Archie, our beautiful premature baby boy

This section of my site is dedicated to our beloved son Archie, whom, as I write this, has just spent his first night at home with mummy and daddy after a four month stay in hospital having been born too soon.

At 8.30 pm on the 9th July 2004 Archie was born at 25 weeks + 4 days gestation weighing just under 800 grams. As you can imagine we were ill prepared for such an event, and were instantly launched into a new world of intensive care and worry for our poor little baby boy.

We were taken under blue light to St. Mary's hospital in Portsmouth for the birth - it being the nearest hospital to handle such gestation, and the only one with a spare bed. We were looked after, as we have been ever since, by the most amazing doctors and nurses giving the most amazing life saving care. Thankfully one week after his birth Archie was well enough to be transferred back to the Royal Sussex hospital in Brighton for the rest of his time in intensive and special care at the Trevor Mann Unit on the 14th floor of the Thomas Kemp Tower.

This section is broken down into weekly updates in the form of emails sent round to friends and family to keep everyone posted during our stay in hospital. Although impersonal, email turned out to be the perfect tool to avoid having to repeat details over and over again!

I hope that this archive serves to help any other parents who find themselves in this most awful situation, and it stands to commemorate the care given by the doctors and nurses at the Trevor Mann Unit and the Royal Sussex Hospital, Brighton.

There are plenty of resources online for those seeking help during this dificult time. I found the Bliss website useful - www.bliss.org.uk Do drop me a line if you would like to....

A medical professional who has been in touch with us after reading Archie's story has put together a great resource for parents of premature babies as well as the medical profession.

It also quite heavily features photos of our little Archie (not so little now - click here) as well as so much other really useful information, the likes of which we wished we could have had back in those days.

Please do support them by visiting the site at the link below.

http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/PrematureBabies/Premature-Babies.aspx?articleID=7880&categoryID=PI

For the most recent Archie photo click here.

9th July 2005 - ARCHIE IS ONE YEAR OLD!!
Some pics of his first birthday... written update to come

22nd December - Christmas 2004
A last update and thanks for y'all

"Well here we are just 3 days before our first Christmas together as a family..." ...read on...

8th November - Coming Home Day!!
A farewell to the doctors and nurses an the Trevor Mann neo-natal intensive care unit, Brighton

"We're home!! Yippee!! What a day of it! Today was an emotional rollercoaster, let alone the last four months! We woke early after a crap nights sleep..." ...read on...

1st November
A stay in the parents 'flat' at Trevor Mann and our first night alone with Archie!

"What a weekend! We checked in to the parents room at the Trevor Mann unit on Friday after work and stayed until Sunday morning..." ...read on...

25th October
More babies on the way, tiger cuddles and caught with a rabbit on camera!

"No there is still no homecoming date, but it looks like when we go back in in the morning Archie will have at last progressed into the third and final room at Trevor Mann..." ...read on...

19th October - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARCHIE + 100 DAYS OLD TODAY!
Proud parents (and little feet!)

"Just a quick one this week as both Sarah and I are ill and don't feel like doing much. Of course being ill is tricky..." ...read on...

10th October
Another Archie bath and a 'hands in the air' moment

"Once again time for an Archie update! All is well on the 14th floor - well, in Archie's corner at least. He now weighs in at just over 5 pounds!" ...read on...

3rd October
Cuddles for mum, dad and friends

"Archie has managed to wean himself off his oxygen dependency! Yup - that's one tube less into those dainty nostrils of his!" ...read on...

26th September
First Archie bath! (and after only 3 months!)

"Hello again! How time flies... Archie was 11 weeks old on Friday! And guess what - he celebrated by coming out of intensive care! Yippee!!" ...read on...

21st September
Friends, grandparents and new cuddly toys

Archie has been off his CPAP secondary breathing apparatus for 36 hours now and they are gearing him up to move him next door to room 2..." ...read on...

12th September
Nasty tubes and woollen bonnets

"Archie is now 9 weeks old and 35 weeks corrected gestational age. He's had another really good week and is still putting on weight and having good long sessions of his CPAP. He is however still having trouble with his tummy." ...read on...

5th September
Kangaroo cuddles for Dad

"For the last 5 weeks we have been in nursery one of three at Trevor Mann. Yesterday we arrived to be told we were moving into room two!" ...read on...

29th August
Funny faces and fab friends

"This week has seen him sailing through his eye test with full colours, and in a surprisingly timely manner has started to use his eyes a lot more." ...read on...

26th August
Grandad visits

24th August
Puffy tummy

23rd August
Teddy care

"Over the last two days Archie is the most healthy looking and active he has ever been, and today the dreaded xray came back showing that the nasty patch of liquid in his lazy bowel appears to have cleared." ...read on...

15th August
Cuddles and smiles

"Not a good day! We arrived just before midday to find a screen up round Archie's bed." ...read on...

8th August
The view from the 14th floor Trevor Mann Unit

"Archie is one month old as of Friday gone, and he now weighs a kilo! Yup, it has been Dad's honour to bake a kilo cake, which although it turned out to be more like a biscuit-cake was greatly received by friends and nurses!" ...read on...

6th August
Birthday cards and 'do not disturb' prompts

"What a lovely birthday! Spent with my gorgeous (if still developing) family." ...read on...

4th August
The move from ventilator to CPAP - again

2nd August
Closeness

30th July
Beautiful in blue!

25th July
Proud parents

"Sarah and I had a kangaroo hold tonight! Skin to skin... Luurvely!" ...read on...

21st July
Little man

20th July
First cuddles

"What a great day! A day once again of mixed emotions with news that Archie still has issues with a little bleed in his brain that is being monitored, but this afternoon Sarah had the chance to hold our little chap for the first time!" ...read on...

18th July
Containment cuddles before leaving Portsmouth St Marys Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit

"Some of you may now know that we have been transported back to Brighton today thanks to an incubator coming free and the fact that Archie was deemed stable enough to travel." ...read on...

10th July
Sunbathing at Portsmouth

"Well I hope you're ready for this... We weren't. I'm on a run home to get everything we didn't have time to grab when we left at 3 am on Friday morning." ...read on...

9th July
The birth