The carousel of sick(ness)

One child gets off the carousel of sickness and another jumps on. Is this the way it has to be? I'm tempted to rename this blog Illness & infirmity.
Looking forward to my first real day of paternity leave today as nursery was closed for a planning day yesterday so Maud was at the hospital with us for Henny's check up. So I delivered Maud to nursery and came home to get started doing a bit of a tidy up in the flat and then the plan was for the three remaining I&I crew to pop out for a spot of lunch. Just getting our togs on and nursery rings to inform us that Maud has a temperature. Rats.
Pick up the quite obviously ill Maud from nursery and write off the day as lost.
Maud never really has any great desire to sleep unless she absolutely has to so seeing her flake out in the living room is a thing that just doesn't happen. She must be ill.
In the end it was a bit of a Mr. Creosote moment, she hadn't eaten since breakfast so about 6 o'clock she decided she could manage a few small savouries, didn't take long before mount vomit was erupting. Rats again.
So no nursery for Maud tomorrow either. Kids eh.



The other former carousel of sickness rider was back at hospital yesterday to have her stitch removed be weighed and take a blood test.
All good news here. Henny reported an almost normal CRP of 7.5, meaning the bacterial infection she has had is almost gone and all other blood tests looked OK. She has gained weight too. The nurses were pleased to see her again especially since she is doing so well.





Mariann and Henny reaquainted in happier circumstances.



In these oh so environmentally focused times it's only right we should be proud to show off our contribution to saving the planet....hand-me-downs, ah yes Henny and Maud model the same outfit.

Maud 2 - 1 Henny

Henny, like most babies, spends a huge amount of time sleeping. Most of the days since we arrived home she has slept on one of us, as after not being able to hold her properly for the first few weeks we now can't bear to put her down. We're going to create a monster, i can see it coming, a baby that won't sleep unless we are holding her, eeek - we need Henny addiction therapy.
Of course the time arrives when it's just not practical to hold her near, enter the second coming of 'the magic bag'. I&I veterans will remember it like it was yesterday. Possibly.
Doesn't seem to have lost it's powers of sleep inducement during it's two year hibernation either. Henny, just as her sister before her succumbs to its mysterious force just as readily.
The magic bag let us experience and enjoy a relatively pain free first major trip out to Oslo city centre as a family of four.
A leasurely stroll down town followed by some shopping (Henny necessary items only, naturally) followed by pizza, followed by a trudge up the hill home just to finish us off.

The magic bag doing it's stuff.



Maud, erm, recapturing her youth.



Wondering what the 2 - 1 title is all about?
Lucky the pizza place had, as my family would have it, nice facilities. Dirty nappy count goes in Mauds favour but Henny did pull out the old chestnut of weeing while in mid nappy change - rendering many items of clothing unwearable.
So a 2 - 2 might be more just.




Maud Marie 'i'm 2½ you know' Tjorteland Conibear

Home is where the Henny is

Cha cha cha,
After a few days of being given day release from the ward Henny was finally allowed home - 25 long days after we first arrived.
Can't praise the staff at Ullevål hospital enough - Newborn intensive - these people know their onions.

What they didn't know - they found out.
What they didn't really have time for - they made time for.
They didn't mind that I constantly stood in their way while cooing over my baby - they worked around me and did their job.
They made us feel like our child was the ONLY patient in the whole hospital.
They listened and heard our concerns.

They cared.

They saved Henny's life.

So we're home and not a moment too soon, still a little bit left before Henny is 100% but she is doing well.
She'll be back to the hospital on monday again for a blood test and quick check, just to make sure progress is being made.

'YAY, i'm going home.'



The first ride in TFW and she falls asleep - the seal of approval.



The first day of having double the amount of children to care for is an experience.

One eats, one lies on the table, we run about like headless chickens while they both demand different things.




Walking to the supermarket to buy our supplies, we haven't done much shopping over the last month.

HH

Harlequin Henny

Not content with grabbing enough of the nurses attention while in hospital Henny put on a little sideshow.

One side of her body bright red the other quite pale. Fumbled to get the camera out in time before it disappeared again but you can see the effect in the photos, spooky.

Harlequin colour change


These were taken on 12th august, so she wasn't exactly newborn.

I’ve got no strings......

To hold me down
To make me fret
Or make me frown
I had strings
But now I’m free
There are no strings on me
Hi o the merio, that's
the only way to be!
I want the world to know
notin' ever worries me

I’ve got no strings so I have fun
I’m not tied up to anyone
They've got strings but
you can see there are no strings
on me!



The last of the lines attached to Henny have been removed and she is ours to hold as and when we wish.
Still at the hospital but hope to be making plans for coming home very soon.

Eating like every meal is her last and making good use of her new plumbing.

The Maud is back in town

Been a busy week, Maud is back so little time for blogging.
Maud met her new baby sister and insists on calling her Jonny (pronounced yonny)

Henny is getting better slowly but surely and after a couple of weeks of just nappy wearing she was actually allowed some clothes and something to eat, welcome to the civilised world.
Still probably going to be in hospital for a week or so, got to make double sure that the plumbing is working as it should.

BOGOF

Things can only get better turned out to be true....but only before they got worse.
The fluid on the liver turned out to be the cause of the infection and this describes pretty much what happened to cause it.

Well on Wednesday she was showing more signs for concern so two birds, one stone. Original plan was to insert a central venous catheter or Hickman line to replace the infected and now lost umbilical catheter but as an added bonus the surgeons decided they needed to get their hands bloody again and they were going to open her up to take another rummage round inside, just to check, like you do.

Little Henny was topped up to the brim with blood and other associated fluids and wheeled of for more surgery.

Fun?

No.




We saw her go in to surgery looking not too bad considering, she was coping better than me anyway.
She came back looking like this.
Job done, inserted the Hickman thingymebob and found the intestine work carried out a few days previously to be tip top and healing well with no leaks. They tickled her liver and despite having it in their hands concluded that they would leave well alone, it will sort itself out apparently and no lasting damage done, gonna take time tho.
They managed to remove the ventilator straight after surgery which was, erm, better than good.



Seems the surgery team do a side line in haircuts too, Henny told us later that it wasn't what she'd asked for.



Morphine does this to you, apparently.



Take 2



Hickman line in place but Henny's eyes are good for at least a thousands words here.



Henny does flag semaphore, i think she is trying to say 'Ouch'





So she is onto to post op recovery again and still nil by mouth.
She is recovering well and the hunger which so tormented her a week ago is back with avengance which is a good sign but probably not much fun.

Day by day, just one at at time that's where we're at.

and the rain came down....

all around.

Things were going to plan but as i said in my last post Henny couldn't be counted as fit and well. The surgery on the intestine went well and was / is healing but life is just never that simple.

In the middle of the night early monday morning our optimism was well and truly stomped on when Henny picked up a double complication, fluid collecting in the liver and an infection.
She was truly pretty ill.
Seems that the umbilical venous catheter that was inserted to keep her, well alive basically since she couldn't eat, allowed fluid into the liver and caused the infection....double whammy.

Situation as of today is that she is stable and the doctors are waiting for the antibiotics to take care of the infection.
Tomorrow they are hoping to insert a central venous catheter which would ease a few problems, the catch, there is ALWAYS a catch, is that this is a surgical procedure so they have to give her a general anesthetic.


An all too rare conscious moment.



Surgical opening healing unbelievably well.



To replace the umbilical catheter they had to set up two new intravenous lines, one in her head an another in her hand to join the one she already has in her foot. The one in her head meant that we can no longer pick her up due to the risk of disturbing the line.

She also had a central arterial catheter put in on her other hand to ease the taking of blood tests and monitoring of blood pressure, so we can't hold either of her hands now.




As she is this evening, our little girl has been dealt tough start, the lights are on but the world is a dark place.

things can only get better.

Nil by mouth

Been a tough start for Henny and we still haven't given her a proper hug due to the tangle of tubes and wires attached to her. Even worse for her is that she hasn't been allowed ANY food for the first days of her life so far. Until the surgeons see that the intestine is healing she is on intravenous menu only, something which she hasn't been best pleased about at times.
All looking good though, she has come a very long way in a few days as more and more of her life supporting tubes disappear.

Slept for almost 24 hours after the operation, plenty of tubes keeping her afloat.



'Don't sit on the tube that feeds you' isn't that how the saying goes?



Plenty of life in her today, the worst hunger pangs seems to have gone and she is content to stare into our eyes and wonder why we are being so mean.
Surgeon and doctors are very happy with her progress and they say they might, just might, consider letting her taste mothers milk in a day or two if she continues to recover so well.





People are saying, now that the swelling has gone down, that she looks more like me. Dunno but hopefully she'll grow out of it and start to resemble her mother too. There's always hope