Andrew - born at 29 weeks!

[Eightiesbirdx]

Thats wonderful news, its great to hear he's doing great

Congratulations xx

 

[Bec L]

Congratulations!! Hope it's not long before your little fighter is home with you all xx

 

[nkbapbt]

Awe my goodness..he is PERFECT! And sooo strong. Way to go little fighter!!

 

[premmiemum123]

Congratulations...he is so beautiful what a fantastic photo. He is doing so well, my little girl was ventilated for 20 days and was slightly bigger than Andrew so he is doing really well in comparison...go Andrew!!!

 

[Foogirl]

Absolutely gorgeous. Well done to you all. Here's hoping the next wee while will fly by and you'll have him home soon.

 

[dippy dee]

aaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww what a cutie hun he is beautiful xx

 

[lou1979]

He is just amazing!! true fighter bless him!

Congrats huni xxxxxxxx

 

[Marleysgirl]

Reading Lakai's story made me realise I hadn't updated this thread ...

Andrew is doing just fine. He was 850g at the last weigh-in (three days ago) and is now being tube-fed 7ml/hr of my EBM, tolerating it well. We had a small setback with his breathing when they decided to extend his time off Cpap on an adhoc basis to 14hrs - he got overtired, and only managed occasional single hours off for the next couple of days. But he's now on a cycle of 8 hours off, 4 hours on, which seems to suit him - only one non-self-corrected desat last night.

We haven't cuddled Andrew much in this last week because he's either been grizzly, freshly re-Cpap'd, or connected to an IV (antibiotics stopped midweek, then he had a blood transfusion due to low Hg levels) but I'm hoping that we'll get a good cuddle session this afternoon. Daddy got to hold him in the incubator yesterday while the nurse changed his bedding below his hands.

I get the less interesting tasks like nappy changes, but that's because he projectile poo'd all over Daddy's hands, arms and the incubator earlier this week!

We finally got confirmation this week that the chromosome tests came back as negative for Downs/Turner, which was a relief after our blood test stats (1 in 5). So it looks like Andrew is just small (IUGR) with no underlying reason. I must ask the Consultant about whether they've done any tests that could show some of the problems that others mention (like ROP) - the only thing we know about is the old cranial bleed, which is reducing in size, and we don't yet know about any brain damage underlying that.

I'll try and get more photos uploaded later.

 

[butrfly]

congratulations for the move, andrew! and welcome to the world!

 

[Marleysgirl]

https://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn274/Tigsteroonie/Baby/Phone1209002.jpg

https://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn274/Tigsteroonie/Baby/Phone1209001.jpg

 

[MandaAnda]

He's lovely and looks so sweet!

For the ROP screening, he'll likely be visited by the ophthalmologist from around the time he's 4 weeks old; then they'll review him 1-3 weekly, depending on the results each time. He'll have to have eyedrops in beforehand each time so the ophthalmologist can see to the back of his eyes. The nurses should be fine with letting you know when it's going to be done so that you can be there if you want.

 

[Marleysgirl]

Thanks for that info, Manda, he'll be 4wks this Wednesday so I'll keep an eye out for this kind of activity, and ask the Consultant about this and hearing tests etc.

 

[MandaAnda]

Thanks for that info, Manda, he'll be 4wks this Wednesday so I'll keep an eye out for this kind of activity, and ask the Consultant about this and hearing tests etc.

No problem at all.

The hearing screening will be around the end of his hospital stay. With term/well babies that only ever go to postnatal ward, they try to do the hearing screening (a national thing) before they go home and send outpatient appointments if they can't catch them. As an early baby, Andrew will need to meet certain criteria before they'll do it, but they will do it. Preferably, he needs to be in air and be in a normal cot. There's other things that can happen over a course of time on a neonatal unit that affects when/how they do the test, so that's why they like to wait until nearly home time. Hope that helps.

 

[prem2pram]

Congratulations on the safe arrival of Andrew, can't wait to see pictures. Before you know it he will have gained enough weight and be on his way home. x

 

[Marleysgirl]

Weight update - Andrew is now 933g (2lb 1oz), which means he's put on almost three ounces in the last four days!!!!!

 

[nkbapbt]

Way to go Andrew!! Wonderful new pictures. I know I asked before but is his head bleed called an IVH? Is it in the ventricles of his brain?

 

[Marleysgirl]

Way to go Andrew!! Wonderful new pictures. I know I asked before but is his head bleed called an IVH? Is it in the ventricles of his brain?

I'm not sure what the bleed is officially called, I've never seen it written down! It's on the side of his head, between his brain and the soft skull. They're having to wait until it goes (absorption of the old blood) to see whether it's on the skull or the brain side of the membrane - if it's on the side of the brain then it may have caused some damage to the brain in that area.

 

[DonnaBallona]

Thats brilliant news. amd FABULOUS new pictures! Such alot of hair! The second one made me well up as I just felt so much for you.

Brooke had IUGR and they couldnt work out what was wrong with her at all. she's had MILLIONS of tests, you name it, she's had it done-most recently and MRI.

They ALL came back negative-there's nothing wrong with her at all!! So basically, what Im trying to say is-there doesnt always have to be anything wrong. My LO has proved all the doctors wrong every single time and your little Andrew CAN do it too.

He's doing amazingly well-hang in there! he's sweet as pie

 

[premmiemum123]

Thats brilliant news. amd FABULOUS new pictures! Such alot of hair! The second one made me well up as I just felt so much for you.

Brooke had IUGR and they couldnt work out what was wrong with her at all. she's had MILLIONS of tests, you name it, she's had it done-most recently and MRI.

They ALL came back negative-there's nothing wrong with her at all!! So basically, what Im trying to say is-there doesnt always have to be anything wrong. My LO has proved all the doctors wrong every single time and your little Andrew CAN do it too.

He's doing amazingly well-hang in there! he's sweet as pie

I agree...the doctors kept telling me Emily had a heart murmur which may have caused her desats, she had an Echo scan, no heart murmur. Then they said she had low haemoglobin and that may be causing her desats, they did a blood test, haemo was fine. Don't get me wrong the doctors do an amazing job but sometimes they do get it wrong...
I am sure Andrew will defy them as well...go Andrew! Well done with the weight gain...he is doing so well...x

 

[Marleysgirl]

We had a lovely SC nurse today who is really into "kangaroo care" (she did her dissertation on the subject) and who was amazed to find out that we'd only had normal cuddles, no skin-to-skin sessions so far .... So I got my first skin-to-skin cuddle with Andrew this afternoon!!! And it was amazing, he fitted so perfectly against me and just settled into the moment. I'm blown away.