Mums' Stories

On 13th of August 2007 I woke in the middle of the night and felt contractions. This was not expected as I was only 24 weeks gestation. My husband and I had only been to one Ante Natal class so weren’t sure what to do so off we went to the hospital, pretty casually with only my handbag thinking it was probably only a false alarm…
Once we arrived at the delivery suite I was examined and then within an hour my husband and I were in a helicopter being flown to Wellington. I was given a series of drugs to control my contractions and steroids to help the baby’s lungs in case they were born prematurely.
Upon arrival in Wellington I was monitored for several hours and once the contractions had subsided I was sent off to the ward. That same evening while I was lying in the hospital bed I felt a huge contraction. I woke my husband who was lying on a stretcher beside me and told him to call the nurse while I went to the bathroom. While I was standing in the bathroom my waters broke and I felt a sudden rush of liquid and then another push and Jaycob dropped into my hands crying ever so weakly. He was little and pink and so beautiful! I called for help several times and my husband leapt from his stretcher and saw me standing in the corridor with a baby between my legs and suddenly the nurses arrived and cut the cord and whisked Jaycob away. 20 minutes later and back in my bed I gave birth to our beautiful second born son Gabriel who was stillborn. Meanwhile Jaycob was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit and my husband and I spent time with our precious angel Gabriel.
And so Jaycobs fight for survival began with incredible highs and lows. An emotional journey that hit us hard as every parent knows who has a premature baby. Jaycob weighed in at only 675gms, 1 pound 6 ounces and the outlook was grim. Jaycob stayed in the intensive care unit for 8 weeks and was ventilated for over 4 of those weeks before finally advancing to the midline CPAP with high levels of oxygen. He was incredibly sick for many weeks with skin infections, jaundice, anemia, chronic lung disease to name a few! We stayed across the road from Wellington Hospital at Ronald McDonald House for the 3 months we were in Wellington and then we were transferred to Palmerston North Hospital where Jaycob stayed for a further 2 months in the Neonatal Unit.
The whole time while Jaycob was in hospital I expressed my breast milk as the nurses assured me this would help build his immunity. So I expressed religiously with the hope that one day I might be able to breast feed him although I was told not to hold my breath. In the meantime he had my breast milk through an oral gastric tube and then later through a nasal gastric tube. I finally got to breast feed him when he was 4 months old although it wasn’t easy as he had his OG tube in his mouth and neopuff oxygen through nasal prongs up his nose. Still, we persevered and a month later he was fully breastfeeding at 5 months old. This was such a precious time for us as he had had so many artificial and negative experiences due to his early arrival so it was wonderful to be able to give him comfort and to be close to him. 6 months later I weaned him onto the bottle and I am so proud to say he is now a healthy and active one year old boy.
Being a mum hasn’t been the easiest road for me so far but Jaycob is worth every anxious moment, every tear shed, every sleepless night and all the hours of hoping and praying he would survive. Jaycob is loved and cherished in every way and I am so grateful to be a mum and would do it all again in a heartbeat.