Thursday 10th to Friday 11th February

Progress has continued to be made in NICU this week. Willow and Stanley and their smiles are growing bigger every day. The quarantine is still in full effect, so we're getting quite adept at negotiating babies as they slide all over the place on the plastic aprons.

We parents selfishly enjoyed a lovely dinner and a few drinks at Rhinefield House last night; something that we won't be able to do for a while soon, especially without the highly-trained babysitters of whose services we currently have the luxury. More than anything, it was nice to drive somewhere other than Poole for once. There is apparently more to the world than the assortment of roads between Moordown and St Mary's Maternity Hospital.

We're just hoping now that things keep going as they are. At this rate, the great escape might manifest itself within a week or two; but we're still being very cautious and not getting carried away with ourselves.

"I am very cute"

Tuesday 8th to Wednesday 9th February

Two very busy days for the four of us. Lots of work, baby activities and eating.

Wilow and Stanley have been well behaved again; not much changing with them at the moment, which is good. Stanley is smiling more and more every day, and Willow is very nearly there. Willow is still having the odd de-saturation, particularly during and after feeding. She does seem to be coming out of these epsiodes herself though, so hopefully this is more of a positive sign than a negative one.

The 'poo room' is still a poo room; babies with tummies which are still a bit runny. Nothing has come back from the lab yet as positive for viruses or bacteria; so the mystery continues. What it means for us is that we're using up a lot of latex gloves and plastic aprons. We've almost forgotten what it feels like to touch our babies' skin.

Tomorrow, as it's the 11th anniversary of the day we got together in the glamorous surroundings of 'Ritzy's' nightclub in Plymouth, we're treating ourselves to some fine dining and a night of good old self-indulgence in the New Forest. We're nearly at the end of our lives as irresponsible adults; soon to be entering the next phase as actual parents. And we'll never be more ready for that next phase to commence.

Monday 7th February

This time, Monday morning brought with it a positive overnight report from the hospital. Much better than last Monday's anyway, which was on the other end of the scale. It's amazing how much things can change in a week.

Another good day for Willow and Stanley; a slightly less stressful day for the parents. Things are going well at the moment, apart from Willow's continued 'squits' (which seems to be the official term).

They've both been weighed again - Willow is 9lbs 8oz, Stanley is 10lbs 7oz. So no worries in the weight gain department; that box on the discharge list is well and truly ticked.

We're still not speculating about when they might be home; it always ends in disappointment. So we'll just take each day as it comes. The next big day in the calendar is next Monday - Valentine's Day. As much as we dislike the commercial hell that it has come to be, it would've been quite nice for our babies to come home on the 'day of love'. That is very unlikely to happen though. So, next on the list is my birthday, the 8th of March. Surely, they won't still be in hospital by then...

Sunday 6th February

The parents seem to be having a tougher time than the babies at the moment. Willow and Stanley are coming along quite nicely, apart from Willow's dodgy tummy. All her results have come back negative, which is good I suppose. But it would be nice to have some kind of answer as to what's causing it. Perhaps we're not eating enough curry.

We're still wearing aprons and gloves to touch either child, and no sign of the quarantine zone being lifted just yet. It could turn out that it will remain like this until the babies are released into the community.

We should stop being so negative though - our situation could be so much worse than it is. You read stuff in the news about people losing their babies at 6 or 7 months pregnant. Those babies didn't even have a chance. At least we are where we are now - with two very strong little children who have every chance to thrive in life.

So, perhaps we should learn something from Willow and Stanley. Despite all they've been through, they're able to smile through it all, and they've never given up.

It really won't be long now - we just need to hang in there for another couple of weeks.

Saturday 5th February

Yet another weekend in NICU. We were both pretty fed up and moaning all day today; no doubt annoying the very patient nurses and everyone else. Really just want to get out of there now.

Willow is still in the 'dirty baby' room, and Stanley is in the 'clean baby' room, so we now have to wear plastic aprons and gloves when handling Stanley too, in order to prevent infections spreading between different rooms. Although we can obviously see the need to do this, it was really the icing on the cake today. It's no fun trying to feed and burp your baby while wearing a slippery apron and gloves. It will be so nice when one day, we can just pick up Willow or Stanley, and feed them like a normal person.

So, even though nothing really bad happened today, we've been grumpy and miserable nonetheless. So we took our miserable grumpiness to Willow and Stanley's aunty and uncle for a tasty dinner, and left feeling much better.

Two positive status reports later, it's now Sunday morning and time for a bacon sarnie. After that, we might go to Poole, just for a change.