After being born 10 weeks premature Teddy spent 11 weeks in Kings College Hospital and Special Care Baby Unit @ Princess Royal University Hospital. The nurses across both of these units were amazing with caring for our child and helping us on the road to getting them home. When your baby is Intensive Care things move and change very quickly - this keeps your mind occupied with the progression and also picking yourself back up from set backs. However when you get to SCBU things tend to slow down and the final steps to get your baby home are things that your baby will do at their own pace. Premature or not you baby is the same as others and they get bored of laying in a cot all day, there are inquisitive and want to look around, they need to be stimulated with noises, colours, lights just like every other baby. During our time at SCBU we took up our own toys ect for Teddy, however we know how great it would be if these were accessable at the hospital for parents to use for their babies.

Lucky for us, when we were close to coming home Teddy had his own room and we were able to store our car seat/pushchair in our room and we were allowed to take Teddy out for a short walk in his pushchair. Sadly if you are in a nursery with other babies, space for storage of something as big as a pushchair can be limited.

When your baby is discharged from SCBU they need to be able to take a feed by bottle and also have a bottle that works for your baby. We tried four different brands before we found the bottle that worked best for Teddy. Some brands you have to buy more than one bottle at a time which is a waste if that bottle doesn't work for your baby.

Me & Bill are looking to raise £1000 for SCBU for the following things:

- sensory toys
- bouncers
- communal doona car seat/pushchair
- different brands of bottles for the trial period to see what works best for your baby.

We want to make the journey for other parents as easy as possible.

Amy & Bill x