Whilst I may be a ok at DIY, ride a motorbike, enjoy football and the occasional rugby game (although Roz does have to explain the rules to me on a regular basis), get a buzz from throwing myself down mountains on skis and various other manly(ish) pursuits from time-to-time, when it comes to rollercoasters, I’m a complete whimp.  My fear of them stems from a trip to Alton Towers at the tender age of 18.  My then girlfriend and I (yes, Savannah, Daddy did have a girlfriend or two before Mummy but not until I was 18 and we only ever held hands once or twice – much like you’ll do when you get to be 21, or maybe 25 actually…there’s no need to rush these things!)….where was..ah yes, so my then girlfriend and I set off in her mum’s Nissan Micra for the 4 hour trip from Goring to Alton Towers.  Somehow, up until that point, I’d never had the occasion to go on any crazy upside, throw your stomach, brain and insides around type rollercoasters, just a couple of relatively tame ones like the Runaway Train at Disney world.  So there we are, at Alton Towers, with the brief to go on as many of the stomach churning rides as we can squeeze into one visit.  First one, done.  Second one done. Third one done. And then it hit me….some sort of weird nausea/migraine thing that took hold of me and left me capable of nothing other than sitting in the passenger seat of the car in complete silence for the entire 4 hour drive home.  Whether or not it was an overdose of rollercoaster action that caused the little episode or something completely unrelated, has never been discovered but the ferocity of the nausea and migraine were enough to leave me scarred for life and never to get back on the rollercoaster horse.

So what, has this all got to do with Savannah then as she definitely isn’t tall enough to meet the height requirements for the Viper or Stomach Churner at Alton Towers just yet. Well, my point is this…I hate rollercoasters and it seems that the rollercoaster ride we’d been warned about by the consultants, is a million times worse than the roller coasters at Alton Towers.  I now know how every other parent in the world has almost certainly felt at one time or another when their child has been ill and there’s not been anything they can do about it apart from worry.  And after the joy of the last few days, arriving at the hospital today to hear that Savannah hasn’t been processing her food very well and has been having a few issues overnight brings us crashing down to a new low.  The day continue with not much progress on the feeding but with the docs trying a thing or two to find a fix and then by the afternoon, she’s back under her blue UV light as the jaundice levels are too high again.

We’d been warned things would go backwards and there’d be complications along the way but today was the first time we’d had to deal with the reality of it…. not a fun experience.

But then the rollercoaster took a few smoother, exhilarating and definitely not scary turns, as we were allowed to do all of her feeds for her, change a nappy for the first time and better than anything else so far, Roz was allowed to hold her for the very first time today. I real life cuddle with our gorgeous daughter – amazing to watch and even more amazing to enjoy for Roz.  

As we leave for the day, the feeding’s still not going  great and she’s back under the UV lamp but the docs are doing their business and we’re hopeful these are just little blips on the long journey, all of which will be sorted out in time.  And in the meantime, we have our first family photo from today’s cuddle and many many more to look forward to.