Millie's Milestones

AFTER a very scary day, Millie is showing signs of recovery.

She is still in the high dependency room, but it looks like she may just have turned a corner.

There is no doubt that she has progressed in the past 24 hours.

The consultant visited Millie at 10am on Thursday (23 March).

At this time, it didn't look good at all.

Although Millie was breathing for herself, the consultant said she was "very poorly" and too unstable to be moved to a specialist hospital without being put on a ventilator.

But they indicated that she would have to be put on a ventilator anyway if her breathing deteriorated much more.

In this case, Millie would be moved to an intensive care unit at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, which specialises in neonatal Necrotizing Enterocolitis.

They phoned through to alert Addenbrookes and a cot was reserved there for Millie.

Over the next few hours, though, Millie's breathing gradually improved.

By mid-afternoon, the doctor described her condition as "serious but stable".

In other words, she wasn't getting any better, but she wasn't getting any worse.

It was at this point that the medical team decided to give Millie another blood transfusion.

They were concerned that Millie's iron levels were still very low because her previous transfusion had been halted halfway through.

Millie would receive a further 32ml of blood over four hours starting at 5pm Thursday (23 March).

The nurses sometimes play music to the babies in the Special Care Baby Unit.

While the transfusion was taking place, Elvis was playing in the background.

It was a rather incredible event to witness.

Within 15 minutes of it starting, Millie began to wake up.

From being a limp, still baby, not making a sound for hours, she opened her eyes and started to move her limbs.

As the transfusion continued, so Millie began to move more. Then she started to cry.

The transfusion ended at 8.45pm.

After an hour, Mummy gave Millie a wash. The nurses checked Millie's nutrient and gas levels. .

They also did various other measurements that daddy doesn't understand but are very important in these situations.

All the results were good.

Mummy and daddy are going to the hospital again this morning (Friday, 24 March) and will provide a further update later.

Millie is not out of the woods yet, but she is certainly looking up.

The doctors say the blood has made a really big difference. But daddy likes to think that Elvis helped just a little bit too.

posted by Johann @ 8:33 AM