Alexandria's Birth
This is the story of Alex's birth. This was a very traumatic experience for us as well as her, but friends and family probably want to know the facts. This is my view of the days around Alexandria's birth. It is probably riddled with inaccuracy and subjectivity, but then I have no medical training, and haven't exactly been myself lately.

12th Dec

 Karen starts to complain about "feeling funny". Although her due date is not until Jan 2nd we decide to hold off on sending Christmas cards for a few days, in case there is some extra news to add to them all.
19th Dec

At 11am Karen's waters break and we head for the maternity ward. When the midwife checks Karen out she discovers meconium in her waters but the heart monitor shows baby is happy enough, so they let her labour. She labours for 6 hours, very scary seeing this much pain.

At 5:30pm the consultant decides baby is in distress and must come out. An hour later we are in theatre. The operation although mind boggling to me, seems to be routine for everyone else involved. The surgeon is chatting away to the rest of the team as he rummages around amongst Karens organs. At 6:46 he pulls out a baby girl, a sort of purple colour and looking decidedly unwrinkly for a new-born. When I tell the surgeon the name we have chosen for her he is amazed. "Alexandria is my home town", he is delighted. Some coincidence!

The nurse explains that Alex is not breathing too well and will have to be checked out in the baby unit. She assures us that she will be back in an hour or two. I am so assured that I immediately start spreading the word of her birth to family and friends. Two hours later it is the pediatrician that comes down from the baby unit. Alex is in intensive care on a respirator. She already has multiple tubes feeding her morphine, oxygen and antibiotics. She has meconium in her lungs and cannot breathe for herself. She is being fed 40% oxygen because her lungs are not working very well. We are in shock.

20th Dec Today was the worst day of my life so far, by quite some distance. Even though I am writing this only a week later my brain has already blotted most of it out. Alex's condition deteriorates. At one point the respirator is up to 100% oxygen. There is nowhere else to go, so they have to force Nitrogen dioxide under pressure into her lungs to stimulate them to expand. When I ask the medical people if she is going to be all right the reply is, "Well.... she's very poorly".
21st Dec Alex is stable. At least she's not getting any worse. She has been temporarily paralysed in order to stop her fighting the ventilation. I can't remember much else. Same goes for the next day.
23rd Dec By now I have learned quite a bit about all the bleeps, traces and numbers winking on and off on the 100K worth of technology keeping Alex alive. Today the numbers start to improve. The nurses are weaning her off some of the ventilation. Although they are still not promising anything, the staff are much more cheerful. Tonight we actually sleep for most of the night and eat a meal.
25th Dec

Alex is off the ventilator! Best Christmas present we ever had. She still has various feeding and drugs lines in her, but Karen is able to breast feed her by lifting her out of the incubator, wires and all. She looks so different without the ventilator tube in. You can actually see her face properly. The drug that paralysed her has been stopped so she is moving about and opening her eyes. It seem like we are going to get our lives back soon. I have done 200 miles back and forward to the hospital since Alex was born. It's less than 4 miles away. The Christmas cards are still in a large pile on my desk, unwritten.
28th Dec

Alex is out of the intensive care ward. She is taking some of her food from the breast but most is still via a tube. She is well out of danger, and it is now just a matter of time before she is well enough to come home. Hurrah!!!! Today Gordon Brown's wife gave birth to a tiny 2lb baby girl, Jennifer, 7 weeks early. Perhaps when he sees the quality of the care the Baby units provide he will dish out a bit more money to the cash strapped nurses who work in them. Having said that, I wouldn't wish this nightmare on anyone, so I hope she comes through, and quickly.
30th Dec Alex is recovering well. She is no longer on Oxygen or any drugs. The only tube she has left is for feeding, which she only needs some of the time. She is still very tired and her breathing shallow but she is well out of danger.
31st Dec In order to enable Alex to breast feed all night as well as during the day the SCBU has offered Karen the flat that is attached to it. The whole family decides to join her for a new years eve party on the 14th floor of the Sussex county. From the penthouse flat we can see all the fireworks in Brighton. Champagne all round at midnight and then I stay in for the night too. This is the first night I have spent in a hospital since I was in an incubator myself, when 3 days old.
2nd Jan

Alex is being discharged today at 4 in the afternoon. HURRAH! She is 14 days old and has never been below the 13th floor. I decorate the house with red, white and pink baloons (getting those gender stereotypes started early) and put some champagne on ice before picking them up. Although Alex is not back up to her birth weight, she is feeding well and the doctors assured us that home is the best place for a breast fed baby. She seems to be very content, calm and quiet compared to her brother at the same age. At last our family is all under one roof again.
7th Jan Alex is doing very well after 5 days at home. She is feeding all day and, amazingly, sleeping a large portion of the night. I must write something about the news today though. Gordon Brown's baby daughter, Jennifer, has died. Those poor, poor people. Although Kaz and I are all too familiar with the nightmare they must have been through at her bedside, I daren't even think about what they are going through now. I didn't hear the news on the radio. Everyone phoned us up to check on how Alex is, because they heard themselves. We must never take our incredible good fortune for granted.
9th Jan Alex has passed her first health check with flying colours. She has crept up above her birth weight to 7lb 15oz and everything else is fine. The health visitor was pleased to note that she is already vocalising and smiling occasionally, which is not expected until 6 weeks. (Why are we surprised, her big brother was just the same and already has the vocabulary of a 5 year old and a smattering of Spanish). Alex is recovering from her ordeal much faster than the pediatrician expected.
16th Jan Alex is now 8lbs 5oz, feeding and growing just fine. The frequency of frantic phone calls from family is decreasing, as is the frequency of entries on this diary.