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.