Miracle mum Shatn shares Shevon’s birth story:

After years of trying for another baby, 5 misscarriages, so much heartache my partner and I decided maybe it wasnt meant to be, maybe we weren't destined to have anymore children ,no matter how much I told myself that I just wasnt convinced, I longed for another baby since my eldest was 2 years of age, everytime I took a pregnancy test and it was positive I didn't have that excitement i should have , because of the past experiences of loss , so in early 2024 we stopped trying, and by mid 2024 I was pregnant again this time felt different i was overjoyed with excitement i went for my first ultrasound around 6 weeks and I was feeling positive until oneday on my way home from work I started cramping with heavy bleeding , I rushed home to my partner an absolute sobbing mess thinking I was having yet another misscarriage, he took me straight to emergency and they rushed me through , i went for an ultrasound and there was a heartbeat, what a relief ,I spent 2 days in hospital to be monitored and then sent home, I continued working, at 17 weeks it happened again I was hospitalised and being asked by a nurse ' if you misscarry' do you want to keep the remains ?
I was shocked to be asked that question but this was the reality I was living , more ultrasounds, there was a strong heartbeat but it was touch and go, my obstetrician told me I needed to cease work as of 17 weeks and be on bed rest to continue this pregnancy and get to a viable gestation which I did, throughout my pregnancy I had 7 hospital trips ,at 24+3 my waters broke here we go again our world's turned upside down , my partner took me to emergency where they rushed me through to maternity and did an internal, sure enough as suspected yes my waters had broken, I was given steroid injections for babies lungs, rushed up to King edward memorial hospital where i spent 2 weeks no measurable fluid, ultrasounds every few days, poked and prodded , daily bloods and the uncertainty of what our future looked like, after 14 days of no change, I was discharged , that night I started bleeding again, back to hospital where I spent another week being monitored, at 27 weeks I started contracting and a few hours later we welcomed our beautiful little rainbow baby girl shevon isla into the world, when she was born she has to be resuscitated, doctors all around her, I couldnt even hold my baby, she was rushed down to the NICU and I was taken to theatre to remove my retained placenta ,after about 10 hours I was wheeled down to see my baby girl, I cried tears of happiness I had my baby girl, but with that came so much uncertainty of what does our future look like, this tiny little baby fighting to survive , the day I was discharged from hospital was the hardest day of my life, leaving hospital without my baby, living an hour away from the hospital, but I made the trip every single day no matter how exhausted I was, I know my baby girl needed her mummy and I needed her, I would sit by her incubator for hours on end expressing every 3 hours , having cuddles and just watching her in awe of her beauty, strength and resilience, I cried my eyes out most times I left her, I would call during the night to see how she was and first thing in the morning, and then one morning the doctor came to see me and he gave me the news that my baby girl had 2 holes in her heart, my world shook, I didn't know what this meant for her future , so knowing this they did regular echocardiograms to check if they were closing, they were not, so she was given medication to try close them, it didn't work, I was told she would need heart surjury to close them when she got a little bigger and older, this never left my mind but I never lost faith in my baby girl , she proved time and time again she was here and she wasnt going anywhere, it was hard though , sitting by her in hospital watching her rapid heartrate, having bradys and desats, the beeping of the monitors that is imprinted in my head, the days were long and the nights were longer, I just wanted to bring my baby home but I knew she was where she needed to be, she was poked and prodded throughout her nicu journey bloodgas, bloods, urine samples, the milestones were huge , the weight gain, the growth, the breast experiences and then breastfeeding, going from incubator to a big girl cot
shevon spent 3 months on respiratory support and then the time came where the doctors were happy to take it away , she did well she was self venting until oneday she spiked a temp of 38.5 my world turned upside down again with worry, what was wrong why was she unwell was it something serious or just having an of day ? Doctors and nurses covered all bases and tested for everything, days of waiting for results felt like forever,she was intubated whilst results came back
it was a UTI poor baby, but I was relieved, it could have been something more sinister, so a course of antibiotics and then a few days later back in her big girl cot , shevon spent 122 days in the nicu, although it was a very traumatic time ,I built beautiful rapport with doctors nurses and all the other healthcare workers, I formed a very strong friendship with a beautiful mother going through the same thing I was and we have become so close, we are now home ,shevon has had heart op and everything is going so well she is absolutely thriving and we love her more every single day ❤️