Our daughter Skyla Shannon Lapham was born on 1st August 2009 at St Georges Hospital In London. She was born at 28weeks and weighed 1.22kg’s. This came as a huge shock to us as we expected her to be full term. The reason for her early arrival is not clear... her daddy likes to say that she just couldn’t wait any longer to meet her mom. She is our little miracle baby, her existence was a wonderful surprise to begin with because her mommy was diagnosed and has battled with severe endometriosis for the last 10 years and was told that the possibility of a baby was not great.

Having out little girl in the hospital for 55 days was tough. Seeing her in an incubator attached to various tubes and monitors, was not easy. We stood by as she cried as yet another blood sample was taken, as another canular was re-inserted into her little vein, we held her as she received a blood transfusion, we felt heartbroken as she suddenly took 2 steps backwards after having taken one giant leap forwards, we cried tears of joy the day she was taken out of the incubator and put into a cot, and then cried even harder when she was put back into the incubator again for a few days.  It truly has been an emotional rollercoaster, if it were not for the top notch care she received in the neonatal unit at St Georges hospital she would not be the healthy, chubby, happy baby she is today. The nurses, nurse practitioners, Doctors, sisters and specialists are really amazing – they not only provided Skyla with excellent care but were also a tremendous support to us.

Instead of giving us gifts for our wedding, please could you rather help us to give back to these amazing people for what they do, and to help them to continue to save little babies like Skyla. The equipment and care these teeny tiny babies require is not cheap and the unit is quite reliant on donations. At the moment the charity is raising money for 20 specialist cots which cost £1,300 each. We are not going to specify what the money we manage to raise will be used to purchase at this time, because the need will change closer to our wedding date but we promise to keep updating this page to keep you in the loop. Hopefully we can purchase something really needed, as a way of giving back and saying thanks on behalf of our precious little star Skyla.

We all look forward to seeing you at our wedding on 8^th January 2011 for an awesome party!!

 

Claire & Darryn