more porridge

Maisie loves her porridge like every Scots lassie should and this is really helping with her weight gain.This week Maisie has been getting frustrated trying to use her spoon. The silver spoon Maisie has is part of Daddy's cutlery set that he had when he was a wee boy.

"please can I get some more porridge?"

Daddy is thinking about rationing Maisie's porridge, it is great that Maisie is growing but not so good on Maisie's wardrobe.

Maisie is growing out of all her clothes which Mummy and Meghan think is great because they love a good shopping trip  - all Daddy can see is a large expense.

Maisie has a visit from the Physio and someone from the  Pre-school Community team on Thursday - Maisie has been working hard on her homework and really hopes that they will be pleased with her progress.

went swimming

Maisie had yet another lovely weekend. Although it was very cold  and Maisie couldn't go outside she found lots of things to do.

Maisie continues to enjoy playing in the ring of toys and is taking more interest in all the different types of toys particularly ones that make a lot noise. This is encouraging Maisie to become very vocal and tell Mummy and Daddy lots of stories - Maisie feels that a good time to tell stories is early in the morning. We are lucky that Maisie hasn't full use of her vocal cords yet and that her stories aren't as loud as she'd like them to be.

Maisie took time out of her busy schedule of eating and playing to do her nails;

"I'll need to do this myself as Mummy doesn't do them often enough"
 

The favourite thing that Maisie did this weekend was go swimming. It was advised that hydrotherapy would help Maisie however going to the swimming baths would put Maisie at risk of infection Instead Mummy filled the bath up nice and full so that Maisie could float around. Maisie really enjoyed doing the back stroke but not quite as much as just splashing around - there was water everywhere!

Unfortunately Maisie doesn't have a swimming costume yet so to preserve her modesty there are no photographs.

Maisie is very excited about the coming weekend, partly because she will see her cousins; Charlie, Gracie, Ella and Ava, partly because she will get lots of Easter Eggs but mainly because it is the Annual Duck Race that Daddy arranges for all the family on Easter Sunday. Last Easter Maisie or "the Bump" as she was better known as then, won the Duck Race but (for obvious reasons) could not collect her prize. This meant that Gracie's duck was bumped up to 1st place.

Maisie is hoping that she'll get lucky again this year!

continued growth

It's not been the busiest of weeks for Maisie which is a nice change. On Wednesday Maisie spent a wonderful morning with Nanny T as Mummy and Daddy were busy. In the afternoon the health visitor popped around to weigh Maisie.

Maisie will soon be bigger than her play mat

In just over two weeks Maisie has put on 340g or half a pound and weighs 6.23kg or 13lb 8oz. Another great growth - the dietitian is sure to be pleased. There has been a big growth since January when we were worried about Maisie's weight.

the play mat seemed a lot bigger at the end of January

sitting up to play

Maisie has got some equipment to help her get stronger.

Zach's young lady Lucy and family gifted Maisie a play mat that came with a turntable to help Maisie with her movement. Mummy plonked Maisie on top of the turntable but Maisie wasn't so sure it was for her.

"Hopefully I'll get the hang of this" 

The physio then dropped off a seat of sorts. It's a rubber ring that Daddy had to blow up which will help Maisie sit up and encourage her to use her arms. Daddy plonked Maisie into the ring and then filled it with toy's to give her support.

Maisie hoped that the rubber ring would not involve more hard work

The ring is filled with a large selection of toys so that Maisie can try out all the different textures and decide which toys to play with. Already Maisie is picking up toys and transferring them from one hand to another which is great to see. Maisie loves sitting up to play.

"this isn't difficult this is fun!"

Incidentally Maisie hasn't suddenly sprouted large rabbit ears - they are just part of the seat.

happy with progress

The Minister's visit went well and agreed on the last weekend of May for Maisie's baptism.

The physio also visited Maisie on Thursday and is extremely happy with her progress. There is still work to be done to help Maisie reach out. Maisie can pull her arms towards her but isn't pushing them out.

Maisie buried under a pile of toys

In the last couple of days Maisie has taken more interest in sitting up and with a little help from Daddy to hold her she is happy to sit and play.

The physio is going to bring a ring for Maisie to sit in. The ring is to be filled with toys to support Maisie in a sitting position and will encourage her to use her arms.

Rolling over onto the tummy or back is still not quite there. Maisie is very close to being able to roll over and if she can manage to learn to reach and take her toys then the rolling over will become easier.

As well as the physio there were other visitors this week;

Maisie always gives Jim a smile - he's very funny

Tanya (Nanny T),Mindy and Joshua popped over for a cuppa with Joshua demanding ginger biscuits and his usual cheese sandwich

Joshua was trying to get Maisie to look at the camera

Mummy and Daddy will hopefully have a nice and quiet weekend. Zach is busy working away saving money towards getting his car looking and sounding the way he wants it. Meghan is in Edinburgh at a Model United Nations Conference where she will be participating in mock UN committees. Meghan's school is representing Palestine.

up for a fight

Maisie had a bit of an "off day" on Tuesday. Maisie did a lot of sleeping, was not eating very much and being a little sick. The sickness may be due to taking her off the medicine for reflux. When Maisie met with the dietitian last week it was agreed with the consultant to take her off it to see if it would slow down Maisie's digestive system allowing her to get more energy from the milk.

This doesn't seem to be agreeing  with Maisie so she is back on the medicine.

All the sleeping is leading to a growth spurt and Maisie is noticeably heavier to carry around. Maisie is also feeling a lot stronger and was offering Zach a fight for teasing her;

"are you talking to me!" 

There can be none of this fighting talk on Wednesday as the minister is coming to visit Maisie to discuss her baptism. Maisie will need to be on her best behaviour.

Mothering Sunday

Meghan had Maisie's Grans plaid on
 for the game - it's too big for Maisie just now

It was a busy weekend. Saturday was mainly spent with Daddy watching rugby on the television.

They were very jealous of Meghan who had a ticket for the game.

Not a great result for Scotland however Maisie and Daddy enjoyed watching the game together.

Mummy started Mothering Sunday early by spending the afternoon catching up on some sleep.

"Daddy! I'm trying to watch the rugby! Please turn me back around" 

.

Maisie couldn't stay mad with Daddy for long

Sunday was a special day for Mummy - Mothering Sunday. Unfortunately Zach and Meghan had to go to work so delegated the responsibility to their wee sister Maisie (or Daddy).

To make sure that Mummy had a lovely and relaxing day Maisie woke up (very) early, quickly got changed and had her breakfast before getting Daddy to prepare Mummy's breakfast. Meghan had already delivered Mummy a freshly brewed coffee with a pretty flower.

Mummy had a long lie until breakfast was ready - scrummy scrambled eggs with smoked salmon made from the eggs that Daddy collects from the garden. Breakfast was absolutely wonderful and served up with a big bunch of flowers.

Mummy loved all the cuddles Maisie
("Daddy do I have to do this all day?")

Mummy felt very spoiled. Maisie spent the afternoon giving Mummy lots of love and cuddles before running her a nice hot bath so that she could grab a good book and continue her relaxing day in the tub.

Maisie then got Daddy to cook a beautiful joint of Roast Beef as this is Mummy's favorite on a Sunday.

While Daddy was cooking Mummy settled in front of the television with a cheeky wee glass of rather tasty red wine.

Zach and Meghan came home bearing more gifts and the day was finished off with a family television night watching Top Gear which Mummy loves (?).

It was a wonderful day for Mummy although Maisie did question whether Mummy had been spoiled at all as this Sunday was no different to any other apart from the cards. :)

a tiger did come to tea

Maisie was looking through her vast collection of books and decided to read "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" which was donated to Maisie's library by Alfie, Olivia and Harry.

Maisie does enjoy this book and hadn't heard Mummy read it for a while so took the opportunity to sit down with Mummy for a story while Daddy was out at meetings in Glasgow. Maisie couldn't believe how much the Tiger ate and drank, he liked a lot of milk and this worried Maisie in case the tiger visited her, would there be enough left for her porridge!

The little girl in the book asked her Mummy to buy a very big tin of Tiger Food in case the tiger came to tea again. Maisie thought that this was a good idea and made a mental note to ask Daddy to put this on the shopping list in case a Tiger came to see her for tea.

Too late to add to the shopping list though as a Tiger came for tea that very day:

Maisie was worried the tiger would eat her porridge

"don't worry, it's only Meghan!" 

Meghan was dressed as a Tiger as it was World Book Day at school

wee yellow duck

Maisie is continuing to do well on her journey and took another step today.

Last week the physio set Maisie homework to learn to reach out a grab an object that she's looking at. Well,  Maisie wasn't getting very far with this assignment even with lots of encouragement but it was just a matter of time before Amazing Maisie achieved her task.

As we all know Maisie doesn't do things the easy way and highlighted this to Daddy while having her daily bath. Maisie loves bathtime and often splashes around although not really very purposefully. Today Maisie knew exactly how much water she was throwing out of the bath so Daddy put a wee yellow duck into the water for Maisie to play with.

Maisie quickly noticed the duck bobbing around on the waves she was causing and this is when she decided it was time to complete the task set by the physio. All week Mummy and Daddy had been trying to get Maisie to notice objects that would be easy to Maisie to pick up but our Amazing Maisie obviously didn't find this challenging enough.

Oh no, Maisie decided that she'd wait until there was a wee yellow duck crashing around on the waves in her bathtub before attempting to complete her homework. After many attempts and lots of laughing (from both Maisie and Daddy) Maisie eventually caught the duck.

Maisie did this a few times and was so pleased with her achievement that she hasn't let go of her wee yellow duck since;

Maisie even took her new best friend to bed

march sleep-over

It looked like it was going to be another night with the alarm continuously sounding. The consultant requires Maisie's oxygen saturation to be 92% or above when she is at rest before considering turning the flow down.

Maisie's saturation at rest fluctuated between 90 and 91% and so for the first hour the alarm just rang out as as it was below the 92% required. The nurses on duty realized that this would mean that the monitor would disturb not only Daddy but also Maisie and so it was decided that the level of tolerance could be lowered to 88% - the consultant would get a report and the nurses would be taking readings regularly and Daddy would get a better nights sleep this sleep over, every one's happy.

Maisie's sats were consistently between 90 and 91% for most of the night. After Maisie's midnight snack her saturation improved so her oxygen level was reduced from 0.3l to 0.2l but this only lasted for 15 minutes before being turned back up. Maisie still isn't ready to have her oxygen reduced.

The dietitian came to visit Maisie in the morning and was very happy with Maisie's weight gain. Maisie has put on 495g or 1lb 2oz since her last sleep over and now weighs 5.9kg or 13lbs. This puts Maisie up a centile on the dietitians charts. Maisie's length was measure, she's grows 5.5cms and the circumference of her head as increased.

The Dietitian said that Maisie is in good proportion for a 6 month old baby! 

In order to evaluate premature babies development and their development compared to other children their age gets corrected. To work this out the number of weeks that Maisie was born early is subtracted from her actual age - Maisie's corrected age is 6 months! 

sleep study tonight

Maisie is getting better at moving around on her mat but is still not rolling over. Mummy and Daddy play with Maisie to encourage her to make that next move of rolling onto her tummy but it is all a game to Maisie and if she's not getting help she is not interested.

Maisie really enjoys rolling over and playing on her front but just isn't getting the reach in her arms to help her overbalance and to roll on to her front.

Mummy took some pictures of Maisie on her play mat enjoying herself;

Where's Maisie?

Nearly there! 

"That's better Mummy" 

It was a lazy weekend with lots of playing, Maisie particularly loves playing with her sister;

"This is fun!"

During Sunday afternoon Maisie sorted out old her old clothes that might be of use to other babies at the hospital, she'll take them with her tonight as it's the monthly sleep study.  Daddy is not looking forward to a night of the alarm ringing out! 

Maisie seems to be managing very well on her current level of oxygen so hopefully it will be good news and it can be turned down. 

Maisie all dressed and ready
to go out for a walk

fully cooked

Thursdays visit to the eye doctor went well. Maisie had to do lots of tests. Maisie had follow different shapes and toys with her eyes - up, down, left, right, her eyes got a real work out.

Maisie's development with respect to her eyes is normal for a wee one her age and she is responding to all the stimuli  that you would expect her to. Maisie's eyesight is a little short sighted but certainly nothing to worry about, with Maisie mixed ethnicity this is to be expect. (Mummy is very short sighted)

The eye doctor finished the visit by looking at Maisie's eyes with the optos machine, and claimed that Maisie's eyes are "fully cooked!" The blood vessels have grown around to the edge of the retina just as they if there had been nothing wrong with them at all. There is no loss of her peripheral vision which there would have been if she'd been well enough to have the lazer surgery - Amazing!

What is amazing is to think about 6 months ago when Maisie was to ill to survive the operation to help save her sight and it was decided to experiment on her and try new treatment. It was a risk to take and one that has worked very well for Maisie. Let's hope that going forward this procedure will help many more preterm babies.

Thank you to everyone involved with Maisie's eyes - they're beautiful!