Last long one of the year

It was good to get out on the road for a decent ride after all the snow! I managed to do a few cycles to work - one in which I just about made it when all motorists about were struggling, and the second when, after having my 'life raft' on the back of the car I discovered that my back brakes were frozen ON!

Nice then, to get out for for a '20 miler' which being in Derbyshire with my brother was both a nice change but also longer that 20 miles! Great route that was mainly 'up' on the way out, and 'down' on the way back. Thanks Simon - must do it again sometime...

Happy New Year everyone - see you on the roads in the New Year - 2010 - the year of C2P...

You know you're the parent of a preemie if...

Well if you don't laugh you'll cry! As stressful as it is being the parent of a preemie, there's always something to laugh at isn't there? Happy Christmas everyone!

You know you're the parent of a preemie if...

1. ...you have started using your own corrected age to make yourself a little bit younger
2. ...you're on first name terms with all the triage staff at all the local and regional children's A&E's and clinics
3. ...you're still sterilizing everything that goes into your child's mouth after 12 months corrected
4. ...your smoke alarm battery gets low and you spend ages checking if the apnea alarm is working first
5. ...your friends look on aghast as you grab a child who has gone blue, clear their airways, use drugs, check monitors, check child is now okay and then carry on drinking tea and chatting as normal
6. You know your older child is a preemie when your younger one is born healthy at term but gets mild jaundice, and your husband asks the nurse if he's had his first blood transfusion yet
7. ...your 3 and a half year old can fit in to 0-3 month shorts
8. ...your husband begins to need the sound of the electronic breast pump to fall off to sleep
9. ...their first sets of babygros and cardigans are even too small for an average size baby doll bought in Toys 'r' Us
10. ...you begin to think that there is a silver lining to prematurity when you tot up the amount of money saved on formula milk and vitamins due to you getting them on prescription
11. ...you speak a strange language that other parents at the local playgroup do not understand - CPAP, de-sats, hypo-tonic, NG feds, apneas, cynosis, RDS, bilrubin levels, CDC......
12. ...you do a happy dance around clinic every time your baby has gained a gram
13. ...you ring the doctors with a full list of symptoms and possible causes
    
14. ...your doctors know exactly who you are and who your baby is before you've said your name
    
15. ...you look at dolls clothes and wonder if they'd fit your baby
    
16. ...you have a prepared answer for "isn't he small"
17. ...your baby has started sleeping through the night, but you still do hourly observations to make sure he's still breathing
18. ...the first thing you sit down to in the morning isn't a cup of tea, it's the breast pump
19. ...you put your feet up to read charts and notes each morning, not the paper
20. ...you are still charting how many times your preemie has had a dirty / wet nappy at 18 months old
    
21. ...the beep of the microwave sends you into a blind panic
22. ...you start lying about how old your child actually is to avoid all the annoying questions
23. ...you still have frozen EBM in the back of your freezer 2 years on!
24. ...you have the direct childrens ward access number at the top of your speed dial and all the nurses know you
25. ...you go to the pharmacist and they immediately look for prescriptions with your childs name on even if you haven't ordered anything
26. ...you have a whole heap of answers ready for questions on oxygen
27. ...the labels in clothes mean nothing - if it stays up, it'll do
28. ...strangers mistake your 21 month old and 8 month old as twins
29. ...you use the raincover on the pushchair for the first 6 months after baby comes home regardless of season or weather
30. ...your work colleagues deliver your 'congratulations it's a boy!' card at the same time as your 'sorry you're leaving to have a baby' card
31. ...on the postnatal maternity ward you use the cot to store your belongings
32. ...in the hospital canteen the till operator gives you the staff discount because you eat there so often
33. ...the nurses buzz you in automatically, because you've been there that long
    
34. ...as a stay at home mum, the first thing you say to your husband as he walks through the door is not 'how was your day at work, darling?' but a full handover of your baby's cares, feed regime and drugs for that evening
35. ...approaching a junction you find yourself getting in the lane for the hospital, even though your baby has been discharged.

Many thanks to all the parents on the Bliss messageboard who contributed to this list.

Christmas Cheer

I remember the day our son came home. 101 days after I'd first started my daily trips to hospital, 3 months after he was born, and 4 days before his due date, we were finally able to bring the little fella home. No longer would we have a life fragmented between Eoin's siblings at home, hospital and in my case work. No more morning calls to find out what sort of a night he'd had, to find out his weight, which nurse was looking after him and how he was doing. No more rushing home from work, throwing dinner down my neck and straight out to hospital for the evening - every evening. No more petrol station coffee and chocolate to just give us enough energy to make our way home at the end of the evening in hospital. And no more alarms.

When it came, it was remarkably, scarily, quick. We arrived to discover today would indeed be 'the day'. We were handed a big carrier bag full of drugs, were taken through them to ensure we knew which, when and why (16 doses in all, some daily, some twice daily, some thrice daily), a quick go on the resucitation doll and then we were away. Our little man was ours, in our care and at last we were a fully complete family.

Great news then, that some of the tiniest babies have beaten the odds and will be home for Christmas. In New Zealand, a preemie born 16 weeks early has arrived back in the country after being born in Australia. After a special flight, Drew, born weighing just 760g is now in New Zealand will be in hospital for a while longer.

And on the other side of the World, the World's smallest ever baby, weighing just 259g has also come home in time for Christmas. Olivyanna was born in Alabama at 24 weeks, one of triplets. Born in August, Olivyanna came home last Friday, 18th December.

Season's Greetings and Best Wishes to all preemies and their parents, whether they are still in hospital or have made it home, or perhaps more importantly, if they didn't make it home.

I'm not going out in that!

Ok ok, so wind, rain or even wind and rain I can do. But I'm not going out in this weather!

Actually, that's a lie. I cycled my usual route to work last Friday and frankly wouldn't have made it by car! I got as far as the usual Park and Ride where I leave the car, jumped onto my bike and was able to scoot past the cars that were increasingly struggling in the slippy conditions. In a childlike way it was rather fun!

The weather has meant though that I didn't get out for a 45 miler as planned on Sunday, so last week's 40 miler (Dec 13th) was the last decent ride I had.

Add to that the fact that it is now officially mince pie season and I'm afraid that it's not been a particularly athletic last week or so! I am consoling myself with the fact that it is still 6 months to go and so plenty of time to catch up.

Nigel's Training Lore #1.
Routes well known to you by car are further or hillier when observed from the vantage point of a bike

Safe travels!

Weekly training

After a week doing very little whilst travelling, it was great to get back on the bike today. Managed to avoid the worst of the rain and only had a few floods to go through!

After doing 35 miles today, the distances needed for the C2P seem a very long way indeed!

Digest

I always go away on business with the greatest of intentions - I'm going to get loads of reading done, catch up on lots of work and do all the other things I don't normally have time to do like a couple of blog posts. It never works like that! The 'here and now' always takes over and before you know it you're sat in the lounge waiting for the plane home.

As such, here are a couple of things that caught my eye over the last week or so that I would have liked to blog about, if only I had the time...

Fundraising

Great news is that the Telegraph has decided that Bliss will be its Christmas Charity for this year. This article discusses that it is 30 years since the Telegraph originally reported on the plight of the UK's premature babies. As a result, several letters in response later and a new charity, Bliss was formed. The article goes on to discuss the issues that are regularly discussed here (e.g. this one). Go ahead and donate to a great campaign. Or even better, donate via my site and help me get to Paris!

Research

Interesting research out of Boston Children's Hospital. Researchers have determined that stem cells from bone marrow may reduce inflammation in the lungs of preemies, and reduce the impact of chronic lung disease. CLD effects many preemies who spend a long time on either a ventilator or other breathing support such as CPAP. It can lead to longer term requirements for oxygen on coming home and issues with lung health as they grow, including increased risk of bronchiolitis or other breathing complaints. As a result of spending two months or so on CPAP, our little fella has CLD although a relatively mild version. He was still hospitalized on his first Christmas Day with bronchiolitis, but does not need oxygen at home. What is does mean is that is he gets a cold and it typically knocks him out more than a 'regular' child as it goes onto his chest. From mild cases like Eoin through to those who require oxygen support at home, anything that can help has got to be good news. This may be the next push since surfactant and steroids were developed to give premature babies as much chance as possible despite having such immature lungs.