Happy Father's Day!

Well my first collaboration with another human being was successful. Yesterday, I managed to make a card for my Dad and passed it to my Mum so he could have a surprise when he woke up in the morning. I made it from a paper bag which the Nurses use as a waste bag for my incubator.  The card, I heard, was a huge success and my Dad was over the moon.

 
But this wasn't the end to my surprise.

Yesterday I overheard my parents talking outside my incubator. Dad whispered "Do you know what the best Father's Day present would be? For Felix to be taken off his ventilator" Mum nodded her head in agreement and added "and a poo". Well, those two things were certainly achievable if enough effort was put into them, besides I was kind of getting tired of having this ugly ventilator on my face. Like a Buddha, I concentrated hard on my breathing. In, out, in out. Until I was breathing without thinking. Just as I had planned the Doctors noticed my monitors and nodded in agreement. "Remove the Ventilator" they said.

Free face. Happy Dad. Did I ever tell you how handsome I look without anything attached to my face? Well, sadly you'll have to wait a little longer. In exchange for The Ventilator, I was given The Elephant Trunk (or CPAP as the big people call it). I can't tell you if it makes me look good, but BOY is it uncomfortable.

In the morning, I felt the Nurse change my nappy. She had a funny look on her face and started to wear plastic gloves. When my parents arrived they were VERY excited to see my Elephant Nose. Then I heard the Nurse say "He's just done a poo!".....Que predictable Daddy Dance! Boy was he happy, he even kept on interrupting the Doctors on their daily rounds with proud father sentiments "That's my boy! We asked for this and he gave us it" The doctors played along nicely with him.

In the afternoon I got the results back for my infection. Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but healthy babies have a CRP of 4 - mine skyrocketed to 189 before reducing down to 163. Today, it seems - probably after all this Father Day shenanigans, it's gone up again. This wasn't planned and it made my parents upset again and that makes me upset. So I cried. My parents like hearing me cry and I know they haven't heard me for a week, so it made them smile.

I'm now resting on my belly, Elephant Trunk on my nose and bubbling foam out of my mouth. I am super comfortable and look amazing (or so everyone says)

Happy Fathers Day!

Felix
xx

10 Seconds with Felix - NICU

Felix vs 'The Ventilator'

I've found it difficult to blog over the last few days. I am very tired and am having my ventilator doing a lot of the breathing for me. My ventilator and me have a definite 'love hate' relationship. When it's behaving, it helps me breathe and when I feel up to it I try to help the ventilator by breathing too. My parents like this because they can see red lines appear on the monitor which are my breaths, over the green lines which are the ventilators. The hard part is when I get a tickley chest. I can feel it bubble in my lungs which really upsets me. So, I strike. I refuse to breathe and as a result, my oxygen levels and heart rate drop. I set the alarms off and get some one-to-one attention with the nurses. The nurses always say "come on cheeky" and then places a suction tube down into my lungs to remove some secretions. With these removed I 'drop' a few times again but then forgive the ventilator and continue letting it breathe for me. Sometimes the doctors make the ventilator do lots of work for me, I like this -  but know it isn't good in the long term. Other times, they try to make the ventilator not help me too much, but I don't like this and I let everybody know in the only way I can. Strike!

The reason all this has started to happen to me is because I have picked up an infection. This appeared the day after I had my 'long line' put in. I have been told I am small (compared to you lot yes!) and because of this I'm not very good at fighting these bugs which live on all you big people. I've learnt lots of new words over the last week and I know that my CRP should be 4, but it went up to 189. After being given some very strong antibiotics it's started to slowly go back down and is now at 179. I'll be better again when it's back to 4.

However dramatic this all sounds, the real reason I haven't blogged much is because I now have both my hands trapped by stupid splints. In one hand I have a line feeding me antibiotics and the other I have all my sugary food. Sometimes I try to break free! but punch myself in the face.

I know my Mummy and Daddy have been worried recently because I always see them hugging each other (eeew) but they still sing songs to me, they read me books and talk to me all day. I can nearly remember all of the story 'Quacky Quack Quack' and love hearing the song 'On top of Spaghetti', as well as lots of funny Thai songs my Mummy used to sing to me when I was in her tummy.

My Dad said he's made a little page on this blog so people can read all about the stuff the doctors talk about. You can find that here -Medical Info

I have to go now, my parents will be here to visit me anytime now to read me my bedtime story. 

Night night,

Felix! x