Monday 7th April

Niamh has been pretty good today. She had her pressure reduced to 4 from 5 but had a few bradys which meant it had to be put up again. This relates to the pressure given to her lungs to help her breathe. She is stable now though. She also put on 30g last night which was good. Not sure how much was fluid though.

I saw a baby out shopping today who was on oxygen, I really wanted to stop the mum and chat to her but didn't want to bother her. Niamh has her little photoshoot tomorrow bless her, should be good, I get to spend the whole day with her, yippee!

Sunday 6th April

How Surprised does she look?!
Niamh's eyes look really blue, just like Baileys.

We went to see Niamh this morning and she was doing well. She has put on 70g but once again is quite puffy. The doctors are going to see how she goes before giving her more diuretic so hopefully she will move the fluid herself.

Her optiflow pressure has been reduced from 5 down to 4 and she is going to be weaned off hourly feeds and put onto 2 hourly feeds.

Here is Anthony giving Niamh one of her feeds :)

Saturday 5th April

Good morning,

Not much has changed with Miss Niamh today. She has put on the 10g that she lost, so back to 1300g and is stable. Anthony has taken Bailey to Kindergym today and then on the the Motor Show. They had such a good time last year they are having their annual boys day out today! Anthony is hoping to pop in and see Niamh this arvo when Bailey is hopefully asleep. I'm at home cooking, gardening and generally pottering ;)

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We all had a good day today, Anthony had a cuddle with Niamh and Bailey stayed asleep for most of the visit which was good. She was very cute :)

Friday 4th April

I have good news!! Niamh had her eyes checked for the first time today and there were all fine!!! I must admit I am amazed, I was kind of expecting there to be some doubt due to her age and prematurity, but nope, all good!! Hooray! I had tears of joy in my eyes :) She will have a repeat check in two weeks so fingers crossed that one is good too.

Her feeds have gone up to 9.5ml an hour now and apart from being a bit cold from being outside the isolette for the eye test she is doing really well. She lost 10g overnight but shes allowed to do that, she does have a double chin lol!

A friend came in to visit today, thank you Philly! Look at these beautiful photos she took! Thank you so much, I love them!

Bailey also asked to come and say 'Hayoh" so I took him up briefly before we left. He was really tired and cranky but still managed to shout his usual greeting! (Hayoh, im your big bruvver). He passed out as soon as we were in the car!

Thursday 3rd April Day 57

Niamh was wonderful today! She is on gravity feeds now, this means instead of a drip feed over an hour, she will have 9mls straight away directly through her tube. This way, she will get to feel what it is like to be full and empty. I gave her a dummy to suck while she did it to try and get her to associate the feeling of being full with sucking. She seemed to like sucking!

I got another cuddle which was really nice! Also went to an information session on how to care for our babies whilst in the NICU. It was really informative and it was good to hear other parents views and opinions. One of the things was looking for cues that your baby is stressed. Niamh seems pretty happy really, I havent seen her do too many stressful moves. She is always very content to be cuddled which is great. Premies don't like to be stroked though, just firm holds are good. They also like to be wrapped which is something that I think Niamh will like although judging by her behaviour and favourite positions I think she will be a houdini like her brother!

She is really starting to look like Bailey as a baby! Anthony noticed it last night and I saw a glimpse of him today around the eyes and of course the nose lol!

For those that have asked, Anthony still seems to have his ear infection, he doesn't have much hearing in his left ear and has started a second course of antibiotics.

Baileys head is ok, just quite bruised although I had to put butterfly strips on it today as he had picked off the glue and it was a bit gapey! Hmm, doesn't sound fine does it lol! He has been very cute today, we had a mini photoshoot in the park He kept jumping on me and kissing me so I took quite a few of that :)

One of our favourite nurses was looking after Niamh today, she is so lovely. She has said that she will make us a curry one day (maybe Saturday) which is so special. What a nice thing to do!

Wednesday 2nd April

Well our baby girl has been good overnight, she has put on 70g again which is great but could be some fluid as she is looking a little puffy. They have given her a diuretic to see if that makes a difference and will also take some bloods today to rule out infection. I can't wait to see her tonight!

We have been asked to do a photo shoot for the new 'Fragile Beginnings' booklet. This is an information booklet given to parents in the NICU or SCBU. Its quite exciting! They also want a photo of Niamh to put up in the corridor which is great :) It will be really good to show her these things when she is older.

Bailey and I made Gingerbread men this morning, he loves them! They turned out really well :) I wanted to make crispy crackles for a change, but he was adament he wanted "Chincher bread men" lol Its nice to have a day at home trying to catch up and spending time with Bailey.

I can't believe this blog has over 9000 hits in just 7 weeks! I think I started it when Niamh was 1 week old. She is two months tomorrow too! That has flown by!

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We went to see Niamh tonight and she was so active! She has been lifting her head up and changing sides! We managed to get some on video too ;) Niamh was given a diuretic earlier to reduce the fluid and she passed 50ml of urine which is great. That should help her. Her milk has gone up to 9ml/hour! I remember when she was on 1ml! I spoke to her doctor today. The plan is to gradually reduce the amount of pressure she has on optiflow and get her off it and then hopefully graduate to SCBU! This might happen in the next couple of weeks all being well. It feels like we are starting to get somewhere now.

I noticed that her ears are starting to look more real now lol, they were paper thin and stuck to her head but in the last two days they have come away from her head and feel thicker, like proper ears!

Tuesday 1st April

Niamh was really good again today, I had a lovely cuddle with her. She got quite cold though and was taking a little while to come up to temp. She also had a few desats while I held her, I think that was because she was out for almost an hour and was getting tired. She was pulling some very cute faces :) You can really see in this photo just how much she has grown, its amazing! I will go and find a comparison photo in a minute!..... Here it is, she was so tiny I had to hold her in the nest. This is dated 23rd February so she was two weeks two days old.

A good friend of mine visited today which was nice, we went for lunch too which made a nice change.

Got to go and get Bailey from childcare now. I won't have time to come on again tonight as I have a meeting to go to.