8.5 weeks

Joe

Joe again

The babies are now 8.5 weeks and progress is slow so not much to update. Harry is still having time off his cpap and is coping well and Joe should be starting to have time off by the end of the week. Nothing dramatic has happened, no infections, no brain bleeds, eye exams normal and for that we are incredibly grateful. I keep being reminded that this doesn't guarantee 'normal' babies but I am happy and confident that all will be okay.

Both babies have folders in the drawers next to their incubators which contain all the doctors notes and reports. On the front is a big notice which states that the file is intended for drs and nurses use only and parents are NOT to look in it. Well this seemed like an invitation to me so on Sunday I waited until the nurse was out of sight and took it out of the drawer to look. I was happily rooting through it when that pesky nurse pounced on me. She almost wrestled me to the floor to get that folder off me and told me I was NOT to look in it. Hmmm. So yesterday I doubled my efforts, waited until teh nurse was busy over the other side of the room and covertly flicked through to see what was so top-secret. Alas nothing of great interest was in there, but I did notice that each day the nurse comments in her 'round-up' about me, and whether I have changed nappies etc. There is also a chart that is filled in each day which notes which parents have vistited, who else has visited, and how many times we have rang in. It was interesting to see that one of the notes in Joe's chart was that grandad has visited. Unless grandads Tibbles or Evans have snuck in undercover I can only assume that the nurse mistook David's brother for grandad, sorry Stevie.

Being sent back to Poole is now being mentioned more and more often. I am not keen at all. We are all so settled in Portsmouth and know all the routines and nurses. The drs have said they won't send us back unless they are 100% sure it is safe and the soonest this will happen is when the babies are both cycling 4 hours on cpap and 4 hours off. We are so close to that now and can see it happening within 2-3 weeks. Apparently my local health authority have to pay Portsmouth to look after us and once the babies are stable they can't justify keeping us there. I'm hoping if I keep my head down and don't mention 'home' then they will forget we are there :)