Another long day

I just got home a short while ago from another long day at the hospital. The turnaround time from bringing the kids back from Aylesbury via picking up the puppies from our friends Neville & Claire before returning to the hospital meant that I missed out on dinner. I was planning to grab something after visiting finished at 10pm, but I was allowed to stay on to speak to the paediatrician and midwife (see below) and did not leave until after midnight. I think Molly may not be the only one who needs to establish a good eating routine.

Helen has managed to walk a little bit today and is grateful for the fact that she and Molly now have a private room (amenity room in NHS speak).

Molly continues to struggle with breastfeeding. She manages a few gentle sucks and then just falls asleep on the job. We saw the paediatrician and a midwife this evening and they have given a few helpful tips to stimulate Molly's desire to suckle properly and they are going to put those into practice at about 2-3 am this morning after they have both had a bit of rest (Helen and Molly, not the paediatrician and the midwife !). They are not terribly worried though because the little bit she has been getting has already pushed her blood sugars up (which in any event were not abnormally low) and she is plainly not dehydrated.

Molly still has the canula in her arm because she has at least one more dose of antibiotics tomorrow (actually, later this morning since it is now long after midnight !). She is not a big fan of having the antibiotics administered as she demonstrated to great effect when I wheeled her down to the Special Baby Care Unit this evening to receive tonight's dose.

Her face is gradually coming into shape after the trauma of being pushed into Helen's not fully dilated cervix for so many hours. Her head circumference has already dropped by two centimetres and her right ear is no longer buried inside her skull. She still has a mildly lopsided look, but that will undoubtedly resolve itself very shortly too. It is amazing how elastic a baby's body is. In any event, she looks beautiful.

Anyway it is definitely time I went to bed. It is almost 1.40am. I was only going to jot a short note.