Matt & Kat

We’re on the final countdown till our trip home. This will be Micah’s first time in New Zealand, his first time meeting all of his aunties, uncles and other adoring fans. To say I’m looking forward to it would be a mammoth understatement. I. Can’t. Wait!!!!!!

Currently writing lists, packing suitcases for three, and planning baby travel logistics. Just barely containing the excitement.

We fly out on Saturday, spend one week in the US where Matt will be visiting Google HQ for work, then fly into Auckland on Nov 20th. We’re back in NZ for 3 weeks and hoping to cram in as much time as we can with family and friends.

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Micah was 5 months old and 5.6kg yesterday. Where has the time gone!?

He is a very happy, active little boy now. He likes to play with his toys, bop around in his door bouncer, and smile at himself in the mirror. All this activity during the day also means he’s started sleeping for longer stretches during the night. I’m especially delighted about this! It feels amazing to finally be getting 8 solid hours of sleep again.

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Our little man is 3 months old today! He’s growing nicely and passing all his tests so far. As of Tuesday he was 3.75kg, much chubbier and looking much like any other newborn baby that you might see around. We went out to the shopping center last weekend, and I lost count of the number of people who commented on how tiny he was or ‘how brave’ we were to have him out of the house so early.

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When we went in to the hospital to visit Micah on March 26th the nurses were pleased to tell us he had taken all his feeds overnight fully from the bottle (no milk via tube). They told us if he continued to take all milk feeds they could remove the tube the next day.

When we went in to the hospital the next day Micah was without his feeding tube and the nurses told us that they were happy with his progress and would plan to discharge him on the 29th (two days later). We were a little overwhelmed at the sudden progress but delighted at the prospect of having Micah home!!!

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Time flies and already Micah is 4 weeks old! He’s still doing wonderfully and better than we imagined he would do. Here’s the quick summary of what he’s done in the last week and a half:

• Moved twice, from ICU1 to ICU2, and then very quickly again out of ICU2 and into the “Special Care” room
• Moved out of his incubator into a crib
• Had a blood transfusion due to low hemoglobin levels, which were making it hard for him to keep his blood saturated with Oxygen

The blood transfusion sounds scary, but it was very straightforward and nothing to worry about. It’s obviously a fairly major procedure, but he’s noticeable better looking (e.g. pinker) since he got it, and his rate of desaturations (episodes when his blood oxygen level drops) are decreasing.

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Two and a half weeks after his arrival Micah is doing very well. We notice the little changes each day and are very proud of our little man and the progress he’s making.

During his first week Micah lost quite a bit of weight and had a rough time with his IV lines. He needed the IV for medication and “total parenteral nutrition”, his specially made up food. A new IV was put in nearly every day as his little veins didn’t hold up for long. It was very sad to see his little hands and feet and even the sides of his head marked by the attempts to find successful IV points! Thankfully after a gradual introduction to milk feeds through a tube Micah was eventually able to tolerate and digest breast milk and is now being fed fully on milk with no more need for the IV line. He is now 1.46kg and nearly back to his birth weight hurray!!!

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Our little man is nearly 4 days old and is doing wonderfully for someone born at just under 30 weeks gestation. He’d already completely won our hearts before we’d even seen him, but he made absolutely sure of it yesterday when he opened his eyes for us for the first time, simply amazing!

Kat is doing well, still quite sore but getting better each day and very happy to have mastered the art of expressing milk to help Micah grow big and strong. She was discharged from hospital yesterday (Tue 22nd) so two thirds of our family was home last night and we’re eagerly awaiting the day that we can bring the final third home too.

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Things moved very fast today to bring Micah George Brown into the world at 3:28pm Sat 19 Feb 2011, weighing 1.5kg.

Kat started having some minor contractions overnight, which progressively got stronger and stronger. By the time I got to the hospital about 11am they were coming every 10 minutes and were clearly not at all pleasant. Just after 2pm we were down to every 5 minutes and the midwife decided to declare Kat “in labour” after a quick examination and they bundled us down the hall to the delivery suite.

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This is just a short update to say that there is nothing new to say! This in itself is excellent news 🙂

I’m still on hospital bed rest at Holles St National Maternity Hospital where I have very little to complain about. I’m in a 4 bed room here which is good and I’m all set up with my laptop, phone, dvds and snacks. There’s a lot of time to fill but I’m incredibly thankful for every uneventful day that passes.

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It’s been said that pregnancy can be a rollercoaster, and we’ve well and truly experienced that over the past few days. It started with a great weekend – our friends Graeme and Ruth from London were visiting and we had a wonderful time showing them around Dublin and chatting about life, vegan food and babies. After dropping them off at the airport, we made a quick trip past Ikea and spent the evening assembling the cot and changing table, full of excitement to see our baby’s room starting to take shape! The weekend was a high point.

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