George's Story, 23 Weeks
Miracle mum, Danielle shares George's story.
"George is our third Earth baby (I have had four babies in total and countless miscarriages) - three premature and one stillborn, but George is our first micro premature baby.
I will go on record to say pregnancy isn't easy for me, I am not a glowing pregnant type of a girl. I had a cervical stitch put in place at 12 weeks, then from there on, I took daily Clexane injections, I was monitored fortnightly by my Obstetrician, and had daily progesterone dosages too. I was not allowed to 'do' too much physically and need to take it as slow as I could.
I was admitted at 22+2 weeks to hospital with bulging membranes. The hope was that I would sit in hospital on bed rest until George was bigger. George had other ideas. My waters broke, my stitch was cut by my doctor in the hope of avoiding infection, but at 23+2 weeks, we gave birth via classical caesarean to George; 17 weeks early. All 545 grams of him was taken straight to the NICU and put onto a ventilator and numerous other cannulas, countless cords, wires, drips and paraphernalia were attached.
We were told our odds for George's survival and decided prior to him arriving that as long as he was willing to fight, we would fight with him. There were many dark days, where we were told to prepare for the worst outcome. George had a brain bleed and at times was on 100% oxygen with nowhere to go. He had all the steroids on board and we just had to hope and wait. He also had possible necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) of his bowel. Then, he started to have issues with his eyes (a normal occurrence for micro prems) which needed five rounds of laser and injections on his tiny body at just 32 weeks. We went from ventilators, to c-pap, bi-pap, to ventilators, dependant on if he had had an operation on his eyes, or if he was just tired of fighting.
Our families got locked out from seeing him (even his sisters too) thanks to the COVID pandemic, but somehow, the NICU just felt like the safest place when we were there. Our little bubble, away from the world. Where George kept up the fight.
129 days was our total stay at RPA NICU, 129 wonderful and heartbreaking days. George came home, a few weeks after his actual due date, without any oxygen or support of any kind.
He fought his way to be here and now 9 months (corrected) on, he is the brightest, bubbliest little boy you could ever hope for. He is hitting his corrected age milestones, one by one and has said his first words (not Mum for anyone asking - it was his sister’s name). It has been one of the hardest times of our lives, especially when we knew the odds were stacked, unfortunately, not in our favour. However, when I see the sparkle in his eyes it makes it all worth it.
Here we all are, together, and George just keeps amazing us."
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