Welcome to Rabbits' Blog!

Hello! My name is Joseph Woodrow Stevens and this is my Blog. It's called Rabbits' Blog, because that was the name Mummy and Daddy gave me when I was still in Mummy's tummy. (Apparently Daddy's sister wanted to call my Daddy Rabbits when he was born!)

Anyway, Mummy and Daddy write stuff down here about me, 'cos they seem to think it's interesting. I just like all the pictures of me, 'cos I'm gorgeous! I hope you like what Mummy and Daddy have written here. Let them know if you do. They'd like to hear from you!

Lots of love and kisses!

Joseph xxx

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Update

Well, Em's still in hospital, and is looking likely to be staying there until Rabbits makes her debut in the world! It seems that the high blood pressure is still an issue (despite Em feeling very well), and the safe option would be to deliver Rabbits sooner rather than later. Em's been started on another drug to help lower her BP, which is still high but stable. The good news is that premature babies do very well at 31 weeks, and at 3½ pounds would certainly not be the smallest baby ever to be in the neo-natal unit. Em went down to the unit today, and is very much impressed with it all and is very reassured about the care they will be giving our little Rabbits.

The thing that's stressing Em out is the fact that she will have to have a caesarian section to get Rabbits out. She feels that she has failed to some extent, in that she hasn't been able to carry to term, but I tried to reassure her that she has done everything she could to look after Rabbits and provide all the care she could. Obviously it would have been wonderful if Em could have given birth naturally, but some things just aren't meant to be.

We have no idea when anything will happen, because the longer Rabbits can stay inside Em, the better. There is a concern that Rabbits isn't getting all the oxygen and food she needs through the placenta, so they're going to do another scan on Tuesday to see how things are getting on.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a peaceful new year, and that good things happen for you all.

posted by Craig @ 11:11 PM 0 comments - links to this post

Friday, December 30, 2005

A trip to the hospital!

Well, it was all going so well.... The saga of Em's ongoing hypertension took a bit of a twist this week. On Wednesday, Em got a bit of a headache, and her fingers swelled a little (both signs that the blood pressure might be having an effect), and so she called the midwife, who came to see her Thursday morning. Em's BP was still pretty high, so she was sent to the hospital for the usual round of tests (blood, urine, heartbeat etc.) which were all clear, but they prescribed her some pills to reduce her blood pressure. She took two of those yesterday, came home and fell asleep.

This morning I took her back to the hospital to recheck her blood pressure - which was still too high, so they're keeping her in to monitor it every 15 minutes. They've also upped her dosage, and given her a booster dose of something else to bring it down. They also gave her a steroid injection in the leg to help develop Rabbits' lungs, just in case they need to get her our early. Em was impressed.... They've also said they'll need to give her the second injection at about 1am, so I think she'll be staying in overnight, which really sucks. They were also due to be giving her another scan just to check everything's OK in there (Rabbits' head is apparently well down, so that's a very good thing).

The crazy thing is that Em feels fine - she's got no headache, no more swollen fingers - she's just bored out of her mind and fed up with having her blood pressure taken every few minutes. And let's not forget the injections...

posted by Craig @ 3:24 PM 0 comments - links to this post

Friday, December 23, 2005

Rabbits and Em grow big

Well, it's been a while since the last blog. I've recovered from my cold and am trying not to get another one from Craig. Rabbits and I are growing steadily. With only 10 weeks left to go Rabbits is having a growth spurt (doubling in size within a month!) and thiis means that I am getting even bigger. I've now made it to 9 stone (I was 7 stone 5 beforehand).

Rabbits and I have been to see the consultant again. I wasn't at all worried about going as I felt that the blood pressure was under control. Silly me! It was 160/105. They checked me over and every thing elso is fine so they sent me away for half and hour and then retook it (it was 140/80). So they decided not to give me drugs but to see me again just after Christmas.

In the meantime I've seen the midwife and found out that Rabbits has turned slightly so that her bottom is slightly higher than her head. That's a relief since she is not kicking me so low down and I know that she is on her way to the correct position.

In the run up to Christmas I've been getting really tired but I've done most of the big things now. I'm starting to get leg cramps in the night which is unpleasant and my knees hurt. I'm now looking forward to Boxing Day and a little R & R!