17-19 March

Quite a big weekend for the little one. His last weigh put him back on the increase at 2970g. He has rediscovered he actually likes a bath (after the last two were not enjoyed at all), and they are much easier now that the central line in his head has gone. He is also working hard at the breastfeeding and is managing to get a good few sucks in, and occasionally actually getting something out and swallowing it. This is actually quite difficult for him, as all his feeds to date have been through a gastric tube, not through any kind of suck feeding.

He has also been introduced to the joys of nappy rash with some extremely excoriated skin. Poor wee mite, it hurts him quite a lot. Today he was very hard for the staff to settle, and what with the hernias also quite uncomfortable now (they are huge!) they gave him a stat dose of panadol, which seemed to work quite well.

We are having daily cuddles for a decent length of time now. He is also much more awake and his eyes seem far more focussed. He seems to make eye contact far more easily, and is also starting to notice the toy hanging above his head in the cot.

In the last 24 hours he has gone from hourly feeds to 2-hourly feeds, which so far he seems to be tolerating well. If it contnues like this, tomorrow they are planning to give him a go in infra-nasal oxygen, rather than the intra-nasal he's on now. Basically the difference is that the intra-nasal is driven into the nostils with longish prongs, and is an air/O2 mix. The infra-nasal (which is the type we may have to take him home on) is purely O2, and apparently the prongs are much shorter. He will also be getting far lower a flow of gas, so he'll have to breath a little bit deeper himself to get the real benefits. Hopefully he'll take to it immediately, but he may need to go back & forth between the two for a while until he gets used to it.

We actually felt safe enough today to go out and put all the baby 'equipment' on layby (cot, pram, car seat etc). Yay Max!