Afternoon all,

It seems like a good time to give an update on how things are progressing:

The rollercoaster "dipped" on Sunday night unfortunately. We recieved a call at 6am Monday morning to notify us that Alice was needing lots of help breathing and as a result she had to go back on to the more powerful version of CPAP with a heavier mix of oxygen. At the same time she encountered some problems with her tummy and bowels, so feeding was stopped whilst the doctors reviewed her. The decision was quickly made to get her on a broad spectrum of anti-biotics to treat any potential infection. (Each time any symptons of an infection are presented a blood test is taken and senf off to the lab, this takes at least 48 hours for the results to show, but rather than wait the doctors just pump in the anti-biotics anyway. Better to be safe than sorry!).

What didn't make it any easier was that I'd decided to go back to work on Monday morning, so was a little pre-occupied whilst we waited for her to stabilise. But as usual, my awesome colleagues at Sage were more than understanding :-)

The good news is that by Monday afternoon breathing had improved - so back onto CPAP. Amazingly, within a day of going back onto CPAP, Alice's required levels of oxygen were lower than before the weekend, needing only 24% (remember - we breath 21.8%). Even better news was that yesterday we recieved the results of the blood test which showed no infection.

So, It's Thursday today and the rollercoaster climbs once more. We started slowly once more with the milk and some nutrients so as not to overload her, keeping a close eye on tummy and digestion as we go. Despite all this, her weight remains at 1lb 9 ounces, but she has grown a bit in length and her features look a bit more developed.

Other good bits include:

• Both eyes open regularly and having a good look around, she's holding her gaze on us a bit now when we talk, which is a good sign.
• Shes still very active and as soon as the nappy comes off her legs and arms are waving all over the place
• She's smiled a few times, although we're not sure if this is wind or general contentment!
• Her legs are now a mighty 75 milimeteres long!!!

I'll leave it there for now, but will stick up another picture later on this week.

Thanks

Geoff