What a weekend....

Thomas has traded in his incubator for a cabriolet, that's right, he's moved into a cot!! What's more, he's no longer on C-PAP and being fed every four hours. All this since Friday night so it's been quite an exciting weekend for us parents. We were once told that premature babies do have a habit of suddenly putting all the pieces together but hadn't really believed it until now.

He still has some problems with reflux which causes apnoeas but they have decreased since Friday too so we're hoping the drugs are finally working.

Being on four hourly feeds is also good for breastfeeding since Thomas gets a little hungrier between meals and is happy to find milk from another source. Learning to breastfeed is one of the prerequisites to coming home along with maintaining his own temperature and not having any apneoa episodes. He doesn't seem to have a problem maintaining his temperature but we've still got a little way to go on the others so I don't think Thomas will be allowed home for a couple more weeks yet.

Thomas' friends have also been doing well and both Tom and Jack have been taken off C-PAP too. Aayla, the little baby girl born 15 weeks prematurely has been doing so well and is going home today or tomorrow. She's actually got roughly the same gestational age as Thomas but was lucky enough not to have any serious problems so is going home even though she's still five weeks premature!

We've had some new additions to the ward as the unit received triplets just over a week ago and two of them have already been promoted. All three were born nine weeks premature and are named Gracie, Ella and Lauren. Ella is a little poorly as she has some fluid on the lungs which has to be drained externally through drains which are attached to her body. She started with four but already has just one left.

Here's a picture of Thomas (now weighing 4lbs 5ozs) enjoying his new residency...