No idea where May went, but it was all good fun. Willow and Stanley turned 8 months old on the 24th, and have now been home from hospital for 108 days. This is still quite a way off the 143 days they spent in NICU, which just illustrates how long they were in there for. Although it really is becoming a distant memory, sometimes it hits home just what we all went through - and it's pretty hard to deal with. Every time we stop and think about where they are now, we appreciate that they're not clinging onto life with the aid of machinery, and how we're not at those double doors every day, waiting for the buzzer, before dropping off a load of expressed breast milk in the fridge, washing our hands rigorously and walking up the corridor to find out how many times our children needed resuscitating last night.
Talking to people, I still don't think everyone understands just how seriously ill these babies were and how close they were - particularly Willow - to simply not surviving. We still may seem like neurotic parents, not letting many people handle them or cough their germs all over them. But who cares - they're our babies and we don't want them back in hospital.
Anyway, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The four of us are having a great time at the moment; from the moment they both wake, smiling and laughing at us with intense excitement, each day is a pleasure. Leela has the toughest job out of us parents; I go to work on Monday morning for a bit of a sit-down and a rest. But she also has the most rewarding job - Willow and Stanley are such an inspiringly delightful little pair of people, and it's mostly down to what their mummy has done for them.
They're growing up fast, and are both now approaching 20lbs in weight. This means they're way over the 90th percentile for their corrected age of 5 months. In fact, they're even a good size for their real age, which is pretty amazing.
For all their developmental milestones, we have to look at their corrected age, not their real age. And they appear to be doing everything they should be now; in some respects even going above and beyond that. There is still the worry that they may have some kind of problem, such as cerebral palsy. Chances are there will be something wrong, after everything they went through. If they come out of this with nothing but a couple of scars and some lingering chronic lung disease, it will be a miracle. We have an appointment at the Child Development Centre in a couple of weeks, where they'll be thoroughly checked over by an assortment of medical experts, from paediatricians to physiotherapists.This will give us a very good idea of how they're getting on and any concerns there may be at this stage.
Willow and Stanley are still enjoying eating. Their current favourites are Weetabix and banana, pear and apple, and a variety of vegetables. We're starting to increase their solids intake and wean down their milk. Although the aspect of nutrition is, unlike all other development, based on their real age rather than their corrected age, there is is still a slight hindrance in that they are not physically as well prepared as a normal 8 month old. At 8 months, most babies would be sitting up nicely which would assist the act of stuffing food in their mouths. Although ours are definitely a lot more stable now, they still slide about quite a bit in their high chairs.
They're still generally sleeping well, all night from 8pm til 6.30am. However, those little teeth are starting to make an appearance, which can result in one or the other shouting quite loudly early in the morning. A bit of teething powder and a few rounds of 'Twinkle twinkle, little star', and they're usually back to sleep in no time.
Talking to people, I still don't think everyone understands just how seriously ill these babies were and how close they were - particularly Willow - to simply not surviving. We still may seem like neurotic parents, not letting many people handle them or cough their germs all over them. But who cares - they're our babies and we don't want them back in hospital.
Anyway, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The four of us are having a great time at the moment; from the moment they both wake, smiling and laughing at us with intense excitement, each day is a pleasure. Leela has the toughest job out of us parents; I go to work on Monday morning for a bit of a sit-down and a rest. But she also has the most rewarding job - Willow and Stanley are such an inspiringly delightful little pair of people, and it's mostly down to what their mummy has done for them.
They're growing up fast, and are both now approaching 20lbs in weight. This means they're way over the 90th percentile for their corrected age of 5 months. In fact, they're even a good size for their real age, which is pretty amazing.
For all their developmental milestones, we have to look at their corrected age, not their real age. And they appear to be doing everything they should be now; in some respects even going above and beyond that. There is still the worry that they may have some kind of problem, such as cerebral palsy. Chances are there will be something wrong, after everything they went through. If they come out of this with nothing but a couple of scars and some lingering chronic lung disease, it will be a miracle. We have an appointment at the Child Development Centre in a couple of weeks, where they'll be thoroughly checked over by an assortment of medical experts, from paediatricians to physiotherapists.This will give us a very good idea of how they're getting on and any concerns there may be at this stage.
Willow and Stanley are still enjoying eating. Their current favourites are Weetabix and banana, pear and apple, and a variety of vegetables. We're starting to increase their solids intake and wean down their milk. Although the aspect of nutrition is, unlike all other development, based on their real age rather than their corrected age, there is is still a slight hindrance in that they are not physically as well prepared as a normal 8 month old. At 8 months, most babies would be sitting up nicely which would assist the act of stuffing food in their mouths. Although ours are definitely a lot more stable now, they still slide about quite a bit in their high chairs.
They're still generally sleeping well, all night from 8pm til 6.30am. However, those little teeth are starting to make an appearance, which can result in one or the other shouting quite loudly early in the morning. A bit of teething powder and a few rounds of 'Twinkle twinkle, little star', and they're usually back to sleep in no time.
