Our 116-day NICU journey started on 20 April 2023 when, due to infection and my partner’s waters breaking, we were told our baby needed to be delivered by emergency c-section at just 25+1 weeks. I can still tangibly sense the fear and concern I felt for both my unborn baby
Read MoreLife changed on 5 October 2015. My wife Sally was 25 weeks’ pregnant with twins and we’d just been having a normal weekend with our three-year-old daughter, Isabelle.
Read MoreOn 27 February 2021, our second daughter, Rosie, was born by emergency c-section at 24 weeks and one day, weighing 1lb 5oz (595g).
Read MoreI’ve never shared much about my experience as a dad of a premature baby, but 10 years on from our son Samuel being born too early, it feels time to do so.
Read MoreWe will always remember Monday 5 October 2015. On the night of 4 October it had got too much, so we went to Russell Hall Hospital to be checked. Then all of a sudden my wife Sal's waters broke. We started to panic when they said we needed to be transferred to a hospital with specialist care, as Sal was only 25 weeks gone.
Read MoreIn 2018, my wife Jenny and I were expecting our second child, due in January of 2019 and we were extremely excited to welcome a new addition into our loving family. We had a big sister-to-be who was also excitedly waiting. Our daughter Leah was born in 2014. She had a fairly traumatic arrival as she was an undiagnosed breech. Everything happened very quickly and we hardly had time to digest it. Leah was healthy and happy so we began the journey of parenthood without much thought to what had happened.
Read MoreI was already a dad to 3 and a 4-time grandfather, but none of that prepared me for what was about to come: I had spent the pregnancy trying to be the calming influence to my wife of 5 years as this was her first time. All had gone pretty well and the pregnancy had been fairly textbook until events took some twists and turns. I won’t expand on that, as that’s another story in itself, but on one Friday night in June 2015 everything went very pear-shaped.
Read MoreIt all started on a Monday morning when myself and my wife Janine woke up for work at 5am. Janine’s face was all swollen up. We called her mum who is an ex nurse and got her out of bed to check her over. I was told to go to work and they would let me know what was happening.
Read MoreHaving your first baby is scary, and that’s when you think everything will go to plan. To say I was a nervous expectant parent would be an understatement. I’d never held a new-born (without it being placed in my lap), never mind changed a nappy or give a bottle. Special precautions were taken like the purchase of a snuggle bundle so I could be confident picking up my baby whilst providing the right head support… all this when I thought I’d be getting a regular sized baby (in fact, we thought they’d be larger than average on account of my height).
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