Sunday 26th and Monday 27th December

It made a refreshing change for a Boxing Day to not wake up with a horrible hangover. We decided to make the most of it and have a lie-in, for the first time in three months - and it was much needed. We went to the hospital in the late afternoon, feeling a lot more awake and alert than usual after a good long sleep.

The babies were also awake and alert - Willow especially has come on so much in the last few days. She handles everything so much better; it wasn't long ago that her oxygen saturation levels would plummet every time we even changed her nappy or picked her up. Now she copes it with it all; even improving her sats with contact. They both seem to be a lot happier since they've been together in the double cot, so surely the fact that they are back together has something to do with it.

Willow and Stanley were both really well behaved for both of these last two days, with only one solitary bagging incident on Boxing Day morning after a feed. The doctors now agree with my theory that the bowels might be contributing to these episodes - maybe I'm in the wrong profession. Or, more likely, maybe they're just agreeing to stop me going on about it. 'Yes, annoying parents, that's right'.

Stanley has a bit of an eye infection again, which looks a bit nasty and is making him slightly agitated. But that doesn't stop him wanting to spread the love - he likes to stick his fingers in his eyes and then wipe it on his sister's hands. We've had to roll up some blankets to make a little barrier between them, while he's feeling contageous.

They were both weighed again today - Stanley is now 6lbs 13oz, and Willow 5lbs 13oz. Their weight gain is very impressive, and it's mainly down to 94 days of their mother's breast milk. The doctors and nurses were commenting again about how well Leela has done to keep up expressing to feed two babies under these circumstances.

During the doctors' morning round, the word 'nursery' was mentioned for the first time. We've been wondering when that might happen since September; when nobody would tell us when we might make it into that room. We know now why they couldn't tell us - nobody could have predicted exactly what course our babies would take, and how different their ordeals would be. But anyway, the only thing that is stopping us moving into the nursery now is that Willow is still slightly dependent on CPAP for a few hours a night. But it shouldn't be long now, they are trying her off it again tonight to see how she gets on.