Tuesday 28th

The Physio and Doctors continue to be very pleased with Charlotte's progress and last night she pretty much met her latest milestone. It was only 13 days ago, at exactly 15 months old, that she managed to sit for the very first time albeit for 30-60 seconds at a time.

Last night she was sitting pretty much unaided for a good hour and only occasionally fell over, she would put her hands out to steady herself or stop herself falling over. She seems to be really pleased with herself over the sitting and you can tell she enjoys it, and is thinking what a clever little girl she is.

She is probably only a few weeks from sitting without us even having to watch her. She has been delayed with every milestone but she is very bright and once she has managed something for the first time she picks it up and learns very quickly. She did get tired after an hour and then had to stop but gets stronger every day. I think we have no doubt that her "water on the brain" last year delayed her for months but once she recovered from it she started to make progress.

We bought her a new dress last weekend for her Thanksgiving service next Sunday and will be sure to put some photo's up

Tuesday 21st - Charlotte's Day (The Homecoming - One Year On).

Charlotte is now nearly 16 months old and came home exactly a year ago today,98 days after birth and 9 days before her due date. Where has the time gone? When we look back it seems like a lifetime ago but also as if it were yesterday. Charlotte has come so far in a year. When she came home she was just a little over 5 lbs now she is 18 lbs. We suffered many sleepless nights after her return home and then she turned into a lovely sleeper and started sleeping through in February. We are now suffering sleepless nights again as she cuts many of her teeth so it appears to have come full circle. She now has two her two upper middle teeth and four lower

We will admit to saying that Charlotte is still sleeping next to us in her cot. Its hard to let go but we have to soon. She can't be in our bedroom forever but it comforts us listening to her little snores during the night.

Charlotte is now sitting pretty much unaided. She will need probably another two or three weeks to properly steady herself but she can now sit for several minutes before plopping back onto the pillow. It's been a long time coming thats for sure. When we see others at nursery crawling at just 6 or 7 months we realise that she is quite a way off that. But one thing we have learnt over the last year is patience.

We long ago stopped setting deadlines for Charlotte to achieve any milestones as we just know she will do things in her own time. It may take her a longer than most but who cares. Not us. We are so lucky. Many parents may think it their worst nightmare come true if their baby suffered hearing loss and that there is a strong possibility of mild cerebral palsy, but we just thank god every day that our beautiful daughter came home to us. So many parents lose their babies when born so early and we are just grateful that Charlotte is the beautiful and happy baby that she is.

One thing is for sure is that Charlotte now has a very strong personality. She is determined and she will not let anything beat her. Whatever the future may hold for her, one thing is for sure, Charlotte is Charlotte and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Thursday 16th

Charlotte was seen by Dr Malik at Frimley Park on Monday for her 3 monthly checkup and he said the physio had written to him to ask him to check for signs of cerebral palsy.Dr Malik gave her a brief examination and said he is very pleased with her progress and considers that she is still showing no obvious signs of CP. IF she is diagnosed with it over the next year or two he believes it will be very minor.

She saw her phyiso this morning and Samantha asked her about her concerns. She is concerned that charlotte may have a form of cerebal palsy but that she cannot be sure, she definitely has movement issues, we hope the physio may sort.

But She is also very pleased with her continued progress.It really is a waiting game to see how she develops physically, only time will tell. She also remarked how mentally bright,alert and determined she is. She is very delayed physically and speechwise even for her corrected age but She is a very happy child.

Wednesday 15th

Charlotte is exactly 15 months old today. Most parents by now are enjoying their toddlers running around the place. We "were" still waiting for Charlotte to sit. Samantha went to the Nursery today to collect Charlotte,and was told she had been sitting unaided for short periods during the day. That evening we placed her on the floor and she sat albeit a little wobbly and unsteady. It looked as if she was walking a tightrope and for the first time she put her arms out to steady herself and wobbled her little bottom. It was so cute. It was fantastic. Another milestone is in reach.

We were there just in case she was going to fall but she managed to sit for a couple of minutes without any help at all. It was so magical. It is almost as if she has watched other babies sitting at the Nursery and thought "I want to do do that" and she tried really hard until she pretty much did. Give it a few weeks and we are sure we won't even need to worry about her falling back.

She is due to see her physiotherapist tomorrow and I can't wait to see what she thinks about Charlottes progress.

Tuesday 7th

It is great seeing the change in her after just two days at the nursery. She is obviously loving it, in particular the interaction with the other kids and we are so much happier. She is really talkative when she gets back and seems so content. She is at the age where interaction with other kids is undoubtedly very beneficial for her development. She does seem to miss her morning half hour dose of Baby TV on SKY but she enjoys 15 minutes worth when she returns home so that mummy can prepare her tea which she enjoys.

She had been sick a lot the last few weeks which did concern us. When you have a premmie and it is also your first baby you often worry about things which are actually normal. You are usually told what to expect at ante natal classes, but as she was so early it is another thing we were never got to experience.

We had gone to the Doctor but been told that teething can often cause alot of sickness and put that together with the fact that she was constipated has caused Charlotte to be sick alot. Charlotte has never been a sick baby till now, and had started being sick with almost every meal. We were given some medicine which has sorted the pooing issue and she is absolutely fine.

She already had the 3 lower middle teeth but now the top middle two have cut through. Every time they are just about to cut she is either sick for a few days or has problems going to the toilet.

All in all, we are feeling a big sigh of relief on day 2 of nursery. We know its only early days but when she was picked up today she seemed to chat non stop about her day and want to tell us all about it. After yesterday's tears, we have a very happy little girl - who we are now told already has a boyfriend at nursery!!! Im sure we will hear more about this relationship over the coming weeks!

Monday 6th

Today ,after nearly 15 months, Charlotte started at Nursery and Samantha returned to work,which is something we would have liked to avoid, but like many it is a question of money.

It was upsetting for all but they soon settled Charlotte in by filling her belly with food. The Nursery cooks all its own fresh food and we had looked over the menu's quite enviously. She had liquidised fruit morning and afternoon but lunch was Vegetabgle Curry with rice and apple crumble with custard for dessert. Babies have the option of it being liquidised, minced or chopped , Charlotte is still not ready for big lumps so we specified minced.

Monday 29th

Charlotte had a follow up appointment with Mr Martin the Consultant Neurologist at St Georges Hospital London, regarding her Hydrocephalus, (Water on the Brain),which had been diagnosed last November. We were confident that it had resolved itself some time ago but it was nice for her to finally get the offical all clear and be told that she does not have to travel to St Georges again. She will continue to see Dr Malik at Frimley Park for regular checkups.

At the time it was considered 50/50 whether she would need a brain shunt operation and Mr Martin said it was fortunate it was not discovered earlier as they may have assumed the worst and inserted one anyway.

She has also been battling with her first major cold since early last week. She passed it onto myself, Samantha and Sam's Mum and partner, who stayed for a week, so we are all feeling a little under the weather. It looks like the 5 month Course of RSV injections she had last Nov - March have done the trick as she is coping with it.

Tuesday 9th

Charlotte had two injections today including the MMR. She has already had more injections than most people have in a lifetime but was very brave and hardly blinked an eyelid. The Nurse said she may develop a slight fever as a result in about week as the MMR is a slow release drug. We have been advised to give her Calpol if this occurs

We had been faced with the dilemma of whether to go ahead with it, having heard about the alleged possible link between the MMR and Autism. What if she didn’t have the MMR and caught a very nasty illness and was left disabled? What if she had the MMR and she developed autism?

Instead of making any kind of rash decision we did some research and spoke to some medical professionals. We learned that the Report was based on a study of just 12 children and was based on circumstantial evidence only and not proven studies, but the mass hysteria in the media it caused back in 1998 started the whole debate and there have since been many much bigger studies, all of which disprove and discredit the theory.The author faced 4 charges of professional misconduct by the Medical Council as a result.

We also found the following website which is very useful wwW.mmrthefacts.nhs.uk/

Friday 29th

Charlotte had her fornightly visit to the physio yesterday. Something she really enjoys. As always I badgered the physio with questions about Charlottes progress and whether she has identified any areas of concern. She commented that "Charlotte was very interesting to work with". Well, that made me smile, doctors have always found Charlotte an interesting case. As a parent you do not always want to hear that though as you immediately start to worry.

However, she went on to explain that she found her interesting because she cannot really pinpoint any kind of neuralogical disorder, but then Charlotte will do something very strange and then do a movement completely normal next time. So, I think this is something positive. She said one minute she thinks Charlotte is stiff, and the next she isnt and then commented that alot of babies have that anyway. The good news is that Charlotte isnt at this point showing major characterstics of a defect so the longer she continues the better.

Its just a matter of time. I feel so impatient sometimes and am desperate for her to sit unaided but as the physio explained, when she first saw Charlotte at the beginning of May she was almost like a newborn baby. She had been through so much that it wasnt until the water on the brain had properly cleared that she started to progress. So when you look at how much she has achieved from then it really is good progress. We are so proud of her.

Thursday 21st

Charlotte had an appointment with Dr Jay at Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford. He is her "hearing" doctor. On the way, I started to imagine that a miracle had happened and that after her tests the doctor would say that her hearing was perfect and there was no need to worry. Of course, that was just the dream.

Charlotte had the usual distraction tests and she did well. She also then had the test for glue ear. We had hoped that her hearing loss was due to that. But unfortunately, or fortunately, her glue ear has now disappeared, but her hearing loss is still the same. Dr Jay explained that her hearing loss is permanent. Ok, this is not great, but, after tests, Charlotte showed just moderate hearing loss.

So, what does this mean I asked ? Well, it means that charlotte can hear the speaking voice but maybe not all of the word that is said. So, for example, if somebody said "CAT", she may hear "AT" but not the C of the "CAT". Now we understand.

It is so important that she wears her hearing aids as the doctor explains that with them she hears perfectly well. He said that when she is older and she knows just how well she hears she may choose not to wear her hearing aids. Of course only time will tell now. Now I know she can hear us without her hearing aids thats great. Its just the clarity she does not hear.

So, although we had hoped that it was glue ear it is still not as bad as it could have been. Now we know that even without her hearing aids she can hear us, not as clearly as we may have hoped, but next time she chooses to ignore us, I know that its her making a choice and not because she cannot hear.

14th August

C had her first fortnightly appt with the physio in Aldershot this morning,they have just moved from Frimley. We had been getting worried about her arching. She tries to move by arching her back up in the air and then using her head to push forward, she is not crawling yet. She still has the stiffness in her upper body and sometimes either arm shakes when she tries to grab things and she misses. The physio mentioned she is very bright and alert and is always trying to move and grab things. Unfortunately she now thinks it is fun to pull off a hearing aid if we don't keep her amused !!

The physio said the arching is not uncommon in premmies and that we should not worry as she is continuing to progress. Although a term baby would probably be sitting and crawling by now , you cannot go by the same milestones with a premmie. We just have to be patient and keep on with the physio, working on her as much as possible. She reiterated that she believes the movements issues are partly related to her brain cysts but at the moment she has no reason to believe the physiotherapy will not have her crawling/walking in the longterm.

Charlotte was weighed yesterday and the greedy Piglet has gained 13 0z in 2 weeks, double her normal rate, but she recently moved onto stage 3 meals. She usually does have a growth spurt when first moving up a stage.At 13 months old she is now 16 lbs 14 oz,and looks very big to us. In comparison the baby next to her was 14 weeks old and 16 lbs 9 0z!.

6th August

Charlotte has been teething for months but today at 1 Year, 3 weeks and 1 day old, we did our daily check , and the middle two teeth on her lower jaw have finally cut through, and we can see the tips. They will be fully through by the time of Samantha's Brother's wedding in September and we shall certainly post new photo's on this site.

she is still not crawling or sitting yet but is showing signs of improvement so her physiotherapy is definitely having an effect. She has also recently started to grab items with both hands, and even pass them between them, which is another milestone.

Her head and neck control also continue to improve, the Hydrocephalus delayed her by months as her very small neck could not support the abnormally large head, (due to the swollen ventricles). She had gone from the 50 percentile mark to mid 90's but it has reduced down to 70'ish and her head size,although still large,looks more in proportion to her body. She has one or two more visits to see the specialist Neurologist at St Georges's,London but we are confident she has recovered, (no brain operation (shunt) required).

Wednesday 30th

Charlotte was weighed today, (she is 1 year, 2 weeks and 1 day old), at 16 lbs 1 oz, back to her average gain of 7 oz every two weeks, whereas the previous one showed hardly any change.

She does not have her weekly physio appointments for a weeks and other than an appointment at the Royal Surrey for tests on her hearing in August ,(without the Hearing Aids), and a checkup in Sept with the Neurologist at St Georges's in London, she not really got much on. She is still not sitting or crawling yet but we hope the continued physiotherapy will help her progress in both departments. She has also been teething for months and we think her lower gum is showing signs a tooth may be coming through soon

we are now counting down the weeks to her starting at a Nursery in October when Samantha has to go back to work, it is not something either one of us is looking forward too.

Saturday 19th

The June/July photo's have been uploaded. They include her first holiday abroad, in Cala D'or, Majorca, from 21st June to 5th July. It is a great place to go for families and we would recommend it. There are also some photo's taken at a friend's Wedding in Bedwas, S.Wales and her 1st Birthday BBQ

Friday 18th

Charlotte Launches her BLISS, the British Premature Baby Charity, Fundraising Campaign on www.justgiving.com/charlottelow. We hope people that follow her story may make a donation to help potentially save other premmies. There will be some fundraising events to be announced soon.

Thursday 17th

Charlotte visited her physiotherapist today. Due to the holidays its been 4 weeks since her last visit. The physio was very happy with her progress and said she had come on leaps and bounds since the last visit. I asked about when we may know if there are any long term issues and she said that it was still a little too early to tell for sure, but, like Dr Mallick, she said that they were now confident that if there is to be anything then it would be minor. It's so fantastic hearing good news. We are so proud of Charlotte and what she has achieved so far. She is our "SuperBaby".

Wednesday 16th - "Pretty In Pink"

Charlotte went to the Royal Surrey today to have new moulds made for her ears. After 3 or 4 months of waiting her pink hearing aids have arrived. She will be wearing them from today.They are much cuter than the brown ones.

Tuesday 15th - Happy Birthday Charlotte

We really cannot believe how quickly the last year has gone, and what a hard journey we were beginning. This time last year we felt despair and heartbreak, this year it is completely the opposite, we are just so happy. This time last year she was the size of my hand and now she is 15 lbs 10 oz.

We had a letter,on our return, from Dr Malik at Frimley Park, he sees her every 3 months, to say at present she is still showing no obvious signs of Cerebral Palsy, she is very high risk due to her brain cysts. This is good news as the longer she goes without showing any signs the more minor it might be, if any. She will continue to see her physio weekly to work on the stiffness with her upper body, and arching of her back.

Monday 7th

We will try and get the holiday photos's up asap but it will probably be next week, as we are off to a friends Wedding in Bedwas,South Wales, this weekend. Charlotte slept most of the weekend , she also found the beds in Majorca very hard and uncomfortable.

Our Holiday ended like it began, not very well. Our main luggage with all of my, Samantha's and Charlotte's clothes never arrived at Gatwick so we have yet another complaint to follow up with First Choice. Also Samantha woke up ubout 2 am saturday morning with a very bad case of food poisoning and in a lot of pain and was very ill yesterday. Our last meal in Majorca was a prawn cocktail which we both had thought tasted a bit off !!.

Saturday 5th

As we write we are waiting for the coach to pick us up to take us to the airport for our journey home. It´s been another fantastic week and the weather has been glorious,although sometimes too hot reaching 85 degrees It´s getting a little too hot now though so we are pleased to be leaving the heat. We definately picked the right two weeks. We only saw 1 cloud the whole time!!

We have all really enjoyed our first family holiday. We stayed by the pool most of the time as Charlotte enjoyed it so much. We had a mini scare on Thursday morning however when Charlotte woke with cold like symptoms. We decided to keep her out of the pool that day and kept a close eye on her. She is now fine though and we think its just hay fever or snuffles as she has not become ill.

We do not know where the last 2 weeks have gone. It´s certainly flown by but we are now ready to come home. The beds were a little too hard and as already said the temperature is now becoming unbearable.

We hope we can get the holiday photos up soon. They are mainly of Charlotte in the pool and Charlotte with us in the bar in the evenings.....Perfect holiday!

One last thing. We have learned that Charlotte is a little flirt with the young spanish waiters...tut tut!

Saturday 28th

We have been on holiday a week now in Majorca and we are having a fantastic time. Charlotte has experienced swimming for the first time and she absolutely loves the swimming pool. We bought her a little baby inflatable which she can sit in and she is loving it. She gets very upset when we leave the pool.

So, we arrived eventually a week ago after a disastrous transfer. We had ordered at much expense a taxi transfer and ended up arriving 90 minutes after the coach transfer. Some very dodgy taxi driver, no car seat, and ending up waiting for a more reputable taxi driver with a car seat. Needless to say we will be claiming back a full refund from First Choice, for their luxury taxi service whic h cost nearly £200 !!. We will never organise a taxi transfer again.

During the week I (mum) had a nasty fall....no it wasnt due to too much cider but unfortunately due to very slippy pavements made from tiles. I really thought Id end up in hospital but after a sleepless night with an ice pack on my knee I can now just about hobble about. Im certainly not letting it spoil the holiday and I just feel grateful that it wasnt any worse. Its getting better day by day so hopefully by start of week 2 all will be ok again.

That aside, as already said we are really having the holiday of a lifetime. With our little Charlotte with us it is just so different being on a summer holiday abroad. She was fantastic on the plane and loved looking out of the window at the clouds. She stared for ages at them and although we worried about the landing she was absolutely fine, although it was a bit bumpy, Charlotte was just so oblivious to it all.

As we enter week 2 we have decided to stay at the pool (and the bar in the evening) as after a brief trip to the beach we discovered that Charlotte is just a little bit too young and she got very upset when sand got in her mouth and up her nose.

She is getting very spoiled and we dread the day we fly home as she is getting very used to having both mummy and daddy full time and enjoying her time swimming in the sun every day.

How fantastic all this feels and Charlotte is not even one yet. We could not have even dreamed that we would be on holiday in Majorca when all this started a year ago.

Friday 20th

Tonight is the eve of Charlotte's first adventure,a holiday in Majorca. She is 11 months and 5 days old today and even at the start of this year, when we were told she had a 50/50 chance of needing a brain shunt operation for her fluid on the brain, we would never have dared dream we would get this far.As usual Charlotte decided she was having none of it and recovered. The icing on the cake today was that I got home from work and heard Charlotte laugh for the first time, it was both brilliant and magical and left me grinning like an idiot. As any parent of a premmie will tell you, every milestone they reach is so special.

She was on the lap of one of her Grandad's and he just wriggled his toes and she started chuckling. Every time he did this she would burst into an almighty chuckle, it was fantastic to both hear and watch.

Unfortunately all her clothes etc have taken up so much space that I have to share my suitcase with Mummy so I will undoubtedly not have much room to take anything for myself.

We have decided to have a special holiday Diaries section so Charlotte to keep folks updated as to how she is enjoying her holiday

Monday 16th

Charlotte had her 3 monthly check-up today with Dr Malik from Frimley Park Hospital. He was very pleased with her. He said that at this time she has no obvious signs of cerebral palsy. That does not mean she will not develope this as she grows older but as she has not been diagnosed at this early stage then if she is, at some later stage, it would likely be a milder form of CP. Of course, it is all early days yet but he said that things are looking very promising.If she has CP we should know by the age of 2 1/2

We do still have a long road ahead of us and we are certainly not counting our chickens yet, but this really is fantastic news.

He also commented on how long she is.She is 11 months 1 day old today but length wise she is more like 6-9 months whereas her weight and size mean she is still wearing 3-6 months size clothes.

We are spending this week packing. My mum is down from Birmingham who is spending much of her days ironing Charlotte's holiday clothes. Our first family holiday in Majorca is nearly here as we fly on Saturday and will be away for 2 weeks. We are so excited. We cannot wait to see what Charlotte thinks of the beach.

Friday 13th

Samantha took C to the physio today. She thinks the stiffness in her upper body,which would result in problems with movement if not resolved, is a result of the two clusters of brain csyts resulting from the meningitis. She is pleased with the progress she has made so far but says C may need physiotherapy longterm, so we have a long road ahead, but the signs are encouraging.

Thursday 6th

The May photo's have been uploaded. They show Piglet, amongst other things, preparing for her Holiday in Majorca in a few weeks time. Like most young ladies she finds time to relax in the garden and "soak up the rays" for some vital pre-holiday tanning,and is also seen posing in her new paddling pool.

The warm sunshine was soon replaced by rain and further pics show her trying out her new wet weather "hoodie" outfits and establishing herself as Britain's youngest Rock Chick, by sheltering indoors & watching Kerrang on MTV .

She had her weekly visit to the physio today, and has two more appointments before the holiday, we are hoping it might help her progress enough to be sitting by then.

Charlotte was also weighed yesterday and her new weight is 15lbs exactly. You really know you are holding her now as she is so chunky, like a proper baby.