This September, me and Jacob are walking 60 miles for Bliss 💜

On 25th May, our little boy Vinny arrived very unexpectedly at just 33 weeks, weighing only 4lb 4oz, after a placental abruption meant he had to be delivered by emergency C-section.

Our introduction to parenthood was nothing like we’d imagined.

Vinny was taken straight to neonatal care and intubated to help him breathe. It was 12 hours before I even got to meet my baby, and more than 24 hours before I finally got to hold him in my arms.

And even once we could hold him, we couldn’t just pick up our own baby when we wanted to.

He was attached to so much equipment — breathing support, monitors, feeding tubes, cannulas and wires — that we had to ask for help just to hold our son. Nurses would carefully move everything around us and place him into our arms.

Something we’d always imagined would be the most natural thing in the world suddenly wasn’t simple at all.

For the next six weeks, neonatal care became our world.

We watched our tiny baby go through intubation, CPAP, high-flow oxygen, feeding tubes, cannulas, blood tests and daily heel pricks on his tiny feet. We watched him be poked and prodded again and again, knowing every single thing was being done to help him, while wishing we could take it all away.

There were steps forward and steps backwards. Days when we thought we were getting closer to home, followed by days when he needed more support again.

But slowly, things began to disappear.

A little less breathing support.

One less wire.

One less tube.

We celebrated moving into a cot. We celebrated breastfeeding. We celebrated breathing on his own.

Things that might seem tiny to someone else felt absolutely enormous to us.

And eventually, after six weeks of waiting, watching and hoping, we finally got to do the thing we’d wanted to do since the moment he was born — pick up our baby and take him home. 💜

Those six weeks changed us forever.

We know what it’s like to leave hospital without your baby. We know what it’s like to sit beside their cot staring at monitors. We know what it’s like to have to ask someone else for help just so you can hold your own child.

And we know how incredibly lucky we are that our story ended with Vinny coming home.

So this September, me and Jacob are walking 60 miles for Bliss — for our little boy, for every premature or sick baby fighting from their very first days, and for every parent sitting beside a neonatal cot right now waiting for their own milestones.

Every mile is for how far our little boy has already come.

If you can sponsor us, even £1 would mean more than you know and will help Bliss continue supporting premature and sick babies and their families.

60 miles for Vinny.

60 miles for every tiny fighter.

60 miles for Bliss. 💜