Going going gone....

Since my last post, a few things have happened....

It's official.....the oxygen tanks have been removed from our house. Jensen absolutely no longer requires any respiratory assistance. Yeehah!! Since this point we have been trying to ween ourselves off the Graseby monitor. First, I stopped taking it in the pram, then the car, then tried daytime sleeps without it (unless Jensen was sleeping on his tummy, which he loves so very much). Last night, after removing the lead for its weekly change, I posed the question..."what do you think about sleeping without Graseby tonight?", thinking if Phil was unsure we would strike that idea, but he seemed confident and keen, so sleep without the comfort of the Graseby we did. I thought we would be in for a night of no sleep, but it had been a little while since I had woken up to check the light was flashing anyhow, and surprisingly I slept ok, only waking once or twice wondering why I hadn't heard from our little bundle in a while. Since we have gone to demand feeding it can be 6 hours in between sqwarks. Last night he went to bed at 8pm, and didn't wake until 230am. We still have a while left on our hire of the monitor, so won't be returning it just yet, but last night we made a major progressive step into normalising our little boy.

Speaking of normalising, a quick visit to Dr Sinn yesterday, saw him announce that Jensen was almost a 'normal' little boy. Blood test results showed his Thyroxin levels to be perfect (probably due to his meds), his Calcium and Phosphate levels almost perfect. His weight gain of 240grams this week, has put him at 4.54kgs, we have ceased Poly-Joule, Daktarin, and Flixatide....and therefore his thrush has gone (thankfully, as he vomited every time I put the gel on his tongue). So that leaves us with Vitamin D, Iron, and Pentavite, all of which he will stay on until we start solids (which is only weeks away), a probiotic, and Thyroxin, which I believe he will be taking until he is 3 years old.

This massive weight gain can be attributed to a change in teat. We have moved on from the 0-3 months to 4-6 months teat. We tried this a month or so ago, but were met with chugs, splutters and mess. Now however, this has solved all our previous feeding problems. Jensen was rejecting his bottle after exactly 50 of his 100 mls. Out of pure exhaustion we now suppose, from having to suck so hard to get a drop of milk from a tiny hole. Feeding had become my worst nightmare, and most stressful part of my day, it was such a fight and would take so long. Now it's a favourite time, takes half the time and Jensen is feeding so much better, even trying to feed himself by holding the bottle. We just have to teach him to hold the actual bottle, not the teat!!

Aunty Mel are you sure I can't have a piece of your birthday cake?

This week we caught up with a couple of nurses, which was lovely. It's been a long while between visits, and it was nice to have a catch up outside of the NICU. Everyone can really tell the difference with him now, being so big, a crop of hair (just on the top of his head), and a face free of tubes.

In news that makes me nervous and unsettled, we have booked Jensen's hernia repair surgery. Dr Holland (the surgeon) had been waiting for the all clear from Dr Sinn, in regard to coming off oxygen etc. So I popped into his clinic to make an appointment with him, and instead he booked us in for surgery.....very soon! I asked for a date after the 12th which is the date of Jensen's welcome home party, so the 14th is what we got. It's just a day surgery, and hopefully won't require an overnight stay in hospital. The surgery will be done at Westmead children's hospital..... I never wanted to go back to that place.

We also have had to make another appointment to see Dr Smith, the ophthalmologist. The baby health nurse commented on Jensen's eye, so we are off to get it checked out again. One of his eyes is slightly turned and his eyes float around a lot before focussing. Hopefully with a few easy exercises this can be rectified, and hopefully no more surgery is required.

Over the last few weeks we have also had some nice little get to know you sessions with family overseas. We regularly video chat with grandma and grandad Jackson, my uncle Geoff and Bernice, and recently have chatted with great grandma Jackson, and cousin Tegan, for the first time. Jensen is also getting to know cousin Daisy, and I'm sure will soon be babbling away at her. Phil's brother and girlfriend, Matthew and Emma and sisters Sally and Gemma, gather round for a chat when visiting the folks, and we even had the whole Jackson family a couple of weeks ago. It's nice that even though we are so far apart, our lives don't have to be.

In the world of learning and development, little man is learning how to kiss. He goes in for the big open mouth pash with a bit of a lick too. Very, very cute, and very very sloppy. We are learning about our nose, how to clap and to reach out and grab things. Jensen is very good at grabbing mummy's hair, but we are aiming for more tangible objects such as rattles and the like. This week's aim is to familiarise ourselves with our knees, in order to help us to roll. Stay tuned folks....

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