1st September

Some days it's hard to stay positive and today has been one of those days.

Having said she was improving, I seem to have fated it as she didn't have a very good night last night with her oxygen requirement needing to be increased again. She's now on 36-40%. Part of it is because we now need to start putting her on her back rather than on her front all the time as she needs to get used to being on her back. She hates it though! The nurses have noticed that she is getting a bit of an elongated head which is because she is always lying on one side of it.

The Consultant came to talk to me this morning and said that they are not really sure why her oxygen requirement has increased again. They just need to watch her and see what happens (not that they don't usually watch her in any case). From the X-rays that they have taken her lungs aren't in great shape from her being born so early and they are hoping that she is just going through one of her little dips. It's a bit depressing though as she might need to go back onto a ventilator again if things continue. It's also looking increasingly likely that she will need some kind of breathing support in the longer term as apparently it takes up to 2 years to grow out of the chronic lung disease of prematurity. They did give her a diuretic last night to see if there was any fluid on her lungs that they needed to clear, but this doesn't seem to have made any difference.

There was another weigh in today. Perhaps unsurprisingly Briony remained exactly the same weight, but given that she peed 70mls (or around 5% of her bodyweight!) yesterday because of the diuretic it's not a huge issue at this point in time. She has definitely grown out of the smallest baby-grows so I will need to go and get her some more tomorrow, which is a bit of a milestone.

No cuddles today - given that she has deteriorated a little we have just left her to sleep today - she has barely opened an eye all day!