15th August

Briony didn't have a very good night on Friday/Saturday night.

She was struggling to breathe and her respiration rate was very high, so they have had to up her breathing support again. She is now on 6 litres of vapotherm and 24-30% oxygen. They are very concerned about an infection, so have taken some blood cultures which will take a couple of days before the results are known. In the meantime they have started her on IV anti-biotics in case there is an infection.

Mummy and Daddy had quite a long chat with the doctors. The medical staff feel that what we are seeing is premature lung disease and is expected. They said that they felt that Briony had been doing a little too well given the circumstances under which she was born and that now she is pretty much doing what they would expect. Her lungs are very immature and should have had another 3 months to develop and are pretty much the last thing to develop in babies. They think that the drugs they gave both me and her at birth and also the hormones in her body from the premature birth may have been masking the true picture up until now. They have done a chest xray which shows that she has very under-developed lungs. This will be something that they hope she will eventually grow out of, but at the moment, nothing is certain.

On the positive side, Briony did manage to put on some weight and is 968g, so the switch to 1/4 formula and 3/4 breast milk does seem to be making a difference. She has however been having more problems with reflux despite the medicines to try and control it, so they have switched her back to continuous feeds, rather than 2 hourly. The volume has increased very slightly to 7.5mls/hour.

14th August

An early post today, as Mummy and Daddy are off to Stratford Upon Avon this evening to meet up with some of Mummy's university friends, so we won't be back online until tomorrow evening.

The main function of babies is to grow and put on weight. Briony isn't. She lost another 40g yesterday, which means she has lost just over 5% of her bodyweight in the last 2 days. She now weighs 920g, just 10g above her birth weight of 910g three and a half weeks ago. Mummy is going to ask to speak to the doctors about it today as Briony seems to be fighting a loosing battle and Mummy and Daddy are quite concerned about it as Briony will not be let home until she is at least 2.5kg which seems a very long way off at the moment. At this rate it will be 2011 before she is home and Mummy's maternity leave will be almost over, which isn't great as she won't have had hardly any time at home with Briony. Once more, robbed of the experiences of a normal pregnancy/early months with a baby.

Briony's infection tests have come back all clear, which is good news. However, the less positive news is that her haemoglobin level came back at 6 (it should be around 10-11), so Briony had to have an blood transfusion overnight. This meant she had to have 2 IV lines inserted (one for the transfusion and one for some fluids whilst she was having the transfusion) which isn't great as they can be an infection risk. The doctors want to leave them in for 24-48 hours in case they need to give her anything else.

Her breathing remains as yesterday.

13th August

Unfortunately not a great day today...

Briony has lost 10g so is back down at 960g. I overhead the Consultant ward round this morning where her weight gain was described as "rubbish". Very medical term clearly! This will be the last day that they will leave her on 1/4 formula. If there is no weight gain tomorrow she will be on 1/2 formula, 1/2 fortified breast milk.

To help Briony conserve energy and grow they have whacked up her breathing support. She has been increased from 2.5 litres to 3.5 litres and her oxygen has gone from 25% to 30%.

She has been breathing very fast (at over 100 respirations a minute - it should be around 20-60) and the doctors think she may also have picked up an infection. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised as nearly every other baby in there seems to have an infection at the moment. They plan to do an X-ray of her chest to have a look and also some blood tests and cultures to try and work out what is going on with her. It looks like she will need to have an IV line put back in to give her some antibiotics.

She also looks quite pale, so they are checking her haemoglobin, which has been borderline for the last couple of days. If it low, she will need a blood transfusion. She did look a little pale to me and her hands were also quite a bit colder than they have been previously.

11-12th August

A steady couple of days.

Briony is now on 2.5 litres of vapotherm, but pretty much the same amount of oxygen. Her weight is now 970g (she's been up and down in the last couple of days), so the next big goal is 1kg! The consultant came and spoke to me today and although I'm really not happy about it has put Briony on 1/4 formula milk and 3/4 my milk. Apparently it's very difficult to get them back on breast milk once they have been on formula and I really want to breast feed her so am not that happy about it.

Mummy and Daddy have both had a cuddle in the last couple of days (with Briony, not each other!) which has been lovely. Daddy is off to Ireland tomorrow so will see Briony again on Saturday, but Mum will be back over tomorrow.....

Feeds are now every 2 hours rather than every hour.

10th August

10g weight loss today. Today is the last day they will try her on full fortifier before trying something else as they are now getting worried about her lack of weight gain. Apparently there is some fat boy formula that they can try, but that might mean that she won't take breast milk if she gets too used to the formula. So glad that I am expressing every 4 hours!

Breathing is much the same as before. They reckon she could do with a little less support, but don't want to put it down as she needs to conserve all her energy for growing rather than breathing. She is back on a minimal handling regime, which means no cuddles and virtually no touching except when she needs a nappy to change to give her the best chance possible of putting on weight.

Mum is pretty much shattered after 3 weeks of this, so there might not be a daily update from now on, but rest assured if anything significant happens I will post it! MBA exams in just over 3 weeks time and starting to panic, so please give me some time to study!

9th August

BRIONY HAS FINALLY GONE OVER HER BIRTH WEIGHT - HURRAH!!!!! She now weighs 940 grams, so this is a big psychological barrier that she has finally overcome.

Mummy was allowed cuddles today, during which Briony got herself into the strangest positions.....it really can't have been comfortable.

Grandma Julie payed her final visit today before travelling back to Suffolk tomorrow.

Other than that, not a lot to report today. Breathing is pretty much as it has been although she is getting better at sorting herself out rather than the nurses having to up her oxygen.

There's certainly nothing wrong with her bowels - Briony has had to progress to a larger size nappy, for all the wrong reasons!

8th August

For the first time today, Mummy didn't visit as she had to revise for her exams in a few weeks. Daddy said that she was settled when he visited and woke up for a short while.

Briony managed to put back on the 20g she lost yesterday, so is back to 900g once again. We still can't seem to quite manage to get back over the birth weight of 910g, which would be a real psychological milestone!

Breathing is much the same - on a maintainence of 24% oxygen, but requiring increases every so often when she desaturates.

Milk is now full fortifier (why I am still expressing in the middle of the night?), and has gone up from 6.5mls to 7mls/hour. Something is obviously having an effect, as when Stephen rung up earlier to ask how Briony was the nurses commented that she was fine and pooing everywhere - charming!

Briony is almost sucking at her dummy and keeps almost putting her thumb in her mouth which is very cute - I reckon in a week or so either the dummy or the thumb will be in full use!