Friday 4th November 2011

Freddie had his first appointment at the Children's development centre at the City hospital yesterday.
It went very well, the doctor who saw us yesterday was one of the ones involved in his care when he was born. He told us that Freddie was certainly one of the more interesting cases they have had at the hospital...'interesting' was certainly not one of the words we used at the time! He said that usually when a baby is born with a heart flutter like Freddie was, the doctors sort the rhythm problem out and that is usually the last of the heart problems. For it to be then discovered that Freddie had coarctation of the aorta made him rather unique.

We discussed the follow up visit Freddie had at Glenfield and the future appointments he will attend. We told the doctor that before we were discharged from Glenfield we were told that there was another minor narrowing in Freddie's heart that they were going to monitor closely. It became apparent that we did not know much about this narrowing when the doctor asked where in the heart it is and what vessels it may affect? Given that this narrowing was not mentioned at Freddie's follow up visit and that his blood flow had improved we are hoping that this means it is not a major concern. The doctor we saw yesterday said he would contact the consultant at Glenfield to get the details of this other narrowing.

Freddie definitely tends to get more windy at night and the doc said he might have 'night colic' which might actually just be normal colic but parents notice it more during the night when they are more tired! He is definitely more settled during the day though and seems to catch up on his lack on night time sleep when the rest of us are awake! The doctor did say though that he wouldn't have been able to establish any sleeping patterns in the hospitals because tests and procedures were carried out at any time day or night.

We have been advised that when it comes to Freddie's development (smiling, rolling, sitting etc) we should treat him as his corrected age (which is almost 3 weeks) rather than is actual age. This wont be the case when he gets past approx 12 months as he will have most likely caught up by then.

He weighed in at seven pounds yesterday so he's catching up to the average newborn weight.

We're all starting to get excited about Center Parcs which is only a few weeks away and then Christmas!

xx