Thursday the 1st of June, started like any other day. I got up & went to work. I noticed my baby moving a little more than usual in the morning but thought nothing of it. After midday, I hadn’t felt him move. I didn’t really notice until I had finished my workday. I’m a teacher & I am up on my feet all day, so it wasn’t until I sat down that I realised Bub hadn’t moved much.

I got home & had a shower, ate my dinner then rang my midwife and asked to go in for a monitor as I hadn’t felt movement. My husband and I drove to the hospital, not in a hurry as there wasn’t much urgency… We pulled into the car park, and I felt a huge gush come out. I looked into my pants and there was an obscene amount of blood. My husband held my hand and we rushed up to the birth unit. We pressed the intercom and told the midwife on the other end that I had a bleed and the doors swung open. This is where time just slowed right down, things were happening to me and my brain couldn’t really comprehend what was really happening. I heard the nurses say I had a high amount of protein in my urine and that my blood pressure was 170/120. My mum is a nurse so my nursing background is limited but more than your average person and I knew proteins in urine meant preeclampsia. This is something I hadn’t been diagnosed with, my blood pressure had been normal through my whole pregnancy.

An anaesthetist held my hand and explained everything to me, she told me I had a placental abruption due to my blood pressure being so high. I was absolutely terrified…Within 45 minutes of presenting to the hospital, Alexander James was born via emergency c-section.
During the c-section they went to take the drape down to show me our baby, I heard one of the surgeons say “Tiny baby, pull the curtain back up” I looked at my husband and immediately panic and ask what’s wrong and question why I hadn’t heard crying. Alexander was blue and took some encouragement to breathe but thankfully did not require CPR. He was on oxygen for the first 16 minutes of his life before he was breathing solely on his own and on CPAP for 2 days. Alexander was born at 9:19pm and I met him at 12:49am. Alexander was born at low birth weight due to IGUR which was not picked up at any appointment or scan. He weighed 1.2kgs at birth. He was transferred to NICU at the John Hunter Hospital due to being born at 33 weeks Maitland SCN looked after babies born 34 weeks onwards. I was also transferred to the John Hunter to be close to my baby. This is where reality really sunk in. I was transferred to a ward where other mums had just had their babies and I was in a room with 5 other women with their crying babies… this was absolutely gut wrenching and I cried every single night because my baby was not with me & all I got to look at was my phone to check the video camera to see his face.. I couldn’t get to NICU alone I needed support and was in a wheelchair until the Sunday as my blood pressure was having major spikes. All of the staff in NICU who cared for Alexander were the most beautiful people I have ever come across, they answered all questions and made me feel included in every little thing.
I was discharged the Tuesday night on a high dose of two different medications to stabilise my blood pressure. This continued to be high for quite some time (months) due to the stress and anxiety I was under having a baby in hospital. After 12 days of NICU Alexander was able to be transferred back to Maitland SCN to be cared for by yet again, amazing staff. He was discharged Maitland SCN on the 9th of July 2023, 11 days before his due date…weighing 1.9kgs.

Fast forward to now, while writing this, Alexander is about to turn 6 months old (actual age) and he weighs just over 5.3kgs. He’s thriving and such a happy boy. We still have appointments and follow ups but all things considered, he has shown us what a fighter he is, he also made my husband and I realise how strong we are because man oh man, his entire birth, the whole situation and everything regarding having a baby in NICU was absolutely traumatic. I don’t think my husband and I will ever truly be the same again, with that all said, we love Alexander more than anything in this entire world.