As told by mum, Jess
I had a pretty rough pregnancy right from the beginning. I’d been extremely sick each day and was classed as a high risk pregnancy from 12weeks with most likely being induced at 38 weeks. I was having specialist appointments and growth scans every 2 weeks as William was tracking a wee bit small but there were no other concerns at this time.
30 weeks came along and I was moved to weekly scans/doppler scans to make sure he was okay and still growing.
At exactly 33 weeks, I went in for a routine scan and checkup. My scan was completely fine, everything looked good, apart from his size, but we had known about this from the beginning. On this particular day, 26th September 2024, my partner didn’t have work and my mum was flying back from Australia that day so she was unable to come to the appointment. (She came to every appointment).
They decided to put me on to the CTG bands, his heart rate was tracking nicely until I coughed and I watched it drop from 170 to 50bpm. I made my partner go and grab my midwife. Next thing you know, there were 6 doctors/nurses/midwifes all rushing into the room with more scan equipment. I knew at that moment things were about to become very real. They monitored his heart rate for not even 5 minutes before I was very quickly rushed off to theatre.
My little boy was welcomed very fast into this world.
William was rushed off very quickly to the Neonatal Unit in Whangarei hospital as he was only 1600g and was having trouble breathing. He was the smallest baby they had at that time.
Looking at my precious little baby with all these wires and tube’s coming off him was one of the hardest things as I wasn’t able to hold my baby until he was 5 days old. He was put on CPAP and had an NG tube.
The first week of his life was touch and go and on the second day, they discovered he had fluid in his lungs and it had collapsed. They put a chest drain in, which was working smoothly and he handled it so well.
The following day he had green bile, which made everyone extremely worried, so without waiting any longer, he was intubated and he was flown off to Starship Hospital in Auckland to have the specialists look over him to ensure he had no infections or obstruction in his bowels. Fortunately, we spent only 48hours at Starship when they cleared us to come back to Whangarei.
On Day 6 we were finally back home in Whangarei but we still had a long stay ahead of us.
William was a trooper and he became a grower and sleeper for the rest of our stay. Came off CPAP day 15, went onto high flow and then decided he didn’t need it and pulled it out himself in the night.
We spent just over 5 weeks in SCBU with 2 nights in NICU.
William is now a healthy chubby (over 10lb) 4 month old. Who loves to talk and loves the outdoors. He has had no further complications since coming home.
If it wasn’t for the massive support we received from our nurses/doctors in Whangarei and the beautiful team and the Little Miracles Trust and Starship Auckland. I wouldn’t know where I would be today. They made it that little bit easier to make it through each day with the uncertainty of how it would end.
Thank you for allowing me to share mine and Williams story.
Thanks so much for sharing your personal story
We get a lot of positive feedback from families in a neonatal unit who read these stories and feel strength, hope and positivity knowing that they are not alone going through these experiences and feeling certain emotions.
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- The Little Miracles Trust provides support to families of premature or sick full-term babies as they make their journey through Neonatal Intensive Care, the transition home, and onwards. We do not receive any Government funding and are entirely reliant on the generosity of individuals, companies and organisations in the form of donations, value-in-kind donations, grants, sponsorship and fundraising events to supplement operating costs and fund our services and initiatives.
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