Beach boy doing well! 1 week old!

Update on Liam 24 November 2006.

Firstly, a huge thank you to all of you who have emailed, sms'd and called over the last few days. We have felt such a wonderful sense of care and support! Your prayers are a source of great comfort, and we know that they are making a real difference in his little life.

Please don't feel neglected if we don't return voice messages or SMS's. We've both run out of airtime, and simply wouldn't have enough hours in the day to return all the calls and messages that we've received. Your care has been wonderful! Also, as I'm sure you can imagine, it is not easy to have to re-tell the story each time we speak with someone. So please keep sending messages and calling, but do check in here from time to time. We promise to do our best to keep the blog updated with news and a few pictures.

NOW, onto Liam. The little guy is a real fighter! He has been doing so well over the last two days. He is stable and happy. His feeds have been increased to 12ml per feed (which will still be given to him through the little tube in his nose for the next 2 months or so until he develops a sucking reflex). He manages to keep most of the feed down, which is great news! That means that his bowels are working as they should, and of course every bit of breast milk makes him stronger and healthier.

He lost the customary weight during his first week (for prem babies it is 15% of their body weight), so he went to just under 1kg. He is now back up to 1.045 kg's. Megie has to express milk every 3 hours which is then stored in sanitary bottles at the hospital and given to Liam at his feed times. Megie has been a real trooper! She wakes up at 11pm, 2am, 5am, and then expresses during the day at 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm etc. She spends the days with Liam, and I take later afternoons after work, and evenings.

The picture below shows little Liam with his 'sunglasses' on (they are cloth eye protectors). He was found to have a bit of gaundis which you can see on his tummy in the top photo (this is simply because his liver is not yet functioning at prime - he must be a good Methodist! No alcohol in there mate!) So, they had him under the lights for a bit of photo therapy.


So, all in all, it is a joy to celebrate his first week of life. We give thanks to God for his health and growth over the last week! Keep praying - it's clearly working!