Good News and Thank Yous

Apart from the worry of my Granda being in hospital, it's been quite a nice few days.

On Sunday I had my first ever Mothers Day and was lucky enough to get not one, but TWO cards from Francis! One came courtesy of the SCBU staff who left it on top of Francis' incubator for me to find. I didn't get the start to Mothers Day I was hoping for - no breakfast in bed for me! I was up long before Graeme to express breast milk and then decided to go back to bed to catch up on my sleep. As the day went on I was convinced Graeme had forgotten it was Mothers Day and began wondering if he really was insensitive enough to not have bought me a card. I didn't think he was and thought that maybe he'd just forgotten to give it to me. When I asked him, he said I'd have to wait until I saw Francis before I could get my card, which had me thinking again that maybe he'd not bought one and would be having a sly trip to the shops later that day. As it turns out, he had bought one, along with a lovely box of chocs and cute teddy. I felt bad for ever doubting him, but then it wouldn't have been the first time he'd forgotten something like this. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt next time ;o)

On Monday we were thrilled to find that Francis has been promoted from incubator to cot! It makes such a difference to our visits not having a plastic barrier between us and him. I never was fond of having to open a little hatch just so that I could touch my baby. As well as the excitement of Francis now being in a cot, we discovered he is also developing his sucking reflex when he grabbed my finger, shoved it in his mouth and started sucking my knuckle! His Nurse was gobsmacked and suggested we try him on the breast to see if he took to it. He latched on straightaway, but could only manage about 3 sucks before falling off :o) His Nurse said he just needs some practise and he'll get better at it as his reflex becomes stronger. I actually felt like a proper Mummy, what with the breastfeeding and changing nappies (which we had to do twice as he pooed in the clean one about 30 seconds after we'd changed him). It's just a shame my first experience of these is in a hospital ward and not my own home.

Yesterday, Graeme was in London on a business trip so I made my own way to the hospital on the bus. It took me forever and I was carrying so much stuff I was exhausted by the time I got there. It was worth it though, as when I arrived at the SCBU I was met in the corridor by a Nurse who told me Francis had been transferred to the low dependency nursery! No more ECG leads, sats probe or monitors. To have Francis moved here so quickly is more than I could ever have hoped for. I sent Graeme a text to let him know and when he arrived later that evening he was absolutely beaming.

So it's all up to Francis now. He needs to be weaned off his tube feeds onto the breast, and has to put on weight. Once both of those boxes are ticked he'll be able to come home! I hate leaving him at the hospital, but as Graeme keeps reminding me, each day we leave him is one day closer to bringing him home.

Before I go, I'd just like to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone for the cards, gifts, emails, texts and money that they have sent for Francis' birth. It means so much to us knowing that so many people care, especially as we're so far away from our famiy. I have the feeling Francis is going to be very popular when we eventually take him to visit everybody!

Lisa xxx

Happy Birthday Dad

It's my Dad's birthday today, his first as a Granda! We had to nip out last week and do some last minute shopping on Francis' behalf, as he'd not bought his Granda a card or present! It wasn't Francis' fault really; after all, he wasn't expecting to be here for another two months!

Have a great day Dad and hope to see you soon!

Lisa, Graeme & Francis xxx

Get Well Soon Granda

It seems that the powers that be have decided I don't have quite enough stress in my life at the moment.

My Granda has been admitted to hospital. He's very poorly, but is thankfully in a stable conditon at the moment. Under normal circumstances I'd have been on the first train back to the North East to visit him, but, with Francis being in hospital, that's just impossible at the moment. I'm starting to appreciate how awful it was for my family being stuck 200 miles away when I was in hospital - it makes things so much harder to cope with.

So, get well soon Granda. I'm so sorry we can't all be there with you, but Mam says you understand. As soon as Francis is out of hospital we'll bring him to see you - you're first on the list for a cuddle!

Lots of love,

Lisa, Graeme & Francis xxx

On the Mend

Yes folks, they finally let me out of hospital on Monday. My platelet count had returned to normal showing that my HELLP Syndrome had subsided and I was out of danger. Given that I'd never really felt ill in the first place it was strange being told I was "well" enough to go home. I'll spare you the birth story as it was very traumatic and I don't feel that this website is the right place for it. I have written about it elsewhere, so, if you're interested let me know and I'll send you the link.

It wasn't pleasant coming home no longer pregnant but minus the baby. As soon I was through the front door and clapped eyes on all the baby things we'd bought and received as gifts from family, I burst into tears. The whole situation seemed so desperately unfair to me. Why me? What had I done to deserve this? I'd been on a ward with a mother who referred to her 1-day-old as a "divvy" and repeatedly told the baby to shut up - why did she get to take her baby home, yet I had to leave mine behind?

Thankfully, I seem to be over the worst now. I've not cried for a couple of days and the trauma of last week is fast becoming just a painful memory. I'm also on the mend physically. I don't need painkillers any more and can move around pretty much normally, although I am noticably slower than I used to be. I can just about manage to walk at little old lady pace - anything more than that is pushing it! I'm still on antihypertensives for my high blood pressure and have to take iron tablets for anaemia, but I can live with that. Both myself and Francis have come out of this in one piece and not a day goes by that I am not thankful for that.

So what of Francis? Well, I have some good news! He's now tolerating full feeds so has had his drip removed! That's one less tube for Graeme and I to worry about pulling out next time we change his nappy. Also, the nurses think he may well be out of the incubator by the end of the week. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he'd make such remarkable progress - even the doctors are amazed at how well he is doing. If he carries on at this rate we'll have him home where he belongs in no time at all.

Lisa xxx

Lisa let out for good behaviour

Or possibly because of normal blood results, but that is nowhere near as amusing. The doctors have given her the all clear, and she should be home tomorrow.

Francis is still going strong, although his jaundice still remains. His biliruben levels went up above the safe limit again, so they've put him back on the sunbed. Hopefully, he shouldn't be on there for long before he's back to his not-yellow self.

There are some new pictures in the gallery, with a few blue-o-vision ones from the sunbed. Check out Francis' little sunglasses. They gave us the pair he was wearing last time he was on the sunbed, so we can take the mickey when he's older.

Out of intensive care!

We were delighted today to find Francis had been moved out of intensive care, into the high dependency nursery. It's great to be able to sit with him, without the constant beeping and whirring of a million machines going off all the time. He's still in an incubator, but hopefully soon he'll be able to progress to a cot, and perhaps at some point he'll be moved into the normal nursery, and we can start to take over a lot of his care.

He also had a visit today from Uncle Paul and Aunty Becky, and Lisa was treat to a visit from some of her university friends. It's always fun to sit in a ward with 4 student nurses, listening to them bitch and whine about hospital things.

So hopefully tomorrow will be Lisa's last day in hospital, and I can get her home on monday. It does mean that I need to finish clearing the house. Francis decided he wanted to arrive just as I'd decided to destroy the house... typical!

And special apologies to everyone I didn't directly tell about this weeks action. Apart from the fact that this week has completely obliterated part of my brain, I sort of relied on the fact that everybody I've ever met reads this blog :) I guess I just assume that because I write it down here, everybody in the world reads it :) Anyway, I have popped into work on several occasions to collect things, and sort things out, but I've only ever directly stopped to talk to people who walked past me in the corridoor. I've always been rushing around, trying to get stuff done quickly, so that I could get on back to the hospital!

Anyway, things should settle down soon, and we can get used to our new life.

Quick update on Lisa and Francis

What a week...

It's now 3 days since Francis was born, and both him and Lisa are doing fine. He had a little episode on wednesday night where he started having a little bit of trouble breathing, so they put him on a ventilator to give him a hand. He was taken off it at 8pm on thursday and has been doing fine ever since. When we went in to visit him tonight, they'd put him in a little sleep suit which made him look even more like a proper little baby. We spent a lovely couple of hours just holding him, and watching him squirm and snort. Hopefully, he'll get along well enough over the next few days that they'll move him into one of the lower dependency nurseries, where we can get involved even more!

Lisa has been moved onto the normal maternity ward now, and is hopefully going to be discharged on monday, provided her bp and blood tests all come showing that she is on the mend. We found out that what she had actually had was HELLP syndrome, which is a potentially fatal form of pre-eclampsia. We were so lucky that the community midwife sent Lisa into the hospital when she did, as Lisa had only the slightest of symptoms for pre-eclampsia, and it meant that we were in the hospital just as it started to turn ugly, and so the doctors could get the baby out just before any damage was done to either of them.

She's still in a lot of pain from the c-section, and is having all the usual emotional struggles which go with birth normally, and also the trauma of the speed of what happened, and also the way it happened. Today was a good day for her I thought, with her seeming quite happy at the end of it, after spending several hours happily with Francis.

I've added some more pictures to Francis' gallery, so have a look!

Francis James Thornton

At 12:18pm on 6th March, 2007, Lisa gave birth to Francis James Thornton by emergency c-section. Both mother and baby are doing really well. Francis weighed 3lb 3oz, but seems to be doing brilliantly. He has been breathing on his own from the word go, and has been generating lots of positive comments from the SCBU staff all day.

I'm too tired at the minute to write a full account of the day, so I'll save that for later.

An Update On Lisa

Just a quick status report, for anybody following the story...

We've had a hectic few days, with Lisa being transferred to a high dependency ward due to her escalating blood pressure. They've started her on some medication which has got it down to human levels, and they're happy with her current condition. The consultant saw us this morning and did an ultrasound of the baby. He happily declared that the baby was actually not small, and infact the correct size for his age. This was a major relief for both of us, as we can now be happy that even with his premature delivery, he'll still be a good weight, and have the best chance of getting through!

As long as Lisa's BP and bloods stay sensible tonight, she should be transferred back onto the maternity ward tomorrow, where she'll most probably spend the next couple of weeks, until the inevitable c-section happens. We're still not 100% sure of when it's going to happen, just that as long as her tests all keep coming back clean, they'll leave him be. As soon as there is anything that suggests that either of their health is at risk, he'll be delivered. The consultant seemed to think that we could get to 33-34 weeks if we're lucky, which would be brilliant, but we should also be prepared for him to arrive tomorrow!

In preparation for his arrival, we got to have a look around the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU - pronounced Scuboo), where they take all the premature babies and keep them until they're developed enough to go home. It was brilliant seeing all the little babies in cots and incubators. Lisa commented on how it really helped her to see babies much younger than ours (born at 24-28 weeks) doing really well. Once he's born, he'll be in there for several weeks I guess, but we get 24 access to the unit to stay with him.

So hopefully, this tale is looking like it will have a happy ending :)

A Change Of Plan

What a couple of days... Where to start!

On thursday, Lisa went for her community midwife appointment. It was just a normal checkup at our GPs surgery, to check her progress. Her blood pressure was quite high, and a urine test showed some traces of protein. This, in conjunction with some other symptoms, made the midwife think that it would be best if she went to the hospital to have some further tests. So I was summoned from work, and met her at the hospital where we went through some further blood pressure monitoring, and some blood tests. Her BP was still quite high, so we were given an ultrasound, which showed that a couple of the babys measurements were a little low. After some deliberation, the assement unit midwives decided that Lisa should be admitted to the maternity ward so that they could keep a closer eye on her for a couple of days.

She went into the ward at about 5pm on thursday night, where she's been monitored more closely, whilst also collecting gallons of wee for various tests. At lunchtime today I decided to nip out for some lunch, and to do some errands. Of course, by sods law, the doctor came in to see her 5 minutes after I left and gave her a rather unnerving diagnosis, which has changed our plans for the next few weeks quite considerably.

Basically, Lisa has been diagnosed with (not sure if it's official yet though) pre-eclampsia. This basically means that her high blood pressure is causing problems for the baby and his growth, and the only cure is to deliver the baby. The consultant explained all of this, and has basically said that we won't be going full term, and the baby will have to be delivered by cesarian section at some point in the near future. I'm not exactly sure what determines when he'll have to be forcably ejected, but they said it could happen tomorrow, or in 2 weeks, or 4 weeks. She should be able to leave the hospital tomorrow, but will be under close observation by the community midwife.

Whatever the trigger is that has us being rushed to theatre, baby will be spending the rest of the normal term living in an incubator in the hospital. As it stands, he could be anything from 31 weeks when he arrives, so he's going to have a really good chance. With any luck he'll last another few weeks, provided that the doctors think he's ok in there, and should have no problems when he comes out.

So all our original plans of having him home after the birth are left in tatters. We'd made all our plans around him being born at the right time, and then us taking him home several hours later. As it stands, we're going to be spending time with him in the special care baby unit for a few weeks, and Lisa is going to be back on the ward for a little while after the delivery, recovering from the operation. As you can imagine, not at all how we wanted this to go :(

But in the end, the best thing will be done for all concerned, and the prognosis is good for both mother, baby, and my sanity! The important thing is that this problem has been caught early, and both Lisa and baby are in the best possibly place they could be to make sure they both come through this well! I've now got to contend with fixing this crummy house up in double time, and washing my own underpants for a few weeks. With any luck, Lisa will be back at home tomorrow, and no doubt loaded with more information to share.

Phew...

Graeme