The first few days

3 March 2006
Good news!! Thomas has been steadily improving and was now stable. He was still heavily sedated on Morphine but both the haemoglobin and oxygen levels were improving so the doctors were pleased with his progress. Today was also Grandma Brenda's birthday. But she's been suffering from a bad cold and was too unwell to be able to see little Thomas. Mr D managed to take her out for a quick birthday lunch instead.

1 March 2006
I have been instructed in the art of expressing milk giving me something to keep me occupied every three hours for between 40-60 minutes!! Thomas has his own shelf in the fridge and freezer which is slowly being filled up with all the milk. All the Grandparents have already been into see Thomas, not even heavy snow showers could keep them away!!

During the afternoon, Mr D and I were given some bad news. Unfortunately, Thomas' haemoglobin and oxygen levels were getting very low and following a scan of the brain, a bleed on the brain was found. The bleed was on the right side of the brain which in future could affect the left side of the body though any permanent damage would not be known for some time to come. The critical thing was to increase his haemoglobin and oxygen levels so he was ventilated with oxygen and given a blood transfusion. Poor Thomas was also given Morphine to help settle him down as he wasn't dealing very well with all the attention the doctors were giving him.

He is also suffering from some bruising from the delivery and jaundice so he's under a blue light a lot of the time.

As you can imagine, both of us did not take this news very well. That night's sleep was not very good for either of us. I was in a private room on the maternity ward and, with only a photo of little Thomas for company, awoke the next day very tearful and suffering from a migraine.

28 February 2006
Thomas is very small as you can imagine, weighing only 1lb and 13 ozs. After he was born, he was immediately whisked off to the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Dad (Mr D) was able to visit him very soon and reported back to me. At the time, he was stable and initial signs were all good.