After a busy day the day before (Emmett’s birthday), I decided to have a nice, relaxing day in. Rach & the kids had chipped in together to buy me a Lego Millenium Falcon. So , with the help of Amb & Rach, I set about building it. Now, being into my photography, I decided to chart the build and here it is…..
What a twelve months that was! As I’m sure you all know by now, Emmett was born prematurely, extremely prematurely at 27 weeks +4, commonly known as “way too bloody early”. He entered this world at extremely short notice, approximately 2 hours, and not being one to shy away from the limelight, he left his nice, comfortable, limosine-esque womb through the sunroof. He weighed in at 2lbs, or as his grandad put it “not even a bag of sugar”.
Emmetts first home was the Neo-natal unit at Lincoln, but due to his age and complications, they couldn’t keep him, so he was swiftly transferred to Notts City Neo-natal. On and off he stayed there for three months, visiting Queens Med and Lincoln Neo-natal for the last month. When you first go to a Neo-natal ward they describe your journey as “a rollercoaster”, it is fair to say that until this point I had never seen a word used in such an inadequate way. “Rollercoaster” doesn’t scratch the surface of what you face. If you can think of an emotion, I am pretty sure we experienced it. We watched our amazing little boy fight for his life on several occasions, we watched his astound doctors on several occasions, we watched in pure amazement so many times, it’s not possible to count.
I am not going to bored you with all the details again, suffice to say that we owe a lot of healthcare professionals a debt we can never repay.
The last twelve months have seen Emmett go from strength to strength, improving day after day. He has grown in so many ways, he is still prone to chest infections and colds, but we take a little more care than most people would need to. His character has grown too, he is a funny, cheaky little chappy, and he put a smile on our faces every hour of every day. I am so proud of my gorgeous little boy, and I always will be.
We love you Emmett, you are an inspiration. Happy birthday little man, I hope we can make it as special as you make our lives. x
Kudos to my brother for showing me this. It describes depression far, far better than I ever could.
St Deny’s Church in Sleaford, Lincs, is a Grade 1 listed C of E church. It was built in the early 12th century and added to over subsequest centuries. It is noted for having the oldest stone broach spires in England and an alter rail designed by Sir Christopher Wren, which was gifted to the church when it left spare during the renovation of Lincoln Cathedral in the 1790′s.
The church is dedicated to Saint Denis and is located on the eastern side of the market place, it stands in a small, now unused, graveyard with a vicarage to the northern side. The vicarage is unoccupied at the moment and in a state of disrepair.
The earliest mention of a church in the town is in the Doomsday Book of 1086, but the building as we see today dates from 1180. A spire was added to the tower around 1220. A chantry chapel was founded in 1271 and is located at the eastern end of the north aisle.
During the English Civil War (1642–1651), St Deny’s was used as a barracks for parliamentary troops. Much of the interior was destroyed, including the organ, eagle lectern and stained glass windows. In 1772, Edward Evans, a ships surgeon donated £300 to replace the organ, with one built by Samuel Green.
A north aisle was added by local builders Kirk and Parry in 1853 to accommodate an expanded congregation. At the same time the church’s interior was renovated, at a cost of £3,500. Thirty one years later, the spire and other parts of the church were damaged during an electrical storm. Kirk and Parry rebuilt the church, a 15th century stained glass window was removed from the front and reconstructed in the grounds at the rear of the church.
In 2008 solar panels were installed on the roof of the south aisle, half the cost was met by grants through the British government’s Low Carbon Buildings Programme.
Originally St Denys’ had 6 bells, some dating from 1600, one from 1707 and two undated. In 1796 a new peal of 8 bells were cast by Thomas Osborn of Downham, Norfolk. The bells carry inscriptions from Osborn:
I was lucky enough to be able to visit the church and climb the tower to the bells, the reason for this will become clear in the future, but I took a few photo’s whilst up there of Sleaford, it is an angle you rarely see your home town from. The pictures are below, feel free to browse and comment.
As far as hard luck stories go, I’ve had & heard a few, but this one was brought to my attention earlier. It’s a touching story, please take time to read it and visit the links in the story. The following is lifted directly from their webpage (I hope the owners don’t mind)…..
Hi, my name is Evi-Lou.
I was 4 on 5th November 2011, I was born 10 weeks early and was poorly for quite some time. My mummy only had me at home for 5 days before I stopped breathing and was rushed back into hospital and ventilated for 72 hrs, my mummy and daddy went through a very hard time as they had my 2 older brothers and 2 older sisters to look after as well as travelling 35 miles each way to visit me in hospital.I am a very happy little girl and always have been, I don’t know any different ;-)
At the age of 20 months I still wasn’t sitting or crawling and mummy knew something wasn’t right. We went to the Childrens Outpatients for a regular appointment and this is where mummy learnt of my fate….
He told my mummy I had Cerebral Palsy and quite a bit of technical mumble jumble that I think went in one ear and out the other, that was the end of the appointment. My mum came away knowing nothing at all about Cerebral Palsy until she got home and started researching on the Internet. I saw my mummy’s face drop as she read stories and looked at photos.The following day we went to an appointment with one of my sisters Emilie who, to my mums worst nightmare, had also been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, Emilie is lucky she can walk although she is clumsy.
I cannot sit unaided for very long, I pull myself across the floor and I cannot stand or walk. My mummy started doing some research for Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) and has now applied for me to have surgery to help me in my mobility. Unfortunately this comes at a cost for the operation, physio and equipment, which is why it brings me here to my own webpage to just ask all of you who visit to help me please.
Ordinarily, the story would end here, but a Facebook friend is auctioning a teddy, erm, bunny to try and help raise funds. I bid, a mate outbid me, but another Facebook user, who’s in the same position as me (i.e. suffering with terminal finances) suggested that we should donate our £10 bids anyway. Why not? So, the reason for this post, go look at the page, make a bid if you can, pledge a donation if you can, if not, share the link, that costs nothing and raises awareness nicely. Some Bunny Loves You’s post here.
Let’s see if we can make this little girl’s dream come true…. Please.
So, there goes 2012. To be honest, I’m not overly sure how I feel about it. The beginning was fairly normal, the middle hell and the end bliss. Here is why…….
By January 2012, we’d known for about a month that Rach was pregnant, something that didn’t really hold any fears for me, been there, done that, produced the sodding T shirt. Rach was a little more cautious, but excited. As the pregnancy progressed, Rach seemed to become more and more ill with it, not just the normal sickness.
As it happens, that T shirt I’d produced didn’t fit anymore. A day before my birthday (19th May 2012), Emmett Loki Patrick Gresham was born. He was a poorly boy, 2lbs and three months early. I have had some very difficult nights in my lifetime, this night ranked up there amongst them. In the space of six hours, we went from knowing Rach was poorly, to Emm being born, and every emotion along the way. Rach had an emergency C-section. The word emergency conjures up any amount of thoughts, but when you are sat in a side ward, with a nurse observing your wife constantly and a Doctor explaining that Rach had Pre-eclampsia and would be in surgery within 2 hours, “emergency” suddenly takes on a new, scary meaning.
Rach couldn’t be knocked out for the procedure, her blood pressure was critical, put simply, it would kill her. When you find yourself in a position like this, you like to know why this has happened, was it something we’d done, something a midwife missed, something a Doctor missed? The fact is that Pre-eclampsia is one of those things that very little is known about, if caught early enough it can be “maintained”, if not it often results in emergency C-sections. Anyway, as Rach couldn’t be knocked out for the C-section I was in the lucky position where I could be in theatre, sat with her. I have been through some pain in my life, but watching the Docs cut through the seven layers of your wife’s abdomen, makes you wonder if there could possibly be a pain that compares to that. By 10.05, our baby boy was delivered, although very small, he still whimpered, which gave me some hope. Emmett was rushed up to Neo-natal, but because he was less than 30 weeks old, Lincoln could stabilise him, but not care for him, so by 7am he was on his way to Nottingham City.
The next two days were hell, Rach was recovering from some major surgery, desperately wanting to be with her son, but unable to be transported. I wanted to be with them both, but Rach was in Lincoln, Emm in Nottingham, I can’t drive! I made the decision that Rach needed me more right then than Emmett did, he was blissfully unaware, and Rach needed the reassurance and love to get her through, she was still critical after all. Emmett on the other hand was having the best care there was and wouldn’t have any idea whether I was there or not.
By the Tuesday, Rach was transferred to Nottingham City Hospital and we were all together again, I had a fold up bed in Rach’s room, but it meant we could go down and visit Emmett at any time day, or night. This was the beginning of three months of splitting our life between Nottingham and Sleaford. Luckily, Emmett made good progress, with a few hitches along the way, they describe it as a rollercoaster ride, but nothing quite prepares you for the emotions that you go through, from joy for the smallest improvement, to despair and dread when you think that you may lose your son. Emmett had to go to Queens Medical Centre to have a Broviac Line put in 
at one point, he was retaining water badly and was quite ill, but the ability to get antibiotics straight into his blood stream made his recovery quite swift. After three months at Nottingham City Hospital, Emmett was transferred back to Lincoln Neonatal Unit. This was a difficult time, we had grown used to the nurses, doctors and specialists at Nottingham, indeed, they had grown used to Emmett. As it happened, the transition wasn’t painless, Emmett became quite ill again and had to be back in an incubator, something Nottingham had just got him out of, it felt like a massive step backwards.
The nurses, doctors and specialists at Lincoln were great, after consulting with Nottingham City, they formed a plan of action and Emmett resumed his recovery. Emmett, although doing well, had a few issues, not least Chronic Lung Disease and Premature Brittle Bone. Both of these things sound far worse than they are, but are still things that need dealing with. Emmett was also on a fairly rare cocktail of drugs to control his fluid retention, his reflux issues and other things. The Chronic Lung Disease is something that is ongoing, but basically means that, until his lungs have repaired, he will be on oxygen. The Brittle Bone will hopefully disappear as he grows.
Fast forward to September 19th, four months to the day of his birth, an Emmett is given the all clear to come home, albeit on oxygen and with a shopping trolley full of drugs. This was a terrifying time, all of a sudden, we were going to manage his meds on our own, contend with his oxygen and do all the things a term baby would do. A midwife visits, as do Community Nurses, but still, you feel a lot like you are alone.
One of the biggest fears at this time of year is that your baby will end up back in hospital, there are any number of reasons why they could, we were warned that this is likely to happen and we are given 24/7 access to the children’s ward. So far, we have not need to call on them, but the winter is far from over. We rarely take him far, as crowded places breed germs and his immune system can not cope with it. We’ve missed weddings and various other functions as we daren’t risk it.
Emmett is now seven months old, and he amazes me, he’s alert, holding his head up and chattering away. These are all things that most people take for granted, but they are special moments in Emmett’s life.
This rollercoaster has been a long ride, but we haven’t taken it alone, we have had a lot of support from people, whether it was over Facebook, through these pages (before the Great Hack of 2012) or by visiting, thank you to one and all, it means so much to know that you are there for us. We don’t know how long this ride is, we are still on it, but it’s all going in the right direction, so I am not complaining.
Before I leave you with the tradition felicitations, I feel I need to thank the Doctor’s, Nurses and Specialists of the three Neo-natal units that made this Christmas and New Year so great for us. We owe you so much and will never be able to repay it.
Anyway, a Happy New Year to you all, may 2013 bring you everything you deserve.
Stephen Fry, actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director, and notably an Atheist. He is arguably one of the greatest, most intelligent orators of his time. The man is an English Treasure.
This is from The Intelligence² Debate of 2009, about 20 minutes long, but well worth a listen…..
It would be nice to create a theism/atheism debate on here, but no one ever comments :(
Merry Christmas folks, I hope you all have a great day.
I’ll be spending mine with family and it promises to be a bloody good day (Vodka and Red Bull will help make sure of it!)
I’d like to make a quick shout out to the Neo-natal wards at Notts City, Queen’s Med and Lincoln, who in their own ways have ensured tomorrow will be a special one for us all. Thank you.
You’re honoured tonight, it’s a two for one tonight. I watched this video tonight, it moved me. It’s a very hard hitting video, but an important message…..
Over the last few years I have developed a passion for reptiles. It’s largely my brother-in-law’s fault, as it wasn’t so long ago that I wouldn’t go near a snake, let alone a lizard.
The collection started with Jack, a Common Boa. Jack is very placid and enjoys being handled, he’s about 6 foot long, we’re not sure how old Jack is, but we know the previous owners were afraid to feed him, not that he is at all vivarium territorial. Why buy a snake, if you are going to be afraid of it when it grows, buy an ant farm!
The second addition was Jas, she’s a Boa, 
I forget what type, strictly speaking she’s Rach’s, she’s about five and a half foot long (Jas, not Rach – although….) and very friendly. Jas was also bought after being neglected. Both Jack & Jas were bought from L.A Reptiles.
After Jas came Xena, she was bought from some friends, unfortunately, their brother had to sell her as they weren’t allowed her at their new house. Xena is also a Boa, she’s about 8 foot long and in good health, she is a little more flitty than the other two, but once she settles down, she’s beautiful.
After the snakes I bought a couple of Chinese Water Dragons, 
they are probably the most beautiful lizards I have seen. They are lovely, once you have hold of them, but catching them can be entertaining and painful, although I have avoided being bitten by them – yet. These thing are phenomenally fast, so should one escape, they can run a long way before finding a dark corner to hide in – trust me, this is from experience!
The final additions to the collection are two Bosc Monitors, also bought from LA-Reptiles, one of them is Liam’s, but they were together in the shop, so we decided to keep them together here. We think we have one of each sex, so hopefully we will have a breeding pair, they aren’t related, which makes it even better (I know this 
is Lincolnshire, but still!). Both of the Bosc’s are friendly when fed, but Liam’s tail whips and hisses when you try to handle it, if it’s hungry.