Saturday 12th May 2007

Weight: 860g's (1lb 14oz's - nearly 2lbs!) I've put 10g's on since yesterday!
Food intake: 1.5ml's per hour - I'm a very hungry boy!

I felt a bit odd today, different than most days so far. I've come such a long way in such a short period of time, that today felt slower than normal and didn't pass by as quickly, the nurses even said that my progress had slowed down a bit.

Mummy, Daddy and Great Aunty Vally saw me today. Mummy was able to ldo my cares, she wiped my hair and my eyes and washed my body. She changed my nappy too and rubbed a bit of anti-rash cream onto my soft bum so that I stay soft and don't get a rash. I love it when they're both there at the same time, it makes me feel lovely, Daddy lets Mummy look after me; he's looking after her you see... I'll probably end up looking after both of them one day! After this Mummy started to read Treasure Island to me but I got a bit out of sorts and wouldn't settle... you see I'm used to lying on my back or on my side but recently I've been laying on my tummy. This feels nicer as I've been less able to wriggle around... this suits me just fine as I need to put more energy into getting better and making my lungs good rather than spending energy on wriggling. I think that I've been so unsettled as I've been uncomfortable. Some of the nurses are really good, they've got to know me so they know that I don't like being handled and they know that my ventilation tube really hurts if it's too far in my mouth (and then in my lungs).

My heart rate has been up and down and all over the place and so has the oxygen levels in my body. When I feel unsettled and uncomfortable these are the two areas affected more quickly. Sometimes my heart rate goes up due to all of my wriggling - it's a bit like cardio vascular exercise (aerobics) and sometimes it goes down if I'm not happy.

I'm probably like my Mummy at the moment - her emotions are all over the place and I'm seeing what it's like myself. It's not nice and I'd much prefer to be calm and settled. At the moment I'm laying on my tummy and that feels nice and comfortable - I've told Mummy to have a go at doing this too - she says that she'll give it a go tonight when she goes to bed.

I hope that tomorrow is better. I hope that I'll be able to have the tube in my mouth removed soon - my next door neighbour who was born a few days ago is 27 weeks (1 week older than me) and he's not on a ventilator... but he is only 700g's birth weight.

I'm looking forward to Mummy, Daddy, Great Grandma, Grandma Felicity and Great Aunty Rosina coming to visit me tomorrow. I'll do my best to be good and to not worry them with any 'wobbly' moments - but I'm not promising anything... I just have to take every day as it comes.