Hospitals are funny places.  I’m pretty sure we remarked on this on more than one occasion previously but it’s been a while since we were back in one as much as we’ve been of late, so I feel it needs saying again.

Thankfully, however, the last couple of months of visits to our old friend St George’s have been for universally positive experiences.  First there was the annual neonatal unit Christmas party in December. A noisy affair, full of friendly faces and some old friends across graduates and staff from the unit, all enjoying a seemingly endless supply of balloon animals and mince pies – good times!

Next came a rather more formal engagement at the hospital with Savannah returning to see the respiratory consultant for a check-up in early Jan.  By way of a very brief recap as to how Savannah came to be having regular respiratory check-ups, and for anyone (like us) who’s knowledge of neonatal medicine has begun to fade over the past couple of years, the short explanation of this was down to her developing Chronic Lung Disease and coming home on oxygen, due to her under-developed lungs and prolonged time on a ventilator.

But after 2 and a bit years of check-ups, we were greeted with the news at last month’s appointment that “she’s fine” and the swift flick of his pen, we left the appointment clutching Savannah’s discharge form and wearing some pretty big grins. No more respiratory clinics for little SJ  – yippee!

Hot on the heels of this appointment and exciting news, a few weeks later came Savannah’s big 2 year (corrected age that is) development appointment.  This two hour long appointment was like a two year old’s version of the Krypton Factor, albeit without the final obstacle course. Whilst Roz and I watched from the sideline, Savannah set about working her way through the series of challenges presented to her in order to demonstrate and measure her cognitive, language and physical development.  And guess what?! She smashed it. Knocked it out of the park!

And with another swift flick of a pen and after 2 years under their care, Savannah was finally discharged from the neonatal unit.

So you would have thought that with these 2 monumental developments and Savannah finally being discharged, that’d be the end of our trips to St George’s for a while. Well, not quite!

We’ve also been back a couple of times of late for another reason and the start of another adventure, although hopefully one that follows a more conventional script and as much as we love and respect the NNU at St George’s here’s hoping we never need to visit it again and No.2 stays inside Roz for the full 40 weeks!