Progress MUST be made...

Weight: 900g's - 5g's away from 2lbs! BUT read on...

Food intake: not too sure - nothing at the moment apart from the lipids which are at a normal level, not halved any more... they won't be feeding me any milk for a while so I might not put any more weight on for a few days and it's likely that I may even lose a bit of weight...

Today they paralysed me so that I would concentrate my efforts on my ventilation and breathing, so I haven't moved at all, but my eyes have been open and I've looked around, they've given me some eye drops so that they don't get dry and there's a blanket over my incubator to stop the bright lights getting in and dazzling me.

Daddy and Mummy chatted with a consultant doctor today. They said she was a nice lady, but she told it how it is and there's a plan for what they're going to do with me.

It's all about my lungs. I'm not behaving any differently from any other baby born at 24 weeks, but my lungs are stiff, very stiff which is basically chronic lung disease - and I've got it. The contributory factors are the ventilation tube and the pressures at which they have to pump the breaths into me at - they are very high and nothing's happening.

The plan for me is to start a low dose of steroid treatment. They're starting this on Monday after they've done some more cultures to ensure I've no bugs... They'll give me the treatment and will evaluate my situation on Tuesday before they give me some more and then again on Wednesday... this will either work and they'll stop the treatment and get me off of the ventilator within the week, or it could take longer because of the damage already caused. Either way, I should be off of the ventilator in a couple of weeks.

Please be optimistic for me as this is the biggest hurdle I'll be facing so far. If I don't respond then I'll die, if I do respond then great, but there could be some lasting effects of damage to my body - but then I'm facing that anyway due to being born so early. So let's all put our little heads together and wish me success. My Daddy and Mummy love me so much that I want to be able to give them some love back again when I'm better.