Yesterday was probably the worst day Bailey has given us in his 3 weeks with us so far. When we telephoned the hospital first thing in the morning, we were told that one of the consultants wanted to speak to us as he hadn't met us yet. This started alarm bells ringing immediately, largely because we had thought that if the consultant wanted to speak with us he would have made sure that he had done so. When we arrived at the hospital we were told that the consultant was seeing two other sets of parents before us and we would be sent for when he was ready.

Natuarally Michelle and I kept our eyes open while we sat by Bailey's incubator and watched while the other parents went out with the consultant to a side room for their discussions. The other parents returned to the ICU after quite long periods and were ashen faced and looked shocked at what they must have been told. Michelle and I began to think that this was to be no ordinary meeting with the doctor to discuss treatment and progress. It appeared that we were to be wheeled in and told bad news.

Our turn came and the sister in the ICU asked if it would be alright if the two nurses looking after Bailey could accompany us, something the other parents didn't get. We thought it must be terrible news and the nurses were there to pick us up off the floor after the news we expected was broken to us...

Once in the room the consultant asked us what we knew of the problems Bailey had and still has, and Michelle and I explained what we knew. We gave our understanding of what each infection did and what it meant.

Once that was done the tone of the meeting changed a little,and for the better. It soon became quite clear that the staff thought we must not fully understand the situation as we were coping far too well. We weren't allowing ourselves to be negative or allowing the situation to beat us.

Once the consultant knew for himself that we understood just how seriously ill Bailey is he began to speak about the treatments he is getting and how they expect him to react to them and what he faces in the future. In the end we came away feeling better than we went in. After all the doom and gloom of what the consultant told us, we told him that we would remain positive and never give up on him (not that he was asking us to). There is no text book written for how tiny babies survive or don't so we will be strong for Bailey until we bring him home.

We left the hospital in mid afternoon and returned home.

At about 6:50 in the evening Michelle took a call from the ICU sister. All she said was that Bailey had taken a massive turn for the worse and we should not waste a single second in getting to the hospital.

We got into the car and i'm sure we broke every rule in the highway code but eventually we turned onto the Grosvenor road, which is one of the approach roads to the hospital, then the phone rang, it was 7:28.

It was the sister again telling us to slow down, calm down and just get there safely because they "had got him back". Bailey's breathing tube had moved slightly and this had caused his blood oxegyn saturation levels to drop off the scale. His heart had stopped too. He needed heart massage, adrenaline and atropine, to get him going again, but they had managed it. The consultant on call was brought in to oversee the situation.

When we arrived Bailey was alert, with his eyes open looking around him,he was a better colour than he had been for days, and he had passed urine which he hadn't been doing for days. All in all he was looking in better shape than he had been for the last week.

Eventually we all agreed that the best course for us to follow was to get home and sleep.

It was a harrowing night and we came very close to tradgedy but thankfully we were spared this, thanks to the skill and dedication of the team who worked on Bailey.

Miracles are still happeng in our little boys life!