Our Miracle Babies

33 weeks - Clarence

Clarence in phototherapy

Mum's first hold

Dad's 1st cuddle

Mum's 1st bath!

Clarence and Mathew at 6 months

Clarence turns 1!

Clarence with Dad now

Daniel and I were very lucky, and fell pregnant straight away. I had a wonderful pregnancy, no nausea or sickness of any kind, and continuously on a high. I loved being pregnant and feeling this precious baby growing inside of me. It truly felt miraculous.

At about 30 weeks we had a holiday booked to visit family in Western Australia, a holiday we had planned before falling pregnant. We checked with our Doctors who said it would be perfectly fine as my pregnancy was going so smoothly.

Well, we had a lovely holiday. I did notice that my feet had swelled up quite badly and I had difficulty putting any shoes on, but I just put it down to the plane trip. The swelling wouldn’t go down, however, and on friend’s insistence I checked my blood pressure at a chemist and found it was a little higher than usual – but I didn’t give it much thought as I felt fine.

Once I arrived in Sydney I went to my usual OB Gyn appointment. She, unlike me, did have some concern over my higher than normal blood pressure. She sat us down and quite sombrely told us that she believed I had pre-eclampsia. I had seen that heading in the myriad of pregnancy books I had been reading since finding out I was pregnant, but I had not read on as I was certain it wouldn’t happen to me – I was having a perfect pregnancy. I asked her what the cure was – she said the only thing to do was to get the baby out. I was only 31 – 32 weeks and thought the Doctor was just being an alarmist. But I did what I was told and we went along to the hospital.

We sat on the bed at the hospital listening to our baby’s heartbeat for what seemed like hours. Then those hours turned to days and I finally realised that the doctor was not overreacting and that things were quite serious. I hung around having tests everyday and listening to the baby to ensure that he was not under any distress. Finally on 18 January 2005, at 33 weeks, the Doctor came into my room and said that my liver and kidney were failing and that the baby had to come out immediately.

I was in complete shock and called Daniel at work telling him the news. He rushed over from work but we had to wait for what seemed like an eternity as I had eaten lunch. Finally at around 8pm I was wheeled down to surgery and gorgeous Clarence entered the world at 8.50pm weighing a whopping 1.75kg.

Clarence was whisked away immediately, with Daniel close behind. I was left in the recovery room, and later in my room wondering – Did I really just have a baby?

The next day I finally got to see and touch, for a brief second, my lovely son. It was truly amazing, although I felt so useless and helpless watching my baby inside a humidicrib fighting for his life.

Clarence spent 3 weeks in Newborn Care. I was still in hospital for 2 of those weeks as my blood pressure would not come down. It is hard to imagine but it was the only time I have ever been happy about having to stay in hospital as it meant I could stay close to my baby. The day I was told I was been discharged was the hardest day of my life. I had to go home knowing our baby was in hospital about 30km away – which meant I could not get up at all hours of the night and sit by his cot.

So for 1 week I would drive to the hospital first thing in the morning and we would leave late at night. Until the wonderful day that we were told we could take our baby home. That was fabulous – although very scary as well.

Clarence was having his discharge check up when they discovered a hernia in his groin. I couldn’t believe it and was extremely distraught. We were still able to take Clarence home but he would have to return the following week for surgery. That second visit to the hospital was excruciating I had to give my baby up again after having him with us for only 1 week.

Well, all went well and Clarence was once again home with us the following day.

Finally we felt we could be real parents. We had our baby home and well. We could have visitors and show our baby off to everyone, one month after he was born.

Now, 16 months later, Clarence is a strong and thriving little boy as cheeky, and adorable as all little boys.