Millie's Milestones

MUMMY and daddy registered Millie's birth today.

This involved an extortionate £3 parking fee and a visit to a bland brick building next to a dual carriageway in Colchester.

Not the sort of place daddy had envisaged to host such an important event.

Later, he told Millie how he believed she was the first Tasker in her direct family line to be born outside Lincolnshire since at least 1765.

This means the genes on her paternal side of the family have travelled at the rate of roughly 1/2 a mile per year for the past 250 years.

Along with a certificate, the Essex Registration Service also offers parents the opportunity of a civil naming ceremony for their child.

Officially approved venues include the local Holiday Inn hotel, The Pier at Harwich, and the Metropolitan Police (Chigwell) Sports Club.

Daddy rather fancied Walthamstow Stadium but it wasn't on the list.

Millie herself continues to grow rapidly.

She has put on 48 grammes (1 3/4 ounces) over the past 24 hours.

Her tube feeds have been increased again to 9ml (almost two teaspoons) of breast milk every two hours.

If Millie continues at this rate, within the next two days she will have made up all the weight lost following birth.

Mummy is visiting twice a day, and doing as much as she can of her "topping and tailing" nappy care and washes.

The Peter Rabbit room at the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) is full again at the moment, and Millie has been moved again, nearer the door.

Her progress is such that she is gradually having fewer medicines intravenously and could be free of nearly all tubes and wires by the end of the week.

The potassium levels that were playing up are all now good and the Total Parenteral Nutrition long-line which delivers special nutrients is due to come out soon.

When this happens, Millie will rely primarily on mummy's milk for food.

Once this is the case, she will no longer be classed as a "high dependency" baby and will be moved into the Winnie the Pooh room for older premature babies.

This will be one more step nearer coming home.

posted by Johann @ 11:57 PM