William’s due date was 12 June. We’d previously had a miscarriage so every little milestone reached and each week that passed was another breath of relief.
This is Natalie’s story:
“My husband took me to a routine check-up one Monday – due to Covid, he couldn’t come in with me so he waited in the car. I told him I’d be half an hour, tops… Five hours later, I’d been admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with preeclampsia. My poor husband was in the car for that whole time, I felt very bad!
It was totally unexpected and we were naturally very worried about the condition of our little boy. I was monitored daily as my platelets were dropping. One week after being admitted, my platelets got well below 80 and I was told William would be arriving that day. I was placed under general anaesthetic and didn’t get to meet our newborn son until the following afternoon.
Having a baby during a pandemic was tough – there were lots of tears, lots of uncertainty, lots of trips back and forth for my husband, who was an absolute rock through it all. There were no visits from family.
Having a premature baby added a whole new layer, however, we learnt very quickly that babies are truly resilient and much stronger than we could ever anticipate. Each day William reached a new milestone – larger intakes of food, learning how to drink from a bottle, no longer requiring a nasal tube to feed.
He also met his first life friend in hospital – I had a roommate in the hospital who ended up having her baby at 32 weeks a day after William was born. Their cribs were next to each other in the special care nursery. It was very special support that we were able to find in each other when we were unable to have our families close.
William is now over five months old. We know 33.5 weeks is not as premature as others but it certainly kept us on our toes and made us aware of how wonderful our doctors and nurses are.
He is a happy little boy who loves to laugh at pie dog and has kept us sane during an otherwise tough year”.
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