"At 20 weeks pregnant something was telling me I needed to go to the bathroom and as I stood up, liquid hit the floor. I wasn’t sure what just happened all I could think was ‘did my waters just break’ after the hospital did all the test it showed it was in fact my waters. At just 20 weeks the prognosis wasn’t great.

The following days were grim, statistics would suggest a 90% chance my labour would start within the next 7 days or I would develop chorioamnionitis and labour would have to be brought on. Being my second pregnancy so my body knew how to labour and being so early I knew my baby wouldn’t survive.

The fluid around the baby was 3cm and my dr advised if it got any lower then we would need to have a ‘different conversation’ as at that gestation the lungs are developing and fluid was crucial. I was admitted to hospital on bed rest and we sat in anticipation, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.

Once we got through the first week there was a small sense of relief however we knew we were still so far from ok. Once we got to 24weeks there was another sense of relief and I got my first shot of steroids. Throughout the 9 weeks I stayed in bed only getting up for the bathroom, I had weekly scans where my fluid fluctuated from 3cm - 9cm, visits from NICU Drs with pamphlets of statistics of what each week might look like if I went into labour and I was using progesterone to try keep my cervix at length.

At 28 weeks I started loosing fluid heavily and then I began bleeding. I was moved around to birth suit and given a second dose of steroids as they believe these were signs my body was beginning to labour. By morning I was moved back to my room as it all stopped. I didn’t think we would make it through week 28 as I was loosing so much fluid and at 29 weeks I woke up and felt different. I called the midwife into my room at 7:30am and Liam was born by 9:50am via classical caesarean.

Liam was taken straight down to NICU after assessment and I was just told ‘he is doing ok’ he was a tiny 1.342kg and 38cm.

Liam was on CPAP for 4 days and high flow for 2 days before they took everything off. I was so worried as his lungs were what we had spent 9 weeks worrying about but he was so strong and didn’t need it. After 2 weeks in NICU we were moved to our special care nursery where we spent another 7 weeks. He has all the usual checks. Cranial ultrasounds, ROP but the biggest thing Liam struggled with was increasing his feeds. Each time they tried he would drop his stats and end up back in cot oxygen. After about 5 weeks he finally took it and was able to go into an open cot.

While a long journey we know how lucky we were and understand our time in nicu. SCN was as good as it can be. Liam is now 6 months, 3 corrected and is so far hitting all his milestones.

For the 9 weeks I sat in hospital every week I would read the miracle babies stories for the week I was at. It gave me so much hope and actually somewhat prepared me for the journey after birth. I hope that my story can bring some hope to anyone who might be searching for it. We don’t know how we got so lucky with him, he truely is such a strong warrior.

Tiny babies are so incredibly strong and Dr working on such small humans are amazing. We will be forever grateful to the staff at Frances Perry house and the women’s NICU."