21 April

What a difference a day makes! We arrived in the morning to a sleepy boy, quite settled. He remained so for another two hours, with bits of waking, but no real crying. Certainly nothing like yesterday. He woke fully just before 11am, just in time for a feed (and visitors!). He tried hard on the bottle, but only managed 35ml. (Apparently last night he took 50ml!) We were actually rather happy with that.

He's still on panadol every six hours, and his bottom is getting rather red again, probably from the very loose stools. He really doesn't like having his nappy changed - I think that particular area is quite sore still.

He is still off oxygen completely. His saturations ranged from the mid eighties to high nineties, so that's all rather acceptable.

He had a cranial ultrasound a week or so ago, which I had assumed was all clear (as nothing had been said about it). However, one of the measurements taken during this check had increased, so we had a rather colourful (and metaphorical) description/explanation from Dr Simon today. Basically, there's nothing extra to worry about. Max will almost certainly have some neurological damage, due to the extreme prematurity, and this is just another indicator - 'more of the same'. So, nothing actually extra. We're not fussed. We have no idea what Max will challenge us with next, so we need to take these "don't worry" moments and enjoy them. We certainly don't forget the underlying issues, but we try not to dwell on them. there's nothing we can do right now, as we don't know exactly what Max might be able/not be able to do, so right now he's just Max.

He had some lovely awake time, big cuddles and playing, then, immediately after rounds, promptly fell asleep. Good boy.

He's actually supposed to be back in Level 2, but there's been another baby explosion and it is totally full - to overflowing. Along with Max, there's one or two other Level 3-ers who should be moved, but there's nowhere to put them! We actually don't mind - it's quieter where we are, and we have our old window seat back!

Some people have asked us about his name. For all those non-Ukis, here's why we chose his names: Maxym was Mark's grandfather's name, is Ukranian, and is pronounced approximately 'muck-sem'. David is my father's middle name, also my brother's middle name, and I believe it's a great-grandfather's somewhere along the line, too. So, something from both sides of the family. To us, though, he's just Max!