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

I&I - Chapter II - Henny

A long and winding road with a few very dark places along the way.

Enter the age of Henny.

Can't beat simple hard facts, no nonsense, easy too as i feel i have little time to spare the world of I & I atm.
Stats:
born 27.07.08
weight 3405g
length 50cm
head circumference 34.5cm

Long story short - until I&I can become a part of the routine again.

She was born with a blocked intestine, something which was picked up by an ultrasound during the pregnancy.
This required an operation to fix and this was carried out before she was even a day old.
All successful and the recovery process is now underway, she has come far already.
Not out of the woods by any means but things are looking very good and she is otherwise a strong healthy little baby.

Going to be in hospital for a couple of weeks so updates might be a bit thin on the ground at first... after the homecoming I&I will be up to new baby speed....hopefully.

Henny...

Maudster update

not seen her little sister yet as she was whisked off to mormor and morfar before she got the chance.

Have to give her a mention too so when she looks at this in years to come she'll realise that we were thinking about her too.

Maud.

Erm hello...?

Been a quiet couple of months for the I&I crew - just been lazing around minding our own business watching the world go by.
Since the last update which appears to be sometime during the spring (remember that??) this, amongst other things, has happened. (In no particular order)
We have moved to a new flat.
We have sold our old flat.
Auntie Sarah turned 40.
United have become both Premier League Champions and European Champions.
We have been on holiday.
Maud has been seriously ill.
I have carried a lot of stuff up and down stairs and sworn a lot.
I've slept too little.
I've worked too much.
and Mauds first passport has expired.

Hmm when it's written down like that it really doesn't seem that much....how disappointing.
Still, yes we've moved, not by any means settled in the new place yet as we've been waiting to get our mitts on the money from the other flat before we can buy some essentials like wardrobes and things, but we're getting there slowly but surely.

The biggest most major thing that overshadowed everything else was Mauds sudden illness, scared the bejebes out of us i can tell ya.
She woke up one morning and couldn't stand up by herself - after angst ridden 24 hours we finally got a diagnosis of acute cerebellar ataxia
She seems to have made a full recovery but it was a manic few days which of course just happened to coincide with us getting an offer for the flat.

So what to do with a 2 year old who has just been diagnosed with a neurological disorder, well this is I&I after all, we packed our stuff and jumped on a plane to Manchester of course. (don't worry the doctors OK'd it all first.)

On her hols Maud read alot of books (swotting up on her english)..



read some more


Played at being Police a lot



Wore her sunglasses and met a whole load of family.



Found out that she really, really, really, likes ice cream but really, really, really, doesn't want anything to do with seaweed ever again.

.....

Grandma, i think your watering can has more than two holes.




Maud is getting to know the drill 'Just stand over by that unintresting backdrop.....'

Any takers?

Waddaya mean where i've been, bit of hiatus in posting to I&I, that doesn't mean to say i've been sat on my skinny bottom doing nothing.. oooohhh no. The computer is packed down along with almost everything else which makes up the material things in my life, so contact with the outside world without the internet is, as you can imagne, very limited.
The flat that has been our home for the last 8 years and 6 months will soon be up for sale, and we had to get it presentable so that mr and mrs potential buyer don't get put off by smelly nappies and the such. So here it is for the whole world to see - our flat.
So if you just happen to know of anybody on the lookout for a top floor flat 15 minutes walk from the centre of Oslo, this is the place. Come on down.

I hate this kind of thing really, presenting the place where nobody except the most crazed minimalist could function, everybody knows that it is all just some big show, but if it gets me more money in my sweaty little hands i'm in.
Still erasing every last trace of Mauds existence just for the satisfaction of others doesn't sit well in my head, but the market dictates what needs to be done...so be it.