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 We our raising money for bliss as thanks to all there knowoledge and support we were able to get so we could bond with out little fighter in hospital and Bliss helped us understand all the hospital terms for things and how to care for our prem baby. Later this yeah we will be organsing some fundraising events but for now we want concentrate on our little boy. But we have made this page for anyone who wish's to donate before then.....

Dig deep and open your hearts it all for a good cause....

Below is out story....

For years i always believed my chance of having children was very low due to having polycistic ovarys but in may last year my partner Simon and i found out we were having a baby, after the shock of the news we got very excited and started to get everything ready. The first 24 of my pregnancy were like any other, i had very little morning sickness and at our 20week scan we found out we were having a boy. But after 24 weeks i had many hospital visits due to being in pain in my tummy and i was told i had a urine infection and to stop fussing other wise it was going to be a long pregnancy. But on Friday 6th November 2009 my pain got very painful and regular but i just put it down to braxton hicks and i went to work as usal but the pain carryed on over night and i the saturday i had a large blood lose. I called simon out of work and we were rushed to exeter hospital in an ambulance were i was told i was in labour and they couldn't stop it and as our boy born was arriving 14weeks early the chance's of him suviouring were 40%. They had no explanation on why he was arriving so early but they put it down to my infection. Our little boy held on over the weekend and then on Monday 9th Novemeber at 5:25am after 52hours of a painfull, scary and emotional labour our little boy Ethan was born at only 26 weeks wighing a tiny 606grams (1.5lbs). He had 2 doctors and 2 neonatel nurses stabilising him and after letting us have a 10second glance at him, they took him away to the neonatal unit to ventilate him as he was to young to breath for himself. A hour or so later simon and i were taken over to visit him, it was so scary as he was ventilated and lying helpless in a incubator. He was so tiny, febel, red and shiny. I burst into tears. I felt so proud to be a mother but so sad that my baby had come so early and i was so scared of what would happen next. Over the next few weeks they gave Ethan drugs to help his lungs grow and on 22nd november they took him off his ventialtion and put him on Cpap, he then stayed on the cpap for a few weeks while he grew stronger and came off it a for a few hours a few times a day until on 17th december he came of it fully we were so proud of him. He was then moved out of intensive care into a high dependacy unit! He went from strength to strength and we had a lovely christmas together as a family in hospital. But on Jan 2nd 2010 he fell extremly ill overnight, he had a condition called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC for short) he was rushed back into intensive care and made NIL by mouth and put on a course of antibiotics for 10days it felt like the longest 10days of ours lifes waiting for our son to get better and be aloud milk again. When he finished his antibiotics he was slowly aloud milk again within 2weeks he was back on full feeds and doing really well he was moved into a cot and had started bottle feeding. But then on Jan 26th he got poorly again and they rushed him to Bristol hospital for a sugical consultation on weather the NEC had caused damage to his intestines! They drive follow his ambulance to bristol was dreadfull we were so nervous and sacred. once we have arrive at bristol we felt so scared and alone being in a strange hospital with a poorly son and not really know what was going on. The surgeons then decided after perfoming a contrast study that they needed to operate on our boy as he had a narrowing in his intestines which was causing him not to digest any feeds. On Feb 10th they performed the operation it took just over 3hours, Simon and i sat and waited in out room at the hospital the whole time,and our familys were both sat waiting back home. we were all so scared and worried of what was happening, why was it taking so long, will he be ok. After the operation he was ventilated for a day as they gave him so much morphine to ease the pain. It was a long 2 days awaiting him to recover. Two days later he was doing great they had put him in low dependacy and we were preparing him for milk again. The next day we started introducing milk again and after a week he was back on full feed through his bottle and doing extremly well. The sugeons agreed he was doing well and sent us back to exeter hospital. We arrived back to exeter hospital on feb 19th after a very long and tiring 3weeks in bristol. That night the doctors at exeter agreed he was well enough to go into a room at the hospital with us and start preparing us to go home and on Sunday 21st Feb after 15weeks in hospital's our little boy was aloud home. That night was amazing finally after everything we have been through he came home and was asleep in his moses basket next to our bed. But on monday night he starting to refuse his feeds, we were so scared he was ill again, so on tuesday morning we took him into exeter A&E where we were transferred to the childrens ward, they performed a load of blood test but they all came back clear so i suggested we try a different milk and he gulped it down so we came to the conclusion he didn't like his milk anymore! haha! While we were in hospital they discovered Ethan had a hernia and we had to go back to bristol Children's hospital for another operation. We were devastated, we had only just got home and now we were going back to hospital. On saturday 27th we went to bristol childrens for the operation but by the time we got there they had cancelled his operation due to a emergency case. This kept happening and by monday night we were still in hospital and our son still had not had his operation. But on tuesday morning they managed to perform the operation it only lasted a hour this time and our brave little boy had done so well and was back on track just a few hours later and on wednesday 3rd March we were aloud home. Finally we are all home for good. It has been a very long, tiring, painful, worrying and emonaial 4months but they have been made a lot easier by the continual support from both our family's, friends, work colleges and everyone who works at Exeter and Bristol Neonatel and childrens unit. We want to thank all of the above, without you all we would never had the courage and strength to make it through our journey and be home safe as a family. Thank you so much! At the moment we want to concentrate on our little boy and finally settling him in at home.

 

 

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Many thanks

Jade, Simon and baby Ethan

xxxxxx