Monica - Day 27

Monica may have a cold coming on we're told :-(  After her bad day yesterday some of the staff noticed that she has the sniffles so may be getting a cold.  We're hoping not.

More alarmingly we've also been told that Monica needs a blood transfusion because her Hemoglobin levels are too low, so she now has another cannula :-( The transfusion will happen tomorrow after they have checked both Marie's and Monica's blood with the donor blood.  We're told it is quite common for preterm babies to require blood transfusions.

Monica looking cute with her little armband.

Mummy watching over Monica.

Monica now has another cannula ready for her blood transfusion :-(

Monica wondering what on earth mummy and daddy are doing. 

Continue to Day 28

Monica - Day 26

Monica didn't have a very good day today as she was desaturating a lot and having quite a few bradycardias.  To make matters far worse the nurse looking after her was pretty dim.  When you point out that a machine monitoring your babies vital signs is not working properly but get told that "The machine is tired" it is to say the least, somewhat annoying.

We forced them to put another monitoring machine on and were proven right.  Unfortunately though because of this stupid situation poor Monica had desaturated quite badly but the machine simply hadn't picked it up and she ended up on oxygen for a while until she picked up again.  To say we were livid is an understatement.  To have a daft person telling ME (someone who works with computers) that a "machine is tired" is rather pathetic.  I had to explain to the nurse that machines don't get tired thats why cars are now built with Robots, Dur!  Not happy.

Monica has now been moved to the main ward which she shares with about eight other babies (one of which has a possible chest infection).  We're glad she is still in her incubator and are watching the nurses and staff like hawks to make sure they wash their hands before going near our little one.  The hand washing regime here is much more relaxed than at the Queen Charlotte and Chelsea hospital.

Dinner time.

Monica is still sleeping, eating, growing :-)

Continue to Day 27

Monica - Day 24

Monica has been given the all clear, their tests confirm that she didn't bring any germs / bugs into the hospital so she does not have to be in isolation anymore!! :-( She has been moved to another side room though so there is still some privacy which is good, but this time there is another (currently empty) incubator in there at the moment.

Monica's feeds have now been increased again as she has put on quite a bit of weight during the last week.  She is now a huge 1.6Kg (3.52 Lbs / 3 lbs, 8 oz) which is absolutely brilliant and she certainly feels a lot less fragile now (but we're still ultra careful with her nevertheless). She will continue to be fed through the tube in her nose until she learns to co-ordinate swallowing her milk herself.

Mark with Monica

She is very camera shy is our Monica.

They have now started letting her sleep on her back part of the time, although she always seems to manage to wriggle down to the bottom of the incubator. Looking at this photo she is almost unrecognisable from when she was 5 days old.  We're so proud of her.

Monica doing her morning exercises.

Continue to Day 26

Monica - Day 23

Monica is still in the isolation room for now.

 
Our first family photo :-)

Continue to Day 24

Monica - Day 21

Our little miracle is three weeks old today and is doing sooooo well. She is settling into her new home and is still in the isolation room.  We're told that it could be a few more days yet before they move her to the ward (the longer the better in our opinion as there is less footfall in her current room and hence less opportunity for anyone to bring germs into her room).  There were rumblings about moving her to a Level I hospital as she is doing so well, but we have voiced our concerns, not least because she has only been here for a couple of days so far.

Monica has inherited mummy's disdain for cameras being pointed towards her, I see.

She absolutely loves stretching all four limbs out as much as possible though (especially when you need to get her legs out of her babygrow).

Monica being vocal with her hands and having a good yawn and stretch prior to nappy change and dinner time. 

Mummy having another cuddle.

Continue to Day 23

Monica - Day 20

Monica had her first two visitors today, Nan and Grandad.  She had a couple of desats but apart from that she was on her best behaviour.

Monica with Nan

Grandads photos were coming out better than dads in the low light conditions but Marie still appears suitably impressed

Continue to Day 21

Monica - Day 19

Monica has now been transferred to her new home.  She looked really tiny all wrapped up in the travel incubator but had her eyes open to see what was going on on her first ever journey outside the hospital.  She had a couple of desats while in the ambulance (which was a bit scary as I was following in the car behind so really didn't want to see the blue lights come on and the ambulance pulling over... luckily it was mainly so that the nurse could stand up without falling over rather than anything really bad).

Monica is in an isolation room for a few days which is normal when babies are transferred in from another hospital, and mum has spent her first night at home in about 7 weeks or so.

She now weighs 3.08 lbs which is great news and her little arms and legs certainly look a bit chubbier so we're really pleased about that.  Her feeds have been increased again and she desats a bit after a lot of feeds but other than that she is doing great :-)

Monica's first night in her new home.  Back in an incubator for now but thats more for isloation reasons, as she has been managing to keep her own temperature regulated fine outside of an incubator for the last few days

 
They moved the feeding tube to the other side before she moved so there is a bit of redness from the tape.

She is always really happy to have a cuddle with mummy :-)

Monica's new home while she is in isolation (until she moves to the normal SCBU ward)

Continue to Day 20

Monica - Day 14

Monica is now 2 weeks old :-) She was weighed tonight and has put on a decent amount.  She now weighs 1.305Kg's (2.88 lbs / 2 lbs, 14 oz), which is just slightly more than when she was born which is great for two weeks old.

Mummy looking at Monicas monitors

 
Monica looking up lovingly at mummy

Monica wondering why daddy is pointing a metal thing at her all the time. 

Continue to Day 19

Monica - Day 13

We were warned right from day one to be prepared for setbacks and I guess it was day 13.  Monica has been fine with her breathing and with her Oxygen saturation since she has been off the CPAP but she has had a few desaturation incidents today which means that her breathing has slowed a bit too much and as a result the oxygen in her blood was a little on the low side.  We'd noticed that all the other babies in the unit do this from time to time and need a bit of stimulating to get them to breathe a bit more, but we'd been quietly pleased that Monica had been fine.  We hadn't realised that Monica had done this a few times throughout the night so it was a bit of a panic when the monitors / alarms started going off, although the staff didn't seem too worried.  Apparently this is very common in early babies as they grow as their lungs have to work hard to keep up with their growing bodies; at least this is what another mum in the unit was told.... we've not managed to speak to a doctor about it yet.  Apart from this Monica had a cuddle with both mummy and daddy today which is a first, although Mummy was a little upset to see Monica's finger up her nose for the first time ever - hehe. 

Monica with her finger up her nose, much to mummy's dismay. 

We think she has put on some weight but won't know for sure until tomorrow 

 
Daddy's second cuddle 

Daddy with his little miracle. 

Continue to Day 14

Monica - Day 12

Monica is such a good little girl she just lets the nurses get on with whatever they need to do.  The only thing that seems to upset her is the cold thermometer they (or mummy) put under her arm.

Today was the first time I've seen her in over a week and as soon as she heard my voice she opened her eyes and had a good look around for almost an hour.

Monica gets a bit upset whenever mummy tries to take her temperature (but not too much).  

She is as good as gold most of the time.

Mummy said she has been growing well and it's lovely to see a little smile every now and then.


She opened her eyes as soon as she heard her daddy's voice after 6 days away and kept them open for ages. It was fantastic to see her so alert :-)

Continue to Day 13