28 May

Well, we have been home for ten days now, and it has been a very interesting time. Days are great, with lots of smiles and goos, and a few cries. Nights are a bit more challenging - mostly for me, as I learn Max's routines and work out my own.

He is still struggling with the bottle - though he is taking more than he was last week, and is also showing more 'hungry' signs as well. We are following a strict 4-hourly regime, but sometimes we're starting up to half an hour early if Max is hungry.

One of the medications he's on, Losec, is proving to be a proverbial pain to administer. It is a tablet dissolved in water - but it actually doesn't truly dissolve, rather it breakes down into tiny pellets, which act in the stomach to reduce the reflux issues. Giving this little solution is not Max's favourite time (nor mine), and we struggle every day to get the precious pellets into his stomach and not simply spat back out again!

He had his second visit from the outreach nurses today, and he's now up to 4470g, which is a good gain. Jane (nurse) also hooked him up to a portable oximeter just to check how he's going in terms of oxygen staurations, and he was fine - first number which clicked up was 98%! So, that's a relief. I wasn't really worried, but it is good to know he's doing fine.

We ran out of EBM (breast milk) last Friday, so now we're on normal term baby formula. It's quite depressing that 6-7 weeks' worth of expressing, six times a day, freezing it in our little freezer in the garage, working hard on it all this time, is used up in just over one week. Ah well, at least he got to actually drink it, and it wasn't thrown out!

Photo - an attempt at capturing on film the smiles we are getting occasionally now. We're also getting a lot of true 'baby noises' instead of only the snorts and grunts (which we still get!). Max has had an afternoon out visiting his Chocha, Uncle and cousins, and yesterday he entertained the family at our place, along with some interstate visitors. He was pretty exhausted by the time everyone had gone, and a bit over-stimulated. It took a while to settle him!