As told by mum Savannah,
Our story starts in April of 2024 when after weeks of feeling unwell, a test finally confirmed that I was pregnant with my first child. I spent the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy more tired, nauseous and angry than I’d ever been before. I didn’t think much of the aches and pains as everyone I had spoken to brushed it off as “normal”.
At 20 weeks 2 days pregnant, I woke up early to get ready for work and found that I was bleeding. After being examined at Waitakere hospital, the midwife informed me that my cervix was 3cm dilated and had bulging membranes. I was swiftly rushed to North Shore hospital where I underwent emergency surgery to have a cervical stitch placed. Luckily the surgery was successful and my midwife gave me strict orders to be on bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy.
I spent every day telling my son that he had to grow big and strong before he could be born, ever defiant, he decided that another 20 weeks was far too long to wait. My waters started to leak at 29 weeks 5 days. I spent 6 days in Auckland City hospital where my son was closely monitored.
Baby William Fox Dyche, affectionately called “Fox” was born at 30 weeks 5 days weighing 1610g. With apgar scores of 9 and 10, Fox proved that he was strong enough to join us early.
Fox spent the first 10 days of his life in Auckland City NICU on c-pap with an NG tube, both of which he pulled out every day. After 10 days, Fox was transferred to Waitakere SCBU, this is where we called home for the next 55 days.
During our hospital stay I felt a lot of guilt around my body failing my son, not only did I have an incompetent cervix, I also had very low milk supply.
The incredible staff at Waitakere SCBU supported me and my whanau and celebrated all of our little wins. I felt less alone hearing the nurses stories of having or being prem babies.
Fox went from strength to strength, growing quickly and meeting milestones, all while demanding cuddles 24/7.
Fox is now a feisty 4 month old, weighing well over 6kg. We will be forever grateful to the wonderful nurses and doctors at Auckland City NICU and Waitakere SCBU for the love and care they gave to our son.
We are also immensely grateful to the lovely staff at the Little Miracles Trust for helping us on our journey with our little Fox.
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.
If you would like to discuss sharing the story of your neonatal journey, we’d love to hear from you. Please email info@littlemiraclestrust.org.nz
If you want to help our support of families going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey, you can donate here.
- 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.
- As we are a registered charity (CC56619) with Charities Services New Zealand we will send you an IRD compliant tax receipt – this will happen automatically by return email.