the extended family

there have been two new additions to the family in the last week and a half. on 8 December Arlo Dolan Jarman made an unexpected early arrival (due 31 Dec). he is very cute and has a head of dark hair. despite being early he is coming along nicely and other than a spot of jaundice is fine. Otto is a very proud big brother as you can see in the photos.

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the other addition is the furry black beast known as Hank – a schnauzer poodle cross that i have adopted. i have been hankering (ha ha) for a dog for a while now and i think that he is a most excellent member of the family. he was very hairy when we bought him – now i have sheared him as he was getting prickles and poo and wee in his hair. my grooming skills are somewhat amatuer but i am not going to get him professionally groomed and have him looking even sillier as a result.

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Its mildly amusing listening to M attempting to discipline Hank when he nips at heels and ankles as all pups do. it starts out with a ‘no’ which is then repeated with an escalating degree of consternated hysteria in the voice as Hank continues. Ant likes him and giggles when Hank runs around like a psycho puppy.

today Ant and i went to visit his Babcia at Semaphore and we went down to the beach and played in the sand under the jetty.

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Consequently, Ant has flaked out and is now snoozing away (hopefully until morning). yesterday Ant skipped childcare and went to the zoo with his cousins Otto and Arlo. the Siamangs sang, and tapirs wandered – it was all very exciting and caused a great deal of pointing and saying that! that! that!

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whilst Ant is still not walking (which is doing no end of havoc to my back) he is starting to speak. his vocabulary is as follows:

1. that
2. there
3. Ant
4.hello
5. mum
6. dad
7. cat
8. glasses (only once so far but he was pointing at glasses at the time)
9. Zebra (I think – he was pointing to a picture of one and I am sure that he copied me when I said it)

He also visited his Baba the other day to look at the ducks in her yard.

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He is also mastering a spoon and corn cobs.

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progress report

Antony continues to improve everyday. He is back at Burnside and out of ICU as already noted. He is back on the oxygen for a bit but they are going to start weaning him off that in the next day or so. Also he has had his last drip removed and is on the last day of his antibiotics.

His breathing is still a bit ragged at times and the midwives and doctors say that may be another week or two before that fully settles but is not cause for great concern.

Ant is also taking more food every day – still via a tube  in his nose but later today we are going to see if he will attach and suckle at all. And we have had a chance to have a bit of a cuddle which was fantastic.

The last blood test (yesterday i think – it is all starting to blur) came back with a shift of 31 which is a continued improvement. One of the nurses or midwives explained to us about the blood tests and the ‘shift’; from my layman’s understanding (which i could be off track as i am not a doctor of course)  in a baby a ‘shift’ in the blood test with  a result of 20 or less is considered ok or healthy – Antony’s first blood test result came back with a shift of 83!!! This was one of several indicators that had everyone thinking he had a serious infection going on.

Each day he has improved though and he continues to surprise us all with the speed of his recovery. As one of the NICU staff told us without the intervention he had he would have been dead within the first 24 hours which just reinforces how very very lucky we are to live where we do and have got the amazing help we have had when it was needed.

Also thanks again to everyone for their support and encouragement, it has meant a huge deal to us through this whole experience.

musical hospitals

Ant is greatly improved. so much that he has been discharged from the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) and transferred back to Burnside.

He is breathing all on his own now and just has one drip in his arm for the last of the antibiotics. still don’t know what caused the initial problem but he is doing really well now and is just under observation. We also now get to learn all the stuff we haven’t had a chance to get to yet, like how to feed him and bathe him, wrap him etc (we have already changed nappies (merconium – now that stuff is really scary!!!).

Once again thanks to everyone for the support, well wishes and positive thoughts it has been of great help and comfort to us during the last few very difficult days.

Hopefully soon we will all be at home and able to visit everyone who has been waiting to meet the grub in person.

more updates later – i gotta get back to the hospital to be with my boy

a huge improvement

An update for all.

Antony is still in intensive care but since the last entry here has made significant progress. we have a lot more grey hairs between us (not him he has a nice crop of black hair) and the last couple of days have been really scary but he is now improving rapidly and things are looking much more promising.

Ant is still in the intensive care unit on antibiotics and still being monitored closely but:
- is no longer on the ventilator (so good – he is breathing on his own now with a very small amount of extra oxygen being fed via a tube to his nose).
- has had the drainage tube removed from the side of his chest (his lungs are working the way they should and are healing – the wound on the side looks a bit gruesome but is going to be fine by all accounts).
- is no longer under sedation (yay, we get to see his eyes open and see him move about a bit and hear a few little squeaks – no big cry or yells just yet but a few small noises).
- is no longer being given medication to control his blood pressure
- has started feeding (via a tube in his nose but now up to 10ml every 3 hours)
- has had the needles removed from his scalp and feet
- is now in a normal cot not the special ICU bed

so while he is not yet out of the woods he is definitely doing much better. he will prob still be there for a few days yet and is still hooked up to a few monitors and things but is on the mend. still don’t know what has caused all this and the doctors say we may never know but are happy with his progress of the last 24 hours.

more updates later. for now here is a pic from this evening (click on it to see a bigger version).