Jasmine Stalker-Firth

This morning Jasmine had her hearing test again. The test needed her to stay still, preferably asleep. We spent a long time waiting for her to snooze, but then of course everytime she was settled the audiologist would have to put something in her ear which woke her up. So, the test took two hours in total. It was funny as at one point the nurse looking after us today came down from the ward with Jasmine’s feeds and medicines, bringing Jasmine’s baby neighbour in a buggy, so it felt like a ward outing. This made me laugh for ages,waking Jasmine of course! The test results were good: Jasmine’s hearing is fine and the pathways from her ears to her brain are clear.

Jasmine’s blood pressure has been up and down for a couple of days so she was put back on dialysis. I set up her machine and then connected her for the first time this evening. We were disappointed as we were hoping that she might be able to stay off it for a longer time, but it wasn’t to be. It is best to put her back on whilst she is still ok and not feeling ill, so that she can continue to grow.

She was good fun this afternoon. We went for coffee downstairs and her socks kept falling off so we made lots of friends who put them back on for her.

I went in early before work today. Jasmine had thown her medicines up earlier. I gave her her feed, which she guzzled down. I then wheeled her up and down the corridor in her buggy for a little while. She was looking very cute in her pink dress again.

In the afternoon Ruth took Jasmine outside again. She went to Pret a Manger for her lunch and enjoyed looking at the lights and listening to the jazz (nice!). She is getting in to her trips around London.

Jasmine’s blood pressure was a bit high at times today. Apparently her bloods are still acceptable, they are going to continue monitoring them closely.

We arrived early this morning to give Jasmine her first bath. We used the lovely Neal’s Yard baby bath set that Sarah had given us. Jasmine cried a bit at first and then she seemed quite happy to sit in the nice smelling bath whilst we splashed her and posed for pictures. Once we dressed her, Jasmine and I waved Neil off to work.

At lunchtime Jasmine and I went to Carluccios for lunch. She liked the red walls and the bright sparkly lights. After that we went to see the Elgin Marbles and the Near Far East section of the British Museum. She wasn’t too impressed and fell asleep but did enjoy being pushed around in the buggy again.

This afternoon Grandma and Grandpa Firth took Jasmine and I for a coffee in Costa, which was very nice and we got back upstairs just in time for Jasmine to get weighed and measured (3.3kgs and 54.5cms). Then Neil turned up to give Jasmine her evening feed, after which she went straight to sleep.

We arrived early this morning to have our weekly meeting with the dialysis consultant and were early enough to feed Jasmine. After that Neil went to work and our home liaison nurse said that my training this week was about baby things, in particular going outside and having a bath (not together of course). So in no time at all Jasmine and I were kitted out with a buggy and feed, medicines and nappies.

Jasmine and I hopped on the bus (and met a lady who was very excited about Jasmine, even though she had her own big baby) and went to the city to meet Neil for lunch. I was so excited that I ended up waiting outside the office he worked in a year ago and Neil had to run across the city to meet us. We had a tasty curry lunch in Tiffinbites and Jasmine enjoyed being made a fuss of by everyone in there. Vegetable biryiani made a change from paninis. Afterwards, Neil went to work and Jasmine and I walked back to the hospital. Jasmine took the whole trip out in her stride and was the chilled baby she is always.

After lunch Jasmine and I had an afternoon nap. The nurse looking after us today organised me a huge recliner so I was able to have forty winks too. This evening, Jasmine went straight to sleep after her big day out and didn’t even mind me squirting her medicines in her mouth. She is still off dialysis whilst her surgery heals.

When I arrived this morning Jasmine had been enjoying herself in the ward buggy. She was pushed up and down by one of the nurses and had been sitting by the nurses’ station watching the world go by. She was a bit grizzly today which could be either because she is still sore from surgery or because she is feeling the effects of not having dialysis (her creatinine level is 319). Everytime I put her down, she would cry so I ended up wandering about the hospital with her sleeping on my shoulder.

She is feeding well and is managing to latch onto the breast too.

We arrived today and Jasmine had already finished her feed. So she was all ready for cuddles. We took her downstairs for lattes and paninis and she fell asleep inside Neil’s jacket and was very happy wearing her new bout’chou suit (thank you Pascale, Nordine, and Charlotte).  We came back up to watch the football in Jasmine’s room.  It was all very exciting but Jasmine managed to snooze right through the two matches.

Jasmine’s hernia stitches are looking good and healing nicely. She is still off dialysis and the doctors are monitoring her bloods, in particular her creatinine levels. Her urine output volume is good (but of poor quality). She hasn’t swelled up as her fluids are being carefully managed. We weighed her this evening and she is 3.28kgs. She is about 52cms long (possibly longer as we haven’t looked at her charts for a couple of weeks).

Today we both managed to take her blood pressure individually without any help. This involves holding the doppler on her wrist with one hand and holding the manual sphygmomanometer in the other hand. Manual blood pressures are more accurate than automatic ones.

I did my yoga this morning for the first time since the caesarian and it felt good.

Today we put Jasmine in a dress for the first time and took her downstairs for afternoon tea. It is so much easier to get dressed now that the nephrostomy has gone. She was less tired today and stayed awake for several hours.

Her kidney is producing urine again but it is difficult to measure how much now that it goes into the nappy. They are regularly checking her blood to see how she is managing off dialysis. But the consultant said she was looking good.

Neil went to see Jasmine before he went to work. She was sleepy today but took her feeds well even if she did fall asleep in between mouthfuls. She didn’t seem to be in pain. She is on paracetamol which comes in a strawberry flavoured syrup which she quite likes. She is staying off dialysis over the weekend to help her heal. So, her feed has been concentrated and reduced to 50mls every three hours to help her manage her fluids. Her kidney was in shock after the operation so she was put the diuretic furosemide to encourage the kidney to produce its usual urine and more.

I finished my PD training today. The next step is to practise more and become confident.

Neil arrived at 8.30am this morning and the nurse took Jasmine off dialysis and weighed her. Jasmine was grizzly and so Neil nursed her and gave her the dummy. She got called down to surgery at 10.10am so Neil carried down in a blanket and held her on his lap until the anesthetist put Jasmine under. Neil went to work.

I arrived at the hospital around 2.30pm and Jasmine was back on the ward sleeping and doing quite well. She didn’t need any oxygen and was breathing fine by herself. She started to wake up about 5pm and had some milk. Then she vomited and went back to sleep.

The doctors came round and seemed pleased with her progress. She will be off dialysis for several days whilst the hernias heal up.