Update number 1 and a bit of background

Well, this is my first attempt at a blog, so bear with me! 

When Catherine and I decided to have a baby we didn't expect it to happen this quickly!

I decided to create this blog as a way to keep everybody updated on Alice's progress, to avoid having to send out tons of texts and messages each day/week etc.

First and foremost, some information to remind you all about how this all started...

Alice Elizabeth Watson was born on the 14th August at 6.20pm, just under 16 weeks earlier than expected. She weighed in at a hefty 1 pound 6 ounces !(620 grams). Due to the need for intensive specialist care she was delivered at the RVI in Newcastle, so yes, she's a proper geordie. The doctors (more on these rather amazing people later) worked on her for 10 mins to stabilise her breathing and placed her into a plastic "rosti" bag to keep her warm. After a few hours we were able to go and see her in the flesh, albeit through an incubator window, which was rather a shock for us both in terms of how tiny she was and the tangle of wires plumbed into her. The constant hissing and beeping of machines was very intimidating as we didn't know what the hell most of them were actually doing. 

Throughout the following days we watched, waited and started to get involved with her "cares" twice a day. This consisted of cleaning her face and mouth, changing the miniature nappies and applying cream to any dry skin. I can't quite explain how valuable these little 10 minute sessions were to us, as it's the only time we could actually do something for her, other than stare at her through the incubator. 

So, where are we now? It's Saturday the 8th September and she's almost 4 weeks old. There have already been a few steps forward and few back, with a whole lot more to come. I've decided to give a bit of detail on a few areas below, as they are the most common things people are asking about:

Breathing - Alice is currently breathing with the help of something called "CPAP" which is continuous positive airway pressure. This provides a flow of air which is richer in oxygen as she's not developed enough to breath normal air on her own. The good news is that as of today, the nurses have managed to reduce the level of oxygen to between 24-30%, which is great considering only last week she was on 40-50%. To put that into better context, we currently breathe 21.8% oxygen, so the close she gets to that the better. Despite these improvements though, there are occasions where Alice starts to "shallow breathe", which means she's not taking in enough air. Most of the time she corrects this herself, but there have been a few incidents where a nurse has had to intervene and either increase oxygen or give her a little "nudge". 

Feeding - Catherine is expressing breast milk every 2-3 hours, this is then fed through a tube directly into Alice's stomach. We started out with 0.5 mil per hour to make sure she could process and absorb it, this has been gradually increased over the last 4 weeks and as of today she's receiving 4.9 mils per hour, which is close to the maximum she can have based on her weight. 

Weight - Alice dropped to 1 pound 4 ounces in the first week, but soon put that back on and is currently just under 1 pound 9 ounces. I think the nurses give her a special badge once she gets to 1kg. :-) 

Heart - all babies have a small duct in their heart that is supposed to close between 34-40 weeks or at birth. Due to Alice being so small, hers is still open. At the moment this isn't causing any obvious problems so the Doctors don't want to do anything about it, they do expect it to close up normally over the coming weeks. However, if this doesn't happen or if there are signs that it's starting to cause Alice problems, they'll consider medicine or worst case scenario a small operation to close it up manually. 

I'll stop for now, partly because that's a lot of info to read and partly because I'm off to the hospital again. 

Both myself and Cathering will update this blog as much as we can, so thanks for reading and keep those fingers crossed!!!

Geoff