ABIGAIL NEWTON SMITH

Friday, 17th August 2001 - Day 1

Well I have reached 24 hours old and I am doing well according to the doctors. My skin looks a little red and my Mummy says I look like a skinned rat, whatever one of those is. Hope it looks nice! The doctors and nurses keep taking bits of my blood for checking and I am dosed up with something called Morphine to stop me moving about. I am breathing on a ventilator, that big blue pipe thing that goes into my mouth. However, the doctors say I am doing well as I am not using too much oxygen at the moment and am also trying to breath in between the little puffs the machine gives me. Mummy was well enough to come and see me for the first time today, she seems nice and played with my fingers. Daddy also came to see me and brought lots of visitors, hopefully I can get to see them a bit better at some point. My "room" is so hot and damp I am sure they can't see my long legs properly. Daddy's played with me but his fingers are so big that I can't even get my little ones round them when I try and hold his hand. I can tell both Mummy and Daddy love me lots, as they keep saying so through the port holes in my little room. Everybody is so kind and tries to look after me. I do try and wave out to them when they are there but cannot be sure if they see me.

I arrived down in the NICU (Intensive Care for little people like me) last night at around 5:30 pm, I am such a delicate little flower that one of the mid wives had to run through the hospital to get a special "extra" small breathing pipe so that they could put me on the ventilator properly. When I arrived in the world everthing was a bit of a shock, one minute I was in Mummy's tummy and the next there was a blinding light and someone let all the hot water out of my bath. I was delivered complete in my amniotic sac and this seems somewhat unusual according to the nurses that were present. It has been quite an eventful day all told and I am very tired so please look at my pictures and I will give you another update tomorrow.

Tims (Daddy's) finger is 92mm or 3"5/8 inchs long.

Last Updated : 29/11/01.