5 August

This week has seen a few interesting changes. Firstly, Max has decided that he likes to be held in a standing position rather than in a sitting one. For a month or two now, if you hold his hands/forearms (with him gripping your thumbs), he has braced himself and tried to pull himself into a sit. Lots of fun, and he's getting better at holding his head up (though he'll still allow it to drop down sometimes). From Wednesday, however, he not only pulled himself up, but pushed down with his feet and straightened his legs - resulting in a standing up baby! Quite frightening at first, as he was gripping my hands so tightly that I found it hard to let go and hold him! He still doesn't have a good amount of strength in his upper torso, so while his little legs are working hard to straighten and hold him up, his shoulders & body are flopping! Ah well, it's all good physio.

He also is trying to blow 'raspberries' - but basically he ends up with pursed lips and a bit of air and spit blowing out. Very funny to watch.

We also had our first 'Parent's Group' session - actually a very nice group, almost all girls (only Max and one other boy), and a variety of 'stories' to tell. Although some had bad birth stories (but, thank goodness, one in particular was extremely positive - good on you), I was still jealous. Quite hard for me, listening to some of it, but I think the group will be a good one. I hope so, anyway. It would be nice to make some different friends - ones with 'normal' babies and from different backgrounds - to add to the fabulous premmie parents we already know.

I have had people ask about how we'll keep up the blog. basically I'll try and make an entry every week or fortnight, unless there's something to say. It is quite hard to actually get to sit down at the computer for more than a couple of minutes at a time - Max doesn't like being ignored, and still hates daytime sleeping!