7th October

Once more back in the friendly Aylesbury library in between feeds....we now have a phone line at home, but no broadband until next week and in any case I am at the hospital between 10am and 9pm each day and when I do get home just want to collapse into bed!

So where are we now? Well Briony has recovered from her infection, but it seems to have done more damage to her lungs as she now needs more oxygen than she did before the infection, which again just time will heal. She is still in the high dependency end of the ward following her 48 hour pass-out. Feeding is starting to get a bit easier and she is now also taking a bottle when I am not at the hospital. We have moved on to 4 hourly feeds both day and night now.

Weight gain has been a bit of an issue in the last couple of weeks, but unbelievably because she was putting on too much weight! She is now 2.065kg (4lbs and 9 ounces)I've attached a couple of more recent photos, but these are a couple of weeks old as I don't have the most recent ones with me. She has also had to have a 4th blood transfusion.

Stephen and I noticed that her belly button looked a little odd the other day. The doctors have checked it out and they think she has an umbilical hernia, which is apparently very common in premature babies. They don't do anything with it until she is at least 2 years old as they quite often self-resolve.

A bit milestone was that Stephen and I gave Briony her first bath last night and lets face it at 11 weeks old she really needed it! Again another milestone as we haven't been allowed to bath her up until now as she hasn't been well enough.

We are starting to think about plans for home now and at the weekend Stephen and I will be visiting another family who have a baby on oxygen. I have to admit it is a little daunting and obviously not what we had planned but we just can't wait to get her home. It's going to be very restrictive as we have a condenser unit and the tubes are only 15m long. I think we get a couple of little portable cylinders but have been warned that we shouldn't be venturing far. We also need to have training on the oxygen and the dos and don'ts in the next couple of weeks. They always said that she would be discharged around her due date, which is the 27th October. Funny to think that she will have been around almost 4 months by then. It is now just a case of getting her to consistently put on the right amount of weight and get her feeds fully established as she is still having to have some of them down the tube (which she can't go home with). Her oxygen requirements also need to come down a little as she is right at the top end of the limit that she can come home on, which doesn't leave any room for contingency which the doctors aren't happy with.

Visitors are always welcome. We have been asked to remind everyone that Briony will remain very susceptible to infection until she is at least 2 years old and will likely end up back in hospital if she has an infection as she is still a delicate little thing. If you do have the slightest cold or sore throat and were planning to visit then in the nicest possible way, please don't! We are so near now that we don't want any set backs.....