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.

Friday 4th February

There were no phonecalls again last night, and a positive status update this morning. Maybe, at last, we're on the final stretch.

Stanley was moved out of the main intensive care room again today, into the smaller nursery.Willow is still quarantined in the larger nursery, where we have to wear aprons and gloves when handling her. It makes feeding and changing a rather slippery experience for both parent and baby, but we don't want to risk spreading any potential infections all around the place.

We might be biased, but we reckon ours are the cutest babies in NICU. They have had 19 weeks to perfect their cuteness though, so it's not surprising. Stanley has the cheekiest cheeks, and Willow has the most amazing eyes, inherited from her mother's side.

We've had an almost normal Friday night after finally arriving home, including fish and chips, wine and loud music. All we need now is a couple of babies to share those things with us. Well, maybe not the wine. Or the fish. Or the chips. Just yet.

Thursday 3rd February

It's day 132 in the lives of Willow and Stanley.

We didn't sleep much last night, half expecting the phone to ring at any time. In fact, it never did. The morning call actually brought with it positive news; both the kids had been very good overnight.

While I was spending far too much time at work today, Stanley was smiling away again with his mummy in the main room. Willow was still in the quarantined nursery, but she looked like she's getting better. By the time we left in the evening, her runny tummy was a tummy that was not quite as runny. Hopefully she and her brother will be back together again in the next couple of days.

We think the babies are ready to come home now. We might try and smuggle them out of the unit tomorrow in the NICU pram.

Wednesday 2nd February

A pretty standard day today in NICU, full of ups and downs.

The down bit being that Willow is still in the 'poo room', and that one of the babies in there has now become a bit more ill. It might just mean that the baby is not coping as well with the tummy bug as the others, and nothing more serious than that. But it's enough to worry us anyway. Willow was looking really awake and alert though; other than her nappy contents she looks perfectly alright.

Stanley is still getting stronger again after his infection, and today I saw him really smile for the first time. He'd done it a few times already for Mummy earlier in the week, but today was my first proper one. It's definitely up there with the best moments of the last 130 days, if not the last 32 years 11 months. It's quite an indescribable feeling seeing stuff like that; something you just don't feel until you have children. We can't wait to see Willow do the same now; she's been threatening for a couple of weeks.

Every day now is becoming a real drag - we just want them home with us.

Now that's better, Stanley

Tuesday 1st February

Can't believe it's February already, and here we are still living in NICU. If someone had told us back in September that we'd still be here at this time, we wouldn't have been able to cope.

Today had its ups and downs, as usual. Willow has been quarantined in the nursery with a few other babies, as she has diarrhoea. Hopefully nothing too serious; just a bit of a bug.

Stanley had a lumbar puncture today, which meant another few hours of sweating and shaking, waiting for the result. Again, like his sister's test, it was clear - no nasty little organisms infiltrating his spinal fluid. He was much better again today; back off the oxygen completely and being more his hungry self.

Willow's also been quite hungry of late, which shows in her current weight of 8lbs 8oz. Stanley is still growing nicely at 9lbs 12oz.

Watching Big Fat Gypsy Weddings when we got home made us feel much better. It could be worse - we could be gyppos.

Monday 31st January

After one of the worst weekends of the last 18, and therefore one of the worst of all time, we could have done with an easy Monday. Did we get one? Of course not.

At 8:40 in the morning, the phone started ringing. The only people who would phone us at that time would be a recorded message telling us we've won a yachting holiday in the Bristol Channel if we call them back on their £20 a minute number, or NICU. And it wasn't the yacht.

The call from NICU was about Stanley today. He too has been moved back into intensive care after having a serious episode requiring resuscitation. The assumption was that he had the same infection as Willow, so he was started on the same antibiotics and required some oxygen for the first time in a few weeks. I was actually on the way to work when Leela received the call, so she went in on her own. Stanley was really quite unwell; he had a further couple of episodes and was pretty unstable for a couple of hours. It was bad enough for me at work, staring at the phone, let alone for Leela being at the hospital and having to watch our son like that.

I gave up with work just after midday and went to the hospital. I was no use to anyone in the office. When I arrived, Stanley was still looking quite ill and de-saturating, but was apparently much better than earlier. So it looked like the antibiotics were doing their job. As the day went on, he improved loads and his oxygen requirements had come down to almost nothing. His bloods came back from the lab and it looked like they were growing the same bug as Willow, so at least we had a reason for his poorliness. By the time we left, he was much more stable and acting a bit more like himself.

Willow was doing really well today; funnily enough her oxygen requirements have actually come down a bit since her infection.

Surely this is the last hurdle we're going to have to face - we've had just about enough of the NICU rollercoaster now, and we're going to run out of new cot positions to try out.

Sunday 30th January

The man-flu was still lingering today. I didn't want to just stand around looking at my children without being able to hold them, so made myself useful and went back home to carry on with household alterations using my new 'Dad DIY' skills. The latest piece of architrave went up in a flash; I'm getting used to this now.

Back in the hospital, Leela was splitting her time between the Intensive and Special Care areas, ensuring both Willow and Stanley were kept fed and entertained. Willow was better again today; her CRP (C-reactive protein; rises when there is an infection on board) had come down from 79 to 39. So she seems to be fighting the infection nicely and quite quickly, but will stay where she is for a few days until finishing the 5 day course of antibiotics.

Stanley is getting on very well in the nursery, screaming the house down if his food is 30 seconds late. His feeding is still going well since the formula change; so he really is on the home straight now. We're still not going to speculate about when homecoming might actually be, but it could potentially be before Christmas. 2013. That would be nice.