Oscar's One Month Update

When I started my blog my intention was to post weekly updates of Oscar's progress in NICU.  Needless to say, life happened and that plan did not.  




So here we are, one month on and what a month it has been.  He spent almost 3 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, he was on the ventilator for 4 days and in the incubator for 6.  His birth weight was 2.1kg but he dropped to 1.8kg in the first few days, the hospital won't discharge babies until they weigh 2kg, regardless of how well they're feeding or how healthy they seem, which is why he stayed in for almost 3 weeks.

We finally came home on 20th January and just began to get settled when he was admitted back in to hospital.  We noticed a change in his breathing, but his observations showed his heart rate to be abnormally high.  Tests showed this was as a result of him being anaemic - the hospital in Nicosia should have prescribed an iron supplement for him, or at least told us he needed it so we could get it from the GP.  We have also since found out he has a small hole in his heart.  This can be common in premature babies and may close on its own in due course, he will have tests as he gets older to see where we are with it.

As for now, he is doing really well and has exceeded his birth weight now weighing 2.4kg, he's beginning to fill out and is feeding really well (he has between 50 and 60ml per feed every 3 hours).

We are so happy to have him home, to be settling into family life as a 4 and Emelia is absolutely loving being a big sister to 'baby Ogar!'