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