Don't worry, be happy

Katy just did a burp and a bit of sick and her oxygen is now back to normal.

Kids eh?

Not so weighty Katy

Katy has only put on 40g.

She is now around 2lb 13oz. It is tough for us because we had thought she was doing really well. To add insult to injury, her oxygen has been put up by 5%. These two things are not big problems, but it is frustrating. I suppose we should not will her out of hospital sooner than she is ready. However, the more she looks like a proper baby, the more we want to just take her away.

Seeing all the other proud dads zoom past when we are on the way in doesn't help either.

2lb 12oz

Katy has had an exciting weekend.

She is still out of intensive care. She has put on 80 g and is now 1240g which is 2lb 12oz. She has been moved onto one feed every 3 hrs and is tolerating the larger volume well. Her incubator oxygen has been as low as 22% which meant that she was almost breathing air! She has finished the antibiotics and seems a lot better.

We had a great weekend, hope you did too!!

Holiday or emmigration?

Katy was moved out of intensive care last night.

She was the most stable baby and they needed the cot space. Katy only put on 20g so she is now 2lb9oz, at least it is a gain. Her bottom is still quite poorly, she has nasty blisters, but the more general rash has got better because we are using terry toweling nappies. However, Katy cannot use the full size ones, so we are using flannels instead! (another good idea from Nanno)

She may move back to intensive care, because she is still one of the smallest around, and she is still in an incubator, but it will be fun for Katy to look around her new room.

Oh well, got to do some reports, time to copy and paste...

Whoops, I've got a puncture

Katy had to have a lumbar puncture yesterday.

It was all clear, and she had three doctors doing it, so it went in first time. Her infection markers have come back down a bit now, but Katy is still having nappy rash. Katy had blood transfusion today so she is looking nice and pink.

The camera batteries have run out, so no photos today. Maybe Friday, sorry photo fans!!

P.S. Our address is:
10 Rivermead,
Uxbridge Road,
Kingston Upon Thames,
Surrey.
KT1 2LR

Weighty Katy part II

Katy is now 1140g which is 2lb8.5oz.

She is still off CPAP and coping well with her oxygen around 25%. We had a bit of a scare when she tried 2 hourly feeds and required extra oxygen. They took some blood and decided they wanted to do a lumbar puncture (a needle into the spine to get fluid) aswell. We were not happy with this so we went to the hospital to meet with the registar and they delayed it for 12 hrs. Katy was fine that night and the next day they cancelled the lumbar puncture. Hooray!

She is doing well today (feeling better than daddy and uncle chris who went to a concert last night!). Rock and roll!!

Who needs cpap

Katy has now been off for over 50 hours.

We were a bit concered today because she needed more oxygen, but this happened at the same time as her feeds changing to two hourly and twice the volume.

She is having some antibiotis, again, because her blood test was not brilliant. This may have been caused by the rash on her bum, so we shall see how she gets on overnight.

More photos on monday. Sorry.

Happy CPAPY

Katy came off CPAP at 9pm last night and she still has not gone back on!

Good set of lungs!

Weighty Katy

Katy was 1100g today. That's 2lb 7oz.

She is looking absolutely fantastic today. She has done over 7 hours off CPAP and we are very impressed. We have been putting Katy to Leanne's breast and she has been latching on, which is an amazing feeling.

John and Marlene (leanne's nan and gramps) visited yesterday and Nanno (leannes mum) is still here and making sure Katy is behaving herself.

I held Katy in my hands, outside the incubator today. Amazing.

Eye eye

Katy had her first eye test today and it was fine.

She is feeling bigger and has become quite particular. If things are not quite right, she makes you aware. A bit like mum and dad really!

She is still doing 3hrs on CPAP, 3 hrs off. Although she now needs less oxygen. She breathes air when she is on the CPAP and has about 25% when she is in the incubator. We have been able to cuddle her for the last two evenings and it is a real treat.

She is doing really well!

Back to Skool

1. 
   
   
   
   
   
   Just taught my first lesson. It went very well.
   
   
   Everyone is glad to see me back, staff and students, but it was hard to leave Katy this morning. She was looking really good though and we know that our favourite nurse is looking after her today so that makes it easier.
   
   
   Katy was weighed yesterday and she has broken the kilo. She was 1040g which is 2lb5oz. She is still performing well and it is truly amazing when she opens her eyes, she is really responsive.
   
   
   I need to get my planning sorted so I'll sign off.
   
   

Steak

We managed to have a BBQ yesterday. It was splendid. The woman from upstairs came down to complain about it today. She said she had to "clean the grease off her tiles" I said " we only had steak and two burgers" she showed me the minutes from the last residents AGM saying no BBQ anywhere in the complex. I pointed out that there were only 3 people at the AGM out of 24 flats and apologised for the smoke while pointing out that she was making a bit too much fuss. She seemed to listen. Her current issue is with a guy on the ground floor who did not want to pay £50 to get his front door painted the same colour as the others (horrible green). She lives on the third floor. Good luck to the next tennants, we are leaving this summer!

Anyway, more importantly, Katy is doing very well. She is cycling 3hrs on, 3 hrs off CPAP and all the team are very impressed with her progress. We managed to find a few cute outfits in a Mothercare world so expect some nice pics soon!

Off to see Katy now.

First cuddles for a while

Katy has started cycling off CPAP.

We had a good day yesterday, with a fantastic nurse. Katy was really awake at times and Leanne got to have a nice cuddle for over an hour. The antibiotics have finished and the nurse was able to take the line out of her arm.

She has seemed much more comfortable and is doing well when coming off the CPAP. I have added another 3 photos to my web album because it is much easier than puting them on here (plus, google adds tham to an album when I put them on here anyway). If you want the photos back on the blog then leave a comment.

Can't wait to see Katy today.

Web album

Go HERE for the photo highlights. The quality is not brilliant (come on google, sort it out) but there are some lovely snaps on there. The SLIDESHOW is very good (see the small sneak preview below!!!).


link is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/welsh.mark54

No BBQ but a new breast pump.

Katy has been very stable today.

No time off CPAP, but we spoke to a doc this morning and they want Katy to "recruit alvioli". What this means is, when she is having CPAP pressure, more and more air sacs are being inflated in her lungs. When she comes off CPAP, some of the air sacs collapse. One of my favorite science demos is inflating sheep's lungs and this provides a good, albeit gory, analogy. I have to blow about 10 times to get the lungs fully inflated then when I stop blowing, they collapse.

We stayed later today, only just got home in time for the apprentice, so there was no time for a BBQ. However, we did get given a funky, silent, breast pump by the hospital. No buzzing, just the sound of milk spray on plastic. Bliss.

Wil try to put some photos up tomorrow, plus a web album of the snaps I just sent off to be printed.

Mothercare

We went to buy Katie a (very) little vest today.

Mothercare in kingston only do an "early baby" size that goes up to 5lb. These would be far too big for Katy. It was quite scary to browse through the "new born" section. If you see a "new born" outfit, Katy would be about half that length and width. It is quite astonishing.

We did have some success in John Lewis though, we bought a mini "weber" BBQ that we can use on our balcony, as long as the mad old bat upstairs doesn't tip water on it, and take to the beach when we live in swansea. We should be having our inaugral BBQ, for two, tomorrow night, we'll save Katie a burger!

Katy did seem better today. She has been breathing air through her CPAP for ages now and the hourly feeds are going down without much bother. We just spoke to the night nurse who seemed quite surprised that Katy was having dips with her food, even though this has been happening for two weeks! We will be complaining to matron in the morning. We want the best possible care for Katy, the sonner they realise that, the better for them.

Katy did an hour off CPAP, and had a good blood gas afterwards, but the nurse just told us that the time off was just to give her nose a rest. This means that there is no plan to cycle off CPAP, but at least we got to see her pretty face. I'll try to put some snaps on in the morning.

Night Night.

I don't like mondays.

We had a looooong chat with the consultant today.

This is the first time we have done this in kingston so there was a lot to cover. They are happy with Katy's progress. Her brain is looking good, the blood has gone from one side. Her lungs are a bit inflamed, but this is common in small babies. The doc listened to Katy's heart and could not hear any murmors, so that's good. Katy is still having dips in heartrate and oxygen which are a concern.

This morning, she had a particulary low dip and this meant that they stopped her food and put her on CPAP all day. They also did a xray of her tummy, which came back with no problems. She has had less dips today, so they want to try her on hourly feeds with a small volume, something we wanted to do last week, hopefully this will help her to tolerate her food.

We have been having a tough time in kingston because we have not been able to speak to the consultants because they are not around. In st georges, we saw a consultant once or twice per day. We are also having slight difficulties with some of the nursing staff here, but e have made our concerns known and that should get better.

Katy has not been herself today, neither would I if I did not get fed. Hopefully, she will pick back up when they start her food again. We want the staff to do everything they can to help Katy and sometimes they drop below the high standards that st georges had set. I suppose we have to get used to it.

Finally, a big THANK YOU! To Trevor Jones, Deputy Head of Cyfarthfa High School, who sorted out a problem for me, super-fast, taking a big load off my mind.

Happy 5 week birthday Katy.

Day 34 in the big brother hospital.

Katy has been a little quiet over the last two days.

She did have an infection in her leg. She has nearly finished a course of antibiotics and it has cleared up nicely. Her other leg is a little swollen so the medics are keeping an eye on it.

The good news is that Katy is 960g today which is 2lb 2oz. It was nice to break the 2lb barrier for the first time. Katy is now having 16ml of milk every 2hrs. The feeds are causing her some reflux and this makes her drop her heartrate and then her oxygen drops too. Again, the docs are keeping an eye on it.

We are getting a little weary now, Katy gave us a little glimpse of her wonderful self just before she got the infection, you saw the video, it makes it tough when she has a little dip. We must try, however, to put it in context. Katy has come though much tougher times and is doing well.

Grow Katy, Grow.