in this way. We saw Sophie benefit from this directly, in the first couple of days when she was having brady's and apnoeas the frequency of these noticably decreased when she was having a skin to skin cuddle, there was just enough stimulation from listening to our hearts beat, feeling us breath in and out and making the thousand tiny adjustments we make all the time without knowing to keep her from slipping into the bradys and apnoeas. It also helps with bonding and I can personally atest to that: The moment when she first was gently placed on my chest, her beating heart so close to my own and she lifted her head up looked around and then seemingly found me and stared into my eyes was a life changing moment, it will be etched onto my brain forever and will be treasured with my most precious memories.

Deb having "roo" time.

I realised today that I had fallen into a sense of security about Sophies progress, and to be sure she IS making good progress, better than could have been hoped for but on relfection she is still not out of the woods yet. She has a clear path to follow and Deb and I (and the good staff at the NNU) are holding a hand each to guide her but in the end she will have to be the one to find her way out.

Deb is doing great too, making another one of her super human recoveries. She refuses pain releif where others would be crying for more and stoically bears the sleeplessness. She amazes me every day and will probably continue to do so, although I should probably tell her so more often.

I funny thing happened today: I was sitting today holding Sophie, all was quiet and she was very alert and looking around when one of the other babys started crying. I looked at her and I could have sworn she did a huge eye roll, it wasn't of course but it was damn good impression of one and really made me laugh.

Tommorow... To bath or not to bath, that is the question.

Meal times will never be this easy again.

Sophie reached a couple of small milestones today, one she didn't have ANY Brady's or Apnoeas! Yay. The second was that she got up to 14ml of milk every two hours for her feeds, doesn't sound like much but it is a lot for such a tiny wee thing.

I havn't explained about feeding so let me try. Sophies suck and swallow reflex has not yet developed, therefore she cannot feed directly from the breast. This has two major flow on effects, the first is that she needs to have a tiny tube inserted into her stomach through her nose and down her throat so that her milk can be administered directly into her stomach. The second is that Deb has to express her milk.

Our wee girl pre naso gastric tube insertion.

Now expressing milk doesn't sound all that onerous but it has been responsible for us getting a taste of the sleepless nights associated with being new parents. Deb having had a caesarian was not in a position to be constantly getting up and down to get the breast pumping equipment so that duty fell to me (I had been sleeping in with Deb all along anyway). So, every 3 hours and every 4 at night the ritual is: going down to the "milk room" getting the pump, removing the gear from the Milton (sterilising stuff) and asembling it, bringing it back to Deb, waiting while she does the deed, 10 to 30 minutes depending, storing the product, disasembling the gear, cleaning the gear and replacing it in milton, returning the pump and if at night, going back to bed.

What a polava.

I was going to get a Fonterra sticker and put it on my back but didn't think that it would go down well with the other Mums :) I kept this up until she was able to move about and now she is doing all this herself losing sleep while I at least get to sleep through the night, that is if I can get the two of them out of my head for long enough to get to sleep.

Back to Sophie.

So the idea was to start her off on 1ml of milk (colostrum at first) every 3 hours and build our way up to 21ml every 2 hours. In this way her drip can slowly be tapered off until she is up to the 21ml, then they can remove it and we will be able to bath her!

Baby steps

The feeding process is quite interesting, first the attach a syringe to the feeding tube and suck all the air out, burping will never be so easy again. They then attach a syringe with the appropriate amount of breast milk in, remove the plunger and the milk syphons into her stomach under gravity. It takes 1 or two minutes. Meal times will never be so easy again. We are learing to do this ourselves but the Nurses still take care of the timings and amounts. So she is slowly being increased in this manner as she can tolerate it and I am pleased to say she is tolerating it well and will be up to 21ml in no time.

We had a timely reminder of just how well she is doing compared to her peers today, she had a new neighbour turn up today. A wee boy of the same gestational age as Sophie, poor little chap had to have the CPAP machine put on and so is pinioned on his back with this great hulking tubes stuffed up his nose forcing air down him. It is a well studied and accepted fact that pre-term girls do better than boys. When we asked our specialist why he just said that Men have always thought they were the stronger sex but they were wrong, that one is for all your ladys out there :)

Now for the real treat of this post. When I arrived today Sophie had been sleeping for quite a while and we wanted to get her up for a kangaroo care session, will explain about those in tommorows post. So we turned her over to change her nappy (and yes she wees and poos like any other baby) and by the time we had finshed with that she was WIDE awake, looking around and genearlly just being a gorgeous little girl, and I took some video, so here you go.

Isn’t she just a pet? My heart just bursts with pride every time I see this.

One other thing of note happened today, she had the dreaded IV line changed from one arm to the other. Strangely enough she tolerated the procedure well, thanks in large part I believe to the pain relief she received. This is another of those “wow that is really interesting” moments, the pain relief consisted of nothing more than sucrose solution, sugar water dripped into her mouth, and it really worked! The trouble started when they came to remove the old one which had been fastened with a splint and sticky (really sticky) tape, she had a fair paddy man, worked herself up into a real state, which we had never seen before, cried her little heart out poor thing, all good exercise for her lungs I suppose and she slept really well after that.

It is one year to the day tommorow (the 22nd) that Sarah was born and died. It is going to be a rough day I think, we plan to spend quite a bit of time down at the cemetery but the weather might put the Kaibosh on that. In any case we will be with her in our hearts, Sophie too, even if she doesn't know it yet. If you want to do something for us and her just take a moment to remember her if you met her, if not just know that she existed and that she was a person and that she was loved, the fact that she exists in your minds and hearts, if even for the few moments while you read this gives me solace....... Thanks.

Perhaps I should have called this post "tears on the keyboard"

Let the roller coaster continue.

Fancy a morning Latte?

Getting Sophie all set up in Neonatal was quite a performance, first they attached a probe to her foot that would monitor the amount of oxygen in her blood, so called oxygen saturation. Then there were the little heart monitor electrode pads to go on to her chest which give her respiratory rate as well as her heart rate. Next was the IV line, perhaps the most harrowing to watch go in, most of us will have had one of these put in at some time and 90% of those people will have experienced a botched attempt, just imagine how much harder it is to get one in on a baby of that size. They did eventually get one in, this was needed to give her IV glucose for evergy while she wasn't getting any milk to top up her electrolytes and administer any drugs.

In her incubator with all tubes attached.

As mentioned earlier Sophies biggest problem was to be her breathing, her lungs were formed enough to breath but this was not the end of the matter. It is common in premmies this age to have what they call "Brady's" which is an episode if bradycardia where her heart rate would slow down from about 130 beats per minute to around 80. Associated with this is Apnoea's where her respiratory rate would slow right down, the problem here being that she is just so small and her muscles so weak that she just gets tired and forgets to breathe!
As you can imagine when this first happened we fair panicked. All manner of alarms and flashing lights go off and you can see her heart rate and respirations fall and after a small lag period her oxygen saturation as well. The only positive being that all that is needed to get her out of it was a bit of stimulation, a pat on the back, pick her up and put her down, just taking her blanket off was usually enough. We can be thankfull for that as some babys her age need CPAP (continuous positive airways pressure) where air is blown into there lungs or even in some situations intubation and ventilation!
Day one she did not do too many of these, but on day two the frequency increased slightly. Not too uncommon we were told but could also be an early sign of infection, this turned out to be the case but only a little skin infection in her goin area and a zit on her neck! Easily cleared up with a little topical anibacterial cream.
The frequency of these Brady's and Apnoea's has slowly decreased to where today she has only had a few, which as you can imagine we are pretty stoked about.
There is a stimulant they can use to reduce the amount of apnoeas and brady's that neonates have...... None other than good ol Caffiene! The first time I came in and they told me they had given her some I looked at the nurse indredulously, then looked at Sophie WIDE awake, eyes open and moving around (she doesn't do much of that yet) and thought well, it works for us why not them? The real funny bit is when they had her IV line temporarily removed they added some caffiene to her milk! Latte anyone? LOL

I will cover feeding, breast milk and how she gets her nutrition later.

I am going to fast forward a bit here to the later events of the day she was born (thurs the 15th) and come back to Sophies ongoing health issues a bit later.

That night just happened to be the SANDS group (Stillbirth And Neonatal Death Support) candle lighting ceremony, which is a small ceremony where you can go along and light a candle to remember your lost little ones. We had planned to go to remember Sarah and Deb wasn't going to let a small thing like major abdominal surgery stop her! So we bundled her into a wheel chair and wheeled her down to the chappel where the ceremony was conveniently being held and lit our candles for Sarah. What a trooper. If our tear ducts hadn't been pushed to the extreme allready that day then they were after that. The ceremony was lovely and I think it did us good to have some emotional release, we have been feeling fragile about Sarah for a while now as her anniversary is coming up and the investigation into her death is still ongoing.

Sarahs candle

Deb in her wheel chair.

Can you imagine more of a rollercoaster of a day than that? Extremes of emotion, first anxiousness and worry, then elation and joy, right back to grief and sorrow. We felt like ping pong balls on the table tennis game of life, and it was one of those crazy chinese olympians playing for gold!