Last updated, 21 July, 17:00
John is due for his first bath in a few minutes, so we are going to go and help (well, watch anyway, don't think he is ready to be drowned just yet).
My mum made fairly serious efforts to get hold of me today because she hadn't heard anything for 20 hours. It was too late when I got in last night to answer her three messages and this morning she rang home and then the mobile twice before ringing the neo-natal ward to get me to give her an update. I understand how concerned she is, but it is really difficult to keep everyone updated, especially when there is no real news. Perhaps we will have to come up with some news sharing arrangement between parents or get my mum wired.
John's first bath went very well. Dad has to confess that he largely confined himself to photography duties - his baby handling skills are not yet certified as being up to scratch and John can do without a drowning after everything he has survived so far. We were offered a demonstration, but mum dived straight in there (not literally - it was only a small bath) and did the business.Feeds are getting much quicker. Instead of popping on and off and going to sleep, he is now staying where he is put for longer. Even the hiccups seem to have eased. He now seems nice and awake for feeds, but we are trying to keep him asleep in between.
The nurses were going to ask the doctors when they were doing the rounds whether they could remove John's heart monitor. So far, however, they haven't turned up so the nurses didn't bother putting the monitor back on after his bath. Now all he is connected to is a small breathing monitor. The blue tube that this is connected by even matches the little blue duck buttons on the cardigan he has now got on.
Mandy has made arrangements to go home this evening (well, tonight really, after John's ten o'clock feed). She won't be spending much actual time at home, as we will have to be back in the morning in plenty of time for his ten o'clock feed, but hopefully she will get a good sleep so that we are fit to spend the daytime here.
Had a bit of a panic today, because we missed the doctors (or rather, they missed us) when they finally did their rounds. Also, a doctor did another brain scan on John while we were not in the neo-natal unit. When we noticed the ultrasound machine there, we asked the nurse had it been done and she said that the doctor wanted to talk to us about it. Mandy managed to convince herself that there would be bad news. Unfortunately, it took us about another four hours before we managed to see the doctor. As it turned out, the news was all good. The doctor said that the scan was better than the last one, that the circulation in his brain looked good and that the swelling should go down on its own. John has now been taken off all of the sedative he was being given. We were hoping that they would continue to reduce the dosage, but stopping it was better than we had expected. They will obviously be keeping a close eye on him in case he reacts badly, but if he is OK then it means that we will at last see the real John Kenneth.
My dad has been really good about keeping off our backs, but we know he is as concerned as anyone. We asked him to visit this evening and I was chatting to him outside the unit while Mandy was feeding John when the doctor finally arrived. Dad had been trying to convince me that the fact that the doctor was taking so long to see us must mean that the news could not be too urgent. When I came out to give him the good news, however, he admitted that he had been shaking while we were in there and he didn't know what was going on.
I forgot one story which really deserves a place in this diary. I think it probably happned about Tuesday. I had parked the car at the hospital extremely close to the fence, in order that there was space for more cars. Later in the day, when we were in the neo-natal unit, I got a call to move the car because they had chosen that day, of all days, to repair the fence! I thought it was a bit extreme of them to have called the police to get our name from the registration, but it turned out that they hadn't done that. I had left a piece of paper on the seat, with the contact number I had for Alex (a close friend with whom I worked until recently, when we both made the break and began different lifestyles). The hospital had telephoned Alex's cousin in Ayrshire in Scotland, to ask firstly if she knew who Alex was and then if she knew who owned a green and white Mini and from that got our names and tracked us down. It was good in the end, Alex and I had been missing each other and leaving messages for days but after this performance I rang her again and managed to speak to her.
Bedtime soon. I am glad Mandy is home. She has let some of the tension go, which involved some tears, but I think they were necessary. She feels awful about leaving John in the hospital on his own, but knows that she will be of more use to him if she can keep her own strength up.