It's My Due Day Today!! ( 11th March )

Hi Everyone!

Today was supposed to be my due date. That means that I am officially zero. Even though tomorrow I will be 14 weeks old, officially my adjusted age will only be 1 day! Up until now I have been working backwards as it were. It really is a strange thought, but I should only be coming into the world about now. I have already seen and done so much though. Least of all become an internet star!

Mummy came in today and sang me "Happy Due day to you" and gave me a present. Actually it is a present that I was given for christmas, but I wasn't ready to play with it till now. It has turny things, and textures and makes a few different noises. Its a bit big for me to play with by myself, but it is good to watch mummy and daddy play with it for me! I still like my ducky. We have become very good friends, and sometimes he can even be found holding in my dummy for me. Mummy also made some brownies for the staff on my behalf to celebrate my due date. Daddy was a bit jealous until he found out that she had made him some too.

Well Mummy and Daddy haven't managed to give me a bath yet. They need to do it when there are a few nurses around and things in the unit have been very busy recently so we are still waiting. Some of the night staff gave me a good wash the other night though.

I am progressing well weight wise and am now just under 1800 grams. This is really good news. Every bit that I grow helps to grow my lungs as well. This means that I will hopefully soon be on my way to the next level of breathing aparatus - called the wellington CPAP. I do have to have laser Eye surgery next week (monday) to fix my retinas that look like they have stopped developing. This means that I have to have a general anesthetic and go back on the ventilator for a little while, but hopefully should just be a minor bump in the road.

With Love From
Mitchell

Bouncing like Tigger! ( 8th March )

Hi All,

I tried something new on Thursday. I got to have a go in the baby bouncer. It was pretty cool. I got to sit up and have a good look around. It really is too big for me but once i was snuggled in with blankets and things it was good. All the nurses walking past did double takes at me in the bouncer as it was a bit of a surprise. Mummy bounced me in it a little bit too as she knows that I like to be rocked when we have cuddles. So I felt a bit like Tigger, but I know that my bounces were nowhere near the size of his bounces! Still it was good fun.

I have been a bit grumpy for a few days this week, but it seems that I might have been a bit cold. I don't like having the blankets over my arms you see, so I always throw them off. But there is a bit of a draft from a vent near me, so my top half gets a bit cold and my bottom half stays toasty warm. So they have started putting some light clothing on me which helps with this problem and the last couple of days I have been much happier. Of course, the clothing is too big for me, but it still does the job. Mummy is going to bring in some of the clothes that I have been given so that I can wear them too, which is exciting. I will feel like a much bigger boy.

I am slowly putting on weight, but I did manage to put on 74 grams over thursday\friday so that was a good effort. I now weigh 1670grams, although I haven't been weighed today so I may be over 1700 grams now!

There are also rumours that Mummy and Daddy might be giving me a bath this weekend which is pretty exciting. Daddy is on call, so we will have to hope that he doesn't get called out.

With Love From
Mitchell

3 Months old Today! ( 5th March )

Hi All,

Well I am recovering well from my hernia op which everyone is pleased about. With that out of the way I am back to focusing on putting on weight. They have even had me analyzed by a dietitian, which is funny seeing as most people have to answer lots of questions when they see a dietitian. Me, I just had some blood and urine samples sent off to the lab. Its also funny that most people see a dietician to lose weight, where as I am trying to put it on!

I was kind of pleased today that I am not too big, as one of the nurses was eying up my thighs to see if they were fat enough for me to have my immunisations. I am not too sure that I like the sound of that. Although, my baby friend Hector had his today and he didn't even bat an eye lid, so I guess it can't be too bad.

Hector and I have become good friends. Infact we are such good friends that the nurses are contemplating separating us! Thats because a couple of times a week we stay up and party all night. The nurses aren't too impressed when we do it, but it is good fun at the time!

Nana and Grandad came to see me yesterday afternoon, but I was asleep. They were coming to say goodbye before they flew out on their 2 1/2 month european adventure. Its their 10 year wedding anniversary. By the time they read this, they will probably be at their stop over in New York. I hope they have a great time and bring me home a great big pretzel! Although, it might be off by the time that I am able to eat it.

Oh, and congratulations to Greer! She went home with her mummy and daddy and brother on monday. That is so exciting! I can't wait till thats me!


With lots of love from,
Mitchell
PS as you can see from one of my pictures, I like to snore and drool on my mummy's chest. That was me just before my Op.

Back from Surgery ( 29th Feb)

Hi All,

Surgery went great! And it was soo exciting! I was awake for the trip in the spaceship ( the travel incubator) where they took me over to the other building where the theatres are ( they didn't do it at the neonatl unit this time ). It was quite a long trip but I had my dummy so I was quite happy. And Mummy came with me too. And a Dr, a nurse, a gadget man and an orderly. As you can imagine I had quite an entourage and made other people get out of the way for us. I wish i had had a horn to beep at them. I was awake for the surgery as I had an epidural. I had a good suck on my dummy, a good look around and was very good for the dr's and nurses ( my parents will be proud).

My breathing was so excellent that I didn't need to go back on the ventilator either, and in fact since we came back I have needed even less oxygen. Mummy and Daddy haven't seen it in the 20 - 30% range in a long time, and maybe not ever! They are really proud of me. I think it was a combination of things. They gave me some steroids early this morning and then I had a really long Kangaroo cuddle with Mummy, which really chilled me out. It was about 2 1/2 hours long, and I slept really comfortably for most of it.

I got a cool present when I came back too. It is a little rubber ducky. A Mitchell size Rubber Ducky. There is a Mummy and a Daddy one too, but the baby one is a good size for me. He is cute to look at, especially when Mummy sings Ernie's Rubber Ducky song. I had a sort of bath yesterday that was lots of fun. I didn't like the hair washing bit much, but I loved it when the nurses put me in the water. I hope I have more of those, and can take my duck.


With Love From
Mitchell

Leap Day! ( 29th February )

Hi All,

I am having my hernia fixed today. My surgery is scheduled for 2:30pm this afternoon. Unfortunately this means that my last feed was at 6am this morning. I am going to be so hungry by the time I get out! They are going to do it by epidural so that I don't have to go back onto the ventilator. It is a pretty common surgery so it should be fine.

I am going to have a nice long cuddle with Mummy this morning and she is going to read me a winnie the pooh story about leap day. She also has a present for me if I am good during surgery which is nice.

I am 12 weeks old now too!


Talk to you later
With love from
Mitchell

A Rough Week ( 25th Feb)

Hi All,

I'm Sorry for the lack of posts, I haven't been very well.

For a few days last week I had a really high heartbeat, really laboured breathing and was really grumpy. I had lots of tests done and was more carefully monitored but no one could find out what was wrong with me. I just didn't feel like myself. Then it went away.

Then during the weekend the hernia in my groin started playing up and wasn't able to be pushed back in very easily. The nurses got a bit worried and called out the surgeon to have a look and see if it needed to be fixed right away as my tummy was also all bloated and they thought that the two were related. The surgeon was able to push the hernia back in (without surgery) but I am now on the priority list for having the surgery to have it fixed. If it had stayed easily reducible I would have just had it fixed closer to when I go home. From what I heard today they are looking at doing the surgery this friday so I will keep you posted. They also stopped my feeds on Sun and had my tummy being continually suctioned to give it a rest from processing food. That means that they had to put another IV line into me so that I could be intravenously fed. It is nowhere near as good as breast milk. Thankfully, they have restarted my feeds today, but it means that I have to slowly build up to a full feed again! I was having 33mls every 3 hours, which I was quite proud of. Hopefully it won't take to long to build up again, but I guess that it will be taken away again when I have the surgery!

There have still been a few positive things this week. Like.... being put back into a heated open cot, and now weighing 1540 grams! (that is over twice my birth weight). And my favourite, having cuddles with Mummy and daddy again!

I have also found a new appreciation for my dummy. I still need help holding it in my mouth, but I am getting pretty good at helping hold the hand that holds the dummy...=0). I'm sure that it would fall out if I didn't hold the hand, so my job is very important.

We have been reading some lovely Peter Rabbit stories, but I am not sure about the one we are reading at the moment. Benjamin Bunny & Flopsy's babies have been stolen and are going to be eaten for breakfast! But it looks like it might be ok, benjamin bunny & peter rabbit are trying to save them. I think that the story is called the tale of Mr Tod. I hope that the bunnies are ok, I wouldn't like to be eaten for breakfast, even though people have said that I am so yummy she could eat me all up!


Take Care,
With Love From
Mitchell

Wow! What a Week! ( 17 Feb )

Hi All,

It has been a busy week! I warn you now, this is a long post!

I have had a bit of an up and down week health wise which is never fun, but nothing major has happened. I have just gotten a bit tired. This means that my oxygen dependency and my temperature has been steadily increasing over the past week. I wasn't showing any signs of being sick or anything which is really good. Some changes were made to the settings on my CPAP ( snorkel) which may have happened a bit quick and I didn't cope with very well. Anyway it all came to a bit of head yesterday ( Sat ) and I had to get some help breathing for a little bit. All the changes had to be reverted to make sure that breathing was made as easy as possible for me. I have recovered ok ( and still on the snorkel ), but of course I was pretty grumpy yesterday afternoon. Daddy did a good job of calming me down and sending me off to sleep though. I have also been pretty settled and sleepy today.

I have also been moved out of the isolation room and into the main part of room c. It's a bit noisier out here, but its nice to have the other babies about. I think that I am the smallest though so I have some catching up to do! Because my temperature wasn't ver stable over the last couple of days I have also been put back into a full incubator to help keep me warm. Mummy and Daddy got a fright when they walked into the room and saw an incubator in my spot, they wondered if it was a different baby at first until they saw my name tag. Hopefully, I won't have to stay in it for too long.

Valentines day was cool. I got my first ever valentines day card from the NNU staff which was really cool. Mummy also read me a winnie the pooh story about a valentines day party. Eyeore thought that nobody had sent him any valentines and he was even sadder than usual. But it turned out that his letter box had fallen over and the valentines had been blown into the bushes. I'm glad that my valentine didn't get blown away! We have also started reading stories about Peter Rabbit. And of course Flopsie, Mopsie and Cottontail. Oh, and Mr MacGregors Garden. Peter Rabbit is very naughty. Apparently the book Mummy is reading from is from when she was little so it is very special. And someone has drawn some extra bits in it, but we don't mind. Mummy doesn't think it was her, but it might have been.

I have met some more of my extended family this week too. I met my great grandmother from invercargill and a great uncle and great aunty from christchurch. They have all been up because my Uncle Giles got married to Aunty Sheree on Friday! It was very exciting. Mummy and Daddy got dressed up and they also got me dressed up in a little bow tie and took photo's so that they could show Giles and Sheree that I really wanted to be there. But in saying that, I am supposed to still be in Mummy's tummy at the moment! But i hope that my uncle and aunty have a wonderful honeymoon and a fantastic life together ( with me in it ). Congratulations to you both.

Another reason that a lot of the family was here in wellington is that one of my great grandmothers ( I am lucky, I have 3) is turning 85 in a week or so, so they had a big celebratory lunch while everyone was here. Apparently that was fantastic too, so I am sorry I missed it, but I am sure that she understands!

And one more thing, I am now in big boy nappies! They are still WAY too big for me and if they were pulled all the way up, would go right up to my arm pits, but it is still progress!

I hope that you all are well.

With love from
Mitchell

Graduation (10th Feb)

Hi All,

I have some great news! I'm not going back into room B which is the intensive care part of the neonatal unit! Instead I have "graduated" into room C, which is an intermediary room before going into the nurseries. This means that I am very stable and have been a very good boy. I am still in the isolation room, but I am officially counted as a member of room C. They have left me in the isolation room because I have been so good and like the peace and quiet! When someone else needs the room I will be moved out.

I have also been given a new bed. It is still an open cot, but it is an unheated one. I now just get blankets or even clothes to keep me warm. Today I got to wear a nice cardigan. At the moment my own clothes are a bit big for me so I wear neonatal ones, and I'm not wearing them very often so it doesn't really matter. Eventually I will get to wear some of the lovely stuff that people have given to me. It shouldn't be too far away! And instead of using the sunshade thing over my head to block out some of the light, my bed has a canopy like a bassinet has.

I have been very good with my breathing and oxygen requirements have stayed really stable which is great news. I got to have hold with Mummy both yesterday and today, it has been ages since we have had a cuddle. It was lovely and I got to fall asleep in her arms. Unfortunately, Daddy wasn't there 'cos he was on-call and when he is at the hospital he has to turn his cellphone off. Oh well, I will see him tomorrow.

Oh and happy birthday Uncle Flannel, oops I mean Uncle Nathaniel!.....=0)

With love from
Mitchell

The Royal Suite ( 7th Feb )

Hi All,

Sorry for the lack of updates the last few days, but Mummy and Daddy have both had a bad cold and then I might have got a touch of it too. Because the Dr's and Nurses weren't sure if i had it & the blood tests and cultures take 48hrs to confirm if I have a virus or infection, I was moved off to the isolation room just in case. The move is really just precautionary, so that I don't get anything else, and I don't give the cold to anyone else ( especially the other babies ).

Its not a bad little room, all by myself and with my own nurse at my beck and call. It is much quieter than room B. The reason it was thought that I might have gotten a cold too was because my temperature went high for a few hours and then the next morning I was really grumpy and couldn't get comfy. I only settled when they gave me some panadol.

So here I have been for the past couple of days. It was thought that I would probably end up back on the ventilator because of it, but it hasn't proved to be the case. In fact, I have been pretty good with no real symptoms since I have been moved. The tests that came back today have said that I don't have a virus so that is good, but I am not sure when they will move me back.

I was a bit naughty last night though and stayed up way past my bed time. Actually, I think I stayed up most of the night. The nurse wasn't too impressed, but I have slept pretty well today!

I am starting to put on weight and when I was weighed yesterday I was 1234 grams, which is pretty cool! All the numbers in a row. I have some fortifier added to my milk now which will also help me to bulk up, and I have steroids every second day too. I guess that I wont be doing any professional sports!

Oh! and on tuesday I was 2 months old. How about that?

You will notice on a couple of my pictures I don't even have my snorkel on, pretty clever huh?

With Love from
Mitchell

YAY for me! ( 1st Feb )

Hi All,

I have had a very exciting day today, filled with positive steps. Firstly I have been completely weaned off the Nitric gas ( I have been on it almost the whole time I have been in Neonates ) and also weaned off the Morphine. The other huge thing is that I am back on the CPAP snorkel! Its very exciting.

I was a bit upset for a couple of hours after being changed over, but once I had a nap I felt much better and I am coping well. I am using a high volume of oxygen, but that is always the case straight after big changes. I am very proud of myself and I know that Mummy and Daddy are proud of me too.

The nurse weighed me tonight because I hadn't been weighed since the 21/1 and I now weigh 1120 grams - which isn't bad considering what has gone on since my last weigh in. I am also back up to full feeds which means that I will put on weight a lot quicker now too. So watch this space! The doctors say it is very important for me to put on weight now so that everything can grow bigger and stronger ( especially my lungs ). Mummy offered me some of her weight, but I don't think it works that way.

The poll for the next book we will read has closed and the winner is.... The tales of Peter Rabbit and friends. Which is good, as we have less than 10 pages of Winnie the Pooh left. Now we just have to get the book. Mummy said that Yiayia (grandmother) has one with 4 stories in it so we will get that one and then we will get the one with all of the Beatrix Potter stories in it from the library. Thank you for voting everyone!

Have and awesome weekend!

With Love From
Mitchell

No News is good news ( 29 Jan )

Hi All,

I have been so tired today. I could barely keep my eyes open and as it happens, I had lots of visitors! Part of the reason I have been so tired is because I have had a couple of days of being awake a lot, not sure what the reason is, it might just be getting used to room b again ( it is quite a bit brighter and nosier ).

Mummy has almost finished reading me the house at pooh corner book and is trying to decide what to read me next. We have put a poll up on the side of the blog so that people can vote on which book we should read next. It will be cool to see how many votes we get! We also added a counter to the page a couple of days ago as we had no idea how many people were reading my ramblings, although we have heard that there are quite a few. And it is already over 100! That is amazing!

Daddy has a cold at the moment so hasn't been able to come and see me. I hope you get better soon daddy, I miss you. And I want to know what game you decided to play after finishing Halo 3. I know that you are just practicing till I come home and can play together. You will know what the best games are by then.

My oxygen dependency is steadily dropping and my lungs are staying pretty stable. They have also started weaning me off the Nitric gas as well which is really good news. Hopefully in a week or so I can have another go with the CPAP snorkel.

My feeds have now increased to 7 mls every 2 hours and are going up a couple of times a day. At this rate I will be back up to full feeds in no time. For a couple of days it seemed like I was having more medicines than milk! At least that is changing now.

As you can see from this picture, even in my sleep I blow bubbles!

With love from
Mitchell

Jiggled About ( 27th Jan )

Hi All,
I am now back onto the big oscillator machine again for a few days. I was on it before christmas and it was really good for my lungs so the doctors are giving it another go. I have been needing a high volume of oxygen with the ventilator and they hope that the shaking form the oscillator will help to stimulate the opening up of my lungs and the capillaries more. A small part of one of my lungs has collapsed so they are keeping a close eye on it but think it will open up ok really soon. It all sounds a lot worse than it is. I assure you that I am fine though and still wide awake and alert when Mummy and Daddy come to see me.

One of the things about being on the oscillator is that it shakes my whole body. I was put on it soon after my feed yesterday and it meant that I was a little bit sick as it all got shaken up. Dad cleaned it up really quickly and well though. Thanks Daddy. They have cut my feeds right down to 1ml every 6 hrs and will slowly build it back up again so that my body learns to tolerate it again.

Mummy read to me 2 stories last night. The first was the second half of the Winnie the Pooh story where Owl's house gets blown down in the wind, and the second ( to keep with the theme ) was the three little pigs. I liked the three little pigs. It made me smile when mummy was saying "Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!" in a funny voice.

A version of the story can be heard here ( not by mummy, that version is just for me!)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/tweenies/storytime/stories/3littlepigs/

With Love From
Mitchell

Trusty Old Friends ( 23rd Jan )

Hi All,
I got two old friends back today. The first was that i got moved back into room B ( the room I was in before my surgery ) and second was that I got put back onto the ventilator. I was just getting too tired and run down breathing by myself. Its ok though, as it is only temporary until I am ready to give it a go again. The doctors and nurses are really proud of me for lasting as long as I did on the snorkel so that is good. And next time I will last even longer!

Being in room B means that I have lots of other babies in there to keep me company and get into mischief with. After I was put back on the ventilator two of the others followed suit. We also like to make all of our alarms all go off at once.

One of the good things about being back on the ventilator is that Mummy and Daddy can see my face better. They can also brush my hair. I had some horrible hat hair after wearing a hat with the snorkel for ten days straight. The hair brush they bought me is nice and soft and feels lovely on my head. I tried to help mummy when she was brushing it. I am also having better luck with getting my thumb into my mouth without the snorkel in the way!

I also have a new game that has me seeing how many new nappies I can get at one change time. I will leave you to imagine the details, but my current record is 3!

With love from
Mitchell

Cuddles with Daddy (22nd Jan)

Hi All,

Yesterday I got to have my first cuddles with daddy and it was so cool. I had to wait till monday because Dad thought that he might have been getting a cold on saturday and sunday so had to look silly and wear a mask on his face. It was funny. Our first cuddle started out with me wondering if this whole thing was a good idea, as within the first few minutes Daddy managed to give me two big frights as he adjusted the chair. I wasn't expecting it and both times I jumped. But pretty soon we were both so really comfortable and chilled out in the recliner that the cuddle was about 2 hours long! The time just flew by. It was a bit strange at first as his chest is different to Mummy's, but it was still ultra comfy. I even got a few "souvenir" chest hairs, daddy wasn't too pleased with that though. I don't know why he needs them all though. I haven't got any on my chest so I think he should share. ...=0) Isn't that what dad's are for? Grandad and Nana came to visit while I was having a cuddle so I got to see them too which was cool.

I had my eye test this morning so that they can look and see if my retinas are developing normally. They put in some yucky eye drops, which I didn't like very much and then they looked at both my eyes for a while. The worst thing was that I wasn't allowed any food for 2 hours afterwards in case there was a reaction with the eye drops (I'm not sure why, food goes in my tummy not my eyes). That just made me grumpier. And then they tried to put an IV in my arm so that I could have a blood transfusion as my red blood cell count was low. I made sure I held Mummy's hand and concentrated on something else. I was able to play it pretty cool and Mummy said she was very proud of me. All the poking and prodding with the different things over the morning made me a bit upset, so I had to have a quiet day after all that. But on the plus side, the eye test showed that I was not one of the babies with a detached retina and I am on the lowest level of concern for how my retina's are developing so it means that they just keep doing the check every couple of weeks to make sure it still the same or better.

Oh yeah, and I am now up to full feeds, a whole 13mls every two hours. Yay for me!

With love from,
Mitchell

My New House (18th Jan)

Hi All,
Well I have had a very good few days. I have been weaned completely off the morphine, which is excellent. My oxygen dependency levels have come down a lot ( so I am breathing on my own more ) and I have started slowly putting on weight again after losing lots from getting rid of all the puffiness. I almost weighed 1300 grams at my puffiest, but now I weigh 1050 grams. My feeds are increasing every day and I am currently up to 7mls every 2 hours. I am tolerating them very well and am often waking up before they are due. Thats because I am getting hungry by then, so I wriggle around a bit to make the nurse remember to feed me and hurry up a bit. Mum says that I am just like dad and get a bit stroppy if I have to wait for my food! Its not that, its just that I am hungry!

One of the big changes for me over the past few days is that I have a new house! It is an open top cot instead of an incubator. It is more of a big boys bed. They had to put me in it as I was getting too hot in the incubator these days and it was making my temperature fluctuate which is usually a sign of infection. But in this case there was no infection and I was just hot. My new house is pretty cool. I can hear more going on and it is easier for the nurses to do things for me, and mummy and daddy can hold my hand more easily ( OK, so I actually hold their hand not the other way around ). It is a bit coincidental that I got a new house. Mummy read me a story about Eeyore getting a new house and then I got a new house. I wonder if that means I will get stuck in a tree like Tigger and Roo or have 17 pots of hunny like Pooh? I can't wait to see if there are more similarities to come!

My Baby friend Greer managed to make it home to Nelson this week which is very exciting for her and her family but we will miss them. We wish you all luck and love and hope to see you again to have a play date when we are both big and strong!

I had a second cuddle with mummy today for a whole hour and a half and I am due to have a cuddle with daddy at some point over the weekend which I am really looking forward too. I am really enjoying these cuddle things and am really settled while I have them.


With love from
Mitchell

Ups and Downs (14th & 15th Jan)

Hi All,

Well yesterday was not a good day ( 14th ). I was a very unhappy chappy. I couldn't get comfy, I couldn't breathe properly and every time I was handled I got very upset. The doctors and nurses were a bit worried so they decided to give me some more steroids to help my chest and to also give me some smaller prongs in my nose for my snorkel. Both of these things helped heaps and I managed to get a very good nights sleep.

Just those two changes made me feel like a completely new boy! Today I was much happier and calm. I can breathe more easily and only needed half the oxygen that I used yesterday. Mummy came to see me by herself this afternoon because daddy has gone back to work. I do miss daddy, but he comes to see me after work instead. Something really cool happened when Mummy came to visit. We got to have our very first skin to skin cuddle! It was very exciting.

I got a little upset when nurse Anna got me out of the incubator, but as soon as I was against Mummy's chest I calmed down and enjoyed my cuddle. I slept quite a bit and practicesed my sucking (on my feeding tube). Mummy said that she could hear me sucking and that was ok, because I need to practise for when I start breast feeding. I have been trying hard to suck my thumb but my silly snorkel keeps getting in the way. I will get there eventually. Mummy also hummed and talked to me. It was nice to hear her voice and heartbeat like I used to.

I was nice and calm but very tired when I got put back into my incubator, but I hope that we get to do it again soon. Next time I hope that Daddy is there too, and if I am really good then I will get a cuddle with Daddy soon!


With love from,
Mitchell

One Giant Step ( 10th of Jan )

Hi All,

Exciting news! I am off the ventilator! My breathing is mostly me now but I am still a little assisted which is why I have this snorkel\face mask but it means that I am well on my way to breathing on my own. YAY! It is a little weird to be wearing this helmet and stuff but if it helps, I will put up with it. It is better than having the tube down my throat, but it means I don't have something to try and pull out..... ;-)

It was funny tonight because on their way home this afternoon Mummy and Daddy stopped at the baby star shop and bought me a really nice soft hair brush because daddy thinks that I need a hair cut because it keeps sticking up everywhere. Mummy says I don't need a haricut and just a brush so that is why they bought me a brush. Anyway, what was funny was that when they came back that night I was on the new snorkel which meant that I wear a hat with it and they couldn't use my new hair brush after all . Mum said I had better hurry up and get onto the big boy prongs so that she can use my nice new brush on my lovely locks. I personally don't care what they look like, I don't have to look at them! =-) but I guess I should look pretty for all of you......

Mummy is still reading me the House at Pooh Corner book but last night after all my excitement from getting my new snorkel I was too tired to stay awake and listen to it.

My infection has cleared up so I am off the antibiotics. I have also lost a fair bit of weight over the last few days as I am finally getting rid of all my fluid (and as Mummy keeps saying, my "thunder thighs") so I weigh just over a kg now (1050 grams). It also means that my nice blue hat is now way too big for me! Oh well, just another thing to grow into!

And as you can see from the photo, I am thinking about becoming a singer and have been practicing with my tubes!

With Love from
Mitchell

My New Hat ( 9th of Jan )

Hi All,

I'm allowed to wear my new hat! It is lovely and soft and blue. My Great-Grandmother and Great-Aunty in Invercargill knitted it for me. It is snuggly and warm. The bootees are still a bit too big, but I will grow into them. I have been given lots of clothes, but at the moment they are all too big and I'm not wearing clothes at all. If I had my way I wouldn't even wear my nappy!

I am still doing well although I seem to have a minor infection ( probably from removing the chest drain from my surgery ) and they have put me on antibiotics again to clear it up. But otherwise I am doing well. My oxygen dependency levels are decreasing and so is the nitric gas that I am on too. The Dr's are going to see about trialling me on the big boy breathing prongs either tomorrow or friday if everything keeps going well, which is really exciting! Fingers crossed that it goes ahead.

Mummy has started reading me bedtime stories when they come in to see me at night. I am really enjoying it and have been awake ( well trying to stay awake ) while she reads to me. She is reading me a winnie the pooh book. I really like pooh's poems and the "tiddely poms" he has in them.

With Love from Mitchell

Recovering Well (7th Jan)

Hi All,

Well the nurses keep saying that I am recovering well which is great news. I'm not as tired as I was which is good too. They are slowly turning down my morphine and have turned the suction off for my chest drain. As long as its not still draining anything naturally they will remove it all together tonight or tomorrow, which is great! Just one less tube! I am having a chest xray this afternoon to make sure that everything is chugging along as it should be. My oxygen and nitric dependency levels are slowly being decreased too, which is also good. All in all everyone is pleased with my progress I am feeling pretty good.

I had lots of visitors yesterday. My grandparents came to see me and they were very surprised to see me awake and alert. They hadn't seen me so awake before. Grandad was telling me a story of how successful I am going to be when I grow up. He said it was a true story and that I was the star, so that was nice. I just have to make it come true.

I also met my Great Uncle Gordon and Great Aunty Jenny from Auckland. And they bought me a lovely present. Thanks guys, it was nice to meet you.

With love from
Mitchell

Surgery ( 4th of jan )

Hi All,

Well I had my PDA duct\valve closed by surgery today at 5:30pm ( was supposed to be 1pm) and it took just over 2 hours to complete. Apparently the actual surgery part only took about 45 mins but the setup and anesthetic and things took a lot of the other time. I'm pleased to report that it all went well and it has been successfully closed. I am pretty tired so will be sleeping most of the next couple of days, but I did manage to be awake when Mummy and Daddy came to visit me after. They said how proud of me they were and that I had been a very good boy which made me happy.

Thank you very much to everyone who has been sending me well wishes and praying for me, it is very appreciated. And Also a big thanks to all the staff doing the procedure and who always look after me so well. I will try not to set too many alarms off tonight.

It is now just a wait and see if my lungs respond well enough with less fluid going through them to get me off the ventilator in the next couple of Weeks.

So I will love you and leave you now and update you on my progress in a couple of days.

With love from Mitchell