Wednesday 12th January

Today was a big day - we were moving in to the NHS funded luxury of Hotel NICU.

But unfortunately, the big day didn't start all that well. The midnight call after our lovely evening out revealed that Willow had needed the bag treatment once again. It was twelve days since her last one, so we'd thought we'd left that era behind us. Hopefully this was the very last - she had teetered on the edge a couple of times since New Year, but never to that extent. This time she just needed that extra bit of help.

Unfortunately, the big day didn't continue all that well either. It was Stanley's turn in the evening; he choked on his milk, and stopped breathing for a minute or two. Our friend, the bag, was pulled out again to bring him around. It was really just a one-off though - he just needs to learn to drink more slowly, and calm down a bit. The 'Speech and Langauge' team are having a look at him on Friday to see if they can suggest anything to improve his co-ordination.

Anyway, the important thing is, this event did not impact our stay in the 'rooming-in' suite, so we checked in and had a look around our room. The view is hardly Hong Kong harbour, but it's not all bad. You can clearly see the corridor to the ante-natal unit across the courtyard, and from the ground floor, you can hear the piercing screams of ladies in labour. Who needs champagne breakfasts, rooftop swimming pools and complimentary bathrobes and slippers; all those luxuries fade into insignificance if we have our babies with us.

We were very excited as we wheeled our son into the room, but sad to leave poor Willow behind on her own in the double cot. Once in the room, where Stanley was nice and asleep, we thought...'right, what do we do now then?' So we just looked at him, and waited for him to wake up and want some food. He behaved very well all night, only waking at 03:30 for a feed and not again until 07:30. We would've slept rather well were it not for the lack of a duvet, so we'll bring our own non-NHS issue covers tonight.

It was so nice just relaxing with our baby boy as he grumbled away, having a good look around this strange new environment he found himself in. It won't be too long til we can bring Willow into our little world as well.