Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow

You are with your mother in UCLH tonight, because you have lost 11.43% of your bodyweight since you were born, which is more than the "normal" amount of weight loss that many babies experience. When you were being examined, the doctor found a murmur in your heart. You were then X-rayed. Son, we are worried and I feel even worse for having left you and your mother there.

You have alternately disconcerted us by not seeming to poo enough, crying too much and having a smelly belly-button. First-time-parents suffer; it is as much their role as it is yours to shit, scream and not sleep at night. Today our anxiety feels justified: your mother called me just as I left my fourth day at Imperial College and I cycled to the A&E department and met you there. I did not expect to be cycling home alone, son.