"Our story is alittle different to most! But here goes our rollercoaster.

Arlo was preterm baby number two for my husband and I, we welcomed our first Lillian in March 2018 at 34 weeks. After two years of TTC, a complete molar pregnancy and a miscarriage, we conceived our rainbow baby Arlo. From the moment I got a positive test my anxiety was high, the anxiety slightly passed after each milestone the NIPT test, 12 week, 20, 24 and so on.. at 22 weeks my blood pressure had been rising and my ob decided to start me on some medication with close monitoring and adjustments, things were going ok.

At 28 weeks I had been given the diagnosis of preclampsia, I knew this all to well due to having it with my first. Things where tracking along ok with some swelling and high episodes of blood pressure but nothing that required hospitalisation.

At 32+5 I had a bp of 165/115 so i was hospitalised for two nights. (We had to travel 2.5 hours from home to where my ob is and to where I planned to deliver)

I went back to work to finalise my last week of work before maternity leave started, this day started like any other I drove my daughter to preschool and had some loose ends to finalise before finishing up.

There isn’t much that I remember about this day but when I woke up it was 8 hours from my last memory, I was 2.5 hours from home and was told that my husband had found me at home unresponsive with a slow heart rate, a blood sugar level of 1.1 and hypothermic and that there was a slim chance our baby wouldn’t make it as his heart rate was almost non existent. It also took an ambulance 40 mins to arrive due to not having one in our town.

I was told I was going for an emergency C-section.

I don’t have much of a memory from this other then laying in recovery waiting for someone to ask if my baby had made it.

Our baby was a fighter, he required a lot of help and was taken straight to the NICU where he required cpap, a nasal gastric tube and phototherapy. Along with daily doses of caffeine due to apnea’s. Arlo spent 5 days in NICU and 23 days in special care.

I didn’t get the birth nor the first moments hours or days with my baby I had hoped and longed for but at the end of the day there is so much for to be thankful for."