A trip to the duck pond

Today I am officially 2 months old. Do you know what I got for my 1/6th birthday? My first journey outside! Outside outside. Not just outside the cot, not just outside the ward. Outside the hospital. Proper unadulterated, open air, outside.

My favourite book is called 'Quacky quack-quack' and I have had it read to me over 20 times. I nearly know all the words and I've also learnt a lot from it. I learned all about ducks, marching bands and zoos, dogs, cats and geese. So when I heard my parents ask if they could take me to the "Duck Pond" for once I knew what they were talking about. I was going to feed the ducks!

Before I could leave the hospital I needed to have my security tag removed, my SATS monitor placed in the cot, my oxygen canister and finally little me. I was tucked in very warm and could once again see the excitement on my parent's faces as they said "Goodbye!" to the nurses. They promised to bring me back in an hour before my pram turned into a pumpkin.

 
The first part of my journey was the same as when I go for my head massage. We got into the lift where the doors close behind us and my parents have to take their phones out and look into the mirror.

 
When we exited the lift we turned a different direction and I noticed that I was travelling a little bit faster than usual. Lights above made me wince as they flew past my head and down past my toes before eventually slowing down and stopping above me. I saw mum disappear into something called a "shop" to buy some water. My Dad talked to me and asked if I was ready to go outside, I said "Does my nappy smell?" but he didn't reply. He never listens to me.

Mum returned, placed her water in my pram, grabbed control and we were off! I heard Dad speaking behind me and I could see the corridor gradually getting lighter.

 Walking through the door

I travelled the length of the hospital and exited in style. Look at me go! Navigating a 'car park' already! Look at the size of those things! Prams for big people. I seriously never knew they existed, absolutely amazing. 

It was a beautiful day, there was only one light above me, it was very far away and it was VERY bright. I looked at it for a split second before my Dad covered my face with my blanket. What a spoil sport! It also made my legs feel very warm, a bit like when I do a pee in my nappy. I liked this, I liked it a lot. We arrived at the duck pond in a few minutes after climbing down a steep hill and past a few people. It suddenly dawned on me that I could hear lots of new things. They were all so nice and relaxing. I could hear the ducks quacking, birds tweeting and the sound of wind in the trees. I couldn't hear beeps, machines or lots of people. It was bliss. The air was also so much nicer, so nice in fact I thought I would take a nap.

 

 

I was woken up by the sound of another child. This was a big child, much bigger than anything I had seen before and it could walk just like the big people. He had bruises all over his face because he had fallen over. He came over to my pram and started stroking my head and touching my robot.

"What's your baby's name?" he asked my parents. 
"Felix" My Dad replied.
"What's your name?"

"Felix..." he replied.
"Felix?!"


"Ooh you have the same name!" His Mum said.

My parents were amazed. They had never met another Felix in England and Daddy works in a Primary school with 400 children. Imagine the first child I ever meet having the same name as me? Dad talked about this for ages, he also told me about the time in Liverpool when they saw some strange children's drawings on a random pavement. Guess what was written next to them? Felix.

I just thought "cool name"

Next we went to visit a garden whilst my parents had a cup of coffee. 

Before finally returning back to my cot.

In the afternoon, to make sure I didn't explode with happiness, the Doctors came and injected me twice in my butt. Ouch!



I now feel a little sleepy, night night. 


Felix
 

Dad's comments. 

Well, where does one start? Today was one of the most amazing days we've had, we finally got to take Felix out of the hospital and had some real 'us' time. We also started worrying about real-world things like wasps, cars, people smoking near us, children touching our baby (is he going to get a cold!) and sun in his eyes.

A week ago we had Felix by ourselves in the family room when he stopped breathing and turned blue, I had to run and get help, then we watched as he was resuscitated. He was fine seconds later, but it really knocked our confidence. Today fixed all that. He was very well behaved and didn't set off his alarms once. There was not a single moment where we thought "should we take him back?" because of his health.

In the afternoon because Felix is two months old he gets his standard immunisations. These, we have been warned, can be traumatic for them and could set them back a few days. Felix wasn't phased by the injections at all. He must have built up needle resilience over the last 60 days or was completely shattered after his journey.


Here's to a lifetime of days like this. 

Dad