Last updated, 18 July, 20:50
The nurse told us that we couldn't stay while the doctors were doing their rounds, so she said she would call us when they were ready to talk to us. It got to half past ten, so we decided to go down anyway. We were changing John into some clothes of his own when the doctor came to talk to us.
She agreed that John was out of immediate danger, but warned us that it would be a long time before we knew what the long-term effects, if any, of his experience would be. We expressed concern about the level of sedation, but she said that it was necessary to control his reactions to the swelling. She compared his experience to a car crash, and explained that his swelling was likely to be worst now, a few days after the birth, than earlier. She was very non-committal about most things but, when pressed, said that she thought he would have to stay in hospital for at least another week. She said that the next important milestone was for him to breast-feed, as they would not normally let a baby home when tube-feeding unless they thought that he would never breast-feed.
We bumped into another doctor later who had been trying to see us - Mandy's temporarily going home rather confused the system. He was also unable to resolve many of the huge uncertainties about John's condition. Everyone seems to think that he was pretty lucky to make it.
I discovered the hospital canteen today (now christened Nightingale's Restaurant, as the hospital has Trust status). The food is pretty good and very cheap. As I was quite smart today, I wondered whether they had mistaken me for a doctor and charged me the staff rate!
In the afternoon, John's feeds had been moved from two- to three-hourly. He tried breast-feeding again and did a little bit better. A sister who specialises in breast-feeding advice helped and we were pleased with what he managed.
Someone had put a note on the cot so that his clothes did not get put in with the general laundry - "I am wearing my own clothes - John, X".