Listening to the iClick

As I have been a star pupil I got to listen to an iClick.

The iClick plays sounds for me to hear, 'click click click' over and over again. It was the first time I had heard music and I loved it. The headphones weren't too great though, but after 10 minutes I got some new ones.

 

These ones played the 'click click click' tune very clearly and had great sound cancellation features.

I closed my eyes and really got into the track. 'click click click' 

'click click click' 

'Click click click'

Drip Drip Drip

If you want some milk shout

Click Click Click

Click click click

  

Click click click

If your a preemie baby shout

 Click Click Click!

If your a term baby shout 

Click Click Click

All my preemie girls

Put your mittens up

All my preemie boys

Push your SATS up

 

Click click click

Click click click

Life in NICU!

Triple chinned milk guzzling master.

Just a short update to let you know that I've put my foot down and I've upped my milk rations. I'm now drinking 61mls every four hours, plus as a deal sweetener, I'm also allowed to drink as much breast milk as I want. As a result of my actions I've started to put on a little weight. I now weigh a back breaking 2.45kg (5.6lbs)  I'm getting a triple chin and love handles, mum said that this is the first time I look like my Dad.Yarrr!

I also start to feel hungry for the first time now too, when it approaches the four hour mark I start to wake up. This pleases my Dad lots, he sees this as a perfect opportunity to pick me up and have man-to-man chats whilst my Mum is preparing herself for my feed. Mum often gets frustrated during these special conversations and snatches me away from Dad saying "Hurry up! He'll fall asleep!" or "Quick! He looks really hungry!" I agree, as soon Dad passes me to Mum he'll eat some chocolate or fall asleep.

After my approximate 10 minute feed, I am often sat up to 'burp'. In the six weeks I've been alive my parents have never managed to burp me. Once, by complete coincidence, I did release some air when my Dad sat me up quickly, but not and I repeat NOT as a result of this back smacking and rocking they persistently pursue. Sure I've heard other babies burp, but they'll do anything for a bit of light relief. These are the same babies that scream when they're hungry, wail when they are having blood taken or shriek at bathtime. Not me, I'll burp when I'm ready thankyouverymuch. If you give the big people what they want, they'll just expect more.

Resist my fellow friends.

 Resist.

Burping out of the way, it's either back on the breast for round two or over to Dad for some supreme cuddles. I've collected some of my favourite cuddle pictures which I thought I'd share with you.

Skin to Skin with Dad. 

 

Seconds out - preparing for round two. 

 "Don't go to work Daddy, Please?"

 

I won't let you go!

 

Daddy Sleeping He Is. 

Sleeping too I am.

Just to show you that I love mummy cuddles too.

 

You may have noticed that in some pictures from previous posts I am wearing 'mittens' on my hand. These were deliberately installed by you-know-who to disrupt the removal of facial tubing. Admittedly I do make myself bleed from grabbing and pinching my face so I can see that they do have some benefits. I haven't a clue why I grab my face, I just can't stop myself. Today for example, I put my hand in my mouth, grabbed, pinched and tried to pull my lip off my face. It hurt like mad and however much I wanted to stop doing this I just couldn't remember how to make my hand stop. Eventually, I did something I wasn't proud of. I cried "WAAAH!!....Dad rescued me and called me "stupid". Fair comment.

Anyhooooo. Back to mittens. Mittens are far too easy to remove, nearly as easy as feeding tubes. They are so small and just slip off with ease, they don't even hurt when they come off and I can be back in action within seconds. To counter this the nurses have been busy in their research department devising new methods of restraining babies. A few days ago I had something else put onto my hands, these were longer and for the life of me I can't find out how to remove them.

 

They aren't too uncomfortable, I just can't get them off me! Aaargh! Why?!!

But wait what are these? Ooooh Green things. I like Green things. Yes, these are lovely. I'll stop complaining, please don't take them away. Can I keep them? Pleeeease? They are beautiful. I'll just lie here and look at the them for a while.

That's enough blogging for today.

Bye bye

Felix xx

(Can you spot something else about this picture?)

Knowledge

Now I'm in my cot I feel that I can observe things much better. I am become much more knowledgeable and understand how and why things work. When I'm not meditating, I can see people's faces much better and hear each and every noise.

I'll try to explain a little more about what happens in my ward.

Everyday around 11:00am all the parents are asked to leave the room whilst more doctors and nurses enter. When these people form a circle around my bed, my parents, but only my parents, are allowed to re-enter the room. I've experienced this for 4 weeks now and I think I've figured out what's happening. They are called the 'Ward Rounds'. At first I never really paid much attention to what was being said, it was always big words which were responded to by nods, pens on chins or the sound of my Dad's voice intervening. 10 minutes pass, my parents leave and then my friend's go through the same bizarre ritual.
Recently however, now I'm more alert and am not trapped in my incubator, I've started to understand what is being said. I've tried to remember as much as possible, but can only really remember the words which I understand. The beginning bit is always the same. See how you do or if you want a hand visit my medical information page.

"Felix was born 29+6 with RDS, he's conjugated biliruben with screen in place, PDA was closed on day 5. Had infection with two positive cultures now negative after 10 days Teicoplanin. Has bi-lateral IVH with Grade 2-3 & 4, two weekly ultra scans and head circumference show normal development. Now back on 2 hourly feeds. Stools are of a pale colour"

After this the doctors and nurses look at the computer screens and ask each other questions. Sometimes my Dad suggests different answers or says something funny which makes people laugh and then realises perhaps he should be a bit more serious. Tut tut Daddy.

The last things they say are often to do with things I need to work on and improve. "Stools are of a pale colour" for example. I remember a few weeks ago when all the talk was about me opening my bowels. I did that. It took me two weeks of trying but I eventually gave the people what they wanted, but was that enough? No. Now my poo is of the 'wrong' colour. Imagine that!

Recently I've started communicating with my friend on the other side of the ward. As we haven't worked out how to talk, we communicate by setting off our alarms. If you have ever visited a neonatal ward there are mainly two alarms that you will hear regularly. The first, and the most common is the 'Saturation' alarm. When our oxygen saturation drops below 90% an alarm will sound, it's not a very loud alarm but it's enough to send communication to other babies. The next alarm is the more serious sounding one. I can get this to make a sound if I hold my breath or wriggle around when I have trapped wind, this is the 'Brady' alarm and it will make a loud fast alarm if my heart beat drops dramatically. Today, I managed to set my 'brady' alarm off and my friend responded immediately. I stopped, he stopped. In our language this means "Let's see whose nurse is the fastest". It was a draw.

I think the nurses are cottoning on to our games as last night I had three of my four sensors removed. Now I just have the "sats probe" attached to my foot. My Mum said my feet smells just like my Dads when this is removed. Thanks a lot.

Felix X x