EXCERPT FROM MASS EMAIL TO FRIENDS

"The liver scan Rose had last Monday did indicate something awry with her liver, and we're booked in to see the paediatric liver specialist at the Royal Children's tomorrow. We've been seeing a fantastic paediatrician in the meantime.

The ultrasound seemed to show that Rose was born without a gall bladder, and possibly an incompletely formed bile duct. We're still not certain though, and she'll need more scans and maybe a liver biopsy. We'll find out much more tomorrow, we hope. A possible diagnosis is biliary atresia, which is pretty serious, and would mean that she'd need surgery. Again, we find out more when we see the specialist, so we're trying not to worry too much before then.

We've been flat out trying to build Rose up with more breastmilk, and she's been responding. She managed to put on about 150 grams last week. All this means that I'm a fulltime milk factory, with Shane in prime support role. A small complicating factor is that he himself had surgery on his hand last Friday, so we've been up at my Mum and Dad's. . . getting fed and looked after."