The Saxton Girls

As Paul has yet to make an honest woman of me, Maggie and Alice were automatically given Forbush as their surname in the hospital. Maggie Forbush and Alice Forbush - I kept seeing it on their charts, on their breast milk stickers, on their notes - and I've been teasing Paul that I was starting to like the sound of it (I think my family agreed with me!).

But today Maggie and Alice officially became Saxtons when we registered their births at the Norwich Registry Office - and coming from America where it's all done in the hospital (I think), it was a much sweeter, more emotional experience than I thought it would be. I think I expected booths and forms and taking numbers and instead it was personal and lovely and very moving. Alice was with us - our first outing into town together - and there was a painful tug and pang that Maggie wasn't, but I tried to just concentrate on how lovely it was to be there declaring our little girls into the world. Maggie Anne Saxton and Alice Marie Saxton.

And I've promised Maggie that I'll save the trip to the US Embassy in London until she can come with us.

Alice is still damn near as good as gold - and piling the ounces on. Her little face is getting rounder and rounder, and she's quickly going from my little Yoda baby into a Buddha baby.

She needs to share some of this big appetite with her sister, as Maggie isn't really putting enough weight on. Everything overall for Maggie is largely unchanged and still wait and see - the focus now is on trying to move her from small hourly feeds to bigger two-hourly feeds but it's not really agreeing with her so it's a slow, one step forward, one step back process at the moment.

But I had a really lovely afternoon with her today - she's been so much more alert and responsive in the past day or so - where we just sat for ages and they fed her while I held her and her oxygen levels stayed high the whole time and they didn't need to suction her and she actually kept down every little bit of the breast milk. A small triumph but it was enough to give me a little glimmer of hope that maybe she will develop the swallow reflex after all - thinking otherwise is a real fucking heartbreaker.

And now that she's a Saxton there's even more hope, as Paul has always told me what big eaters they are.

* Paul adds:

I couldn't let this momentous occasion pass without commenting. They're now Saxtons, our little girls, and as Louie said on Facebook: "Finally, more Saxton females". The score is now 3-2.

I think Maggie Saxton sounds particularly good. It's strong and a bit feisty. Which is what we need her to be.

Hurrah for all the Saxton children (including my lovely niece Amy)!

Pics below - click to see them big:




Maggie's Birth Certificate
Alice's Birth Cerificate