Becky and I had a long hard journey into parenthood. But last year we were so lucky that our first round of IVF worked and we were hopeful that once we got that positive test, things were going to run more smoothly for us. We couldn't have been more wrong,

After a hellish pregnancy that resulted in Becky having 2 hospital admissions, and being told she couldn't go home until he was born at just 30 weeks, a planned Caesarean section was booked at 32 weeks.

We didn't get that far. On the morning of the 28th August at just 31 + 5, I went to work and phoned Becky on my way while she was hooked up to a monitor. Not long after I got to work she phoned me again to tell me that she had been advised to not have breakfast as the midwife didn't like the look of the report. . At 07:56 she phoned again and said "Get here now". At 09:06 Austin Samuel was born via emergency C section.

While in theatre a team from Buscot were with us, there to take control of Austin's care from the moment he was born. They made sure he was ok, let us both see him and then took him straight upstairs in an incubator - or his 'fish tank' as I affectionately called it. Not long after Becky was taken back to recovery, I was able to go and see Austin and while there I was given a pack that had 'BIBS' written all over it. Little did I know then how important those 4 letters were.

As we settled in to our new life, as parents of a premature baby, we began to notice 'funded by BIBS' was on nearly everything we saw. The family room; somewhere we could make ourselves a hot drink or sit for lunch so we weren't too far from our boy; headphones to be worn during ward rounds, and even incubators and heart rate monitors. Not just the little extras that make life easier for the parents, but the lifesaving equipment, the things you would expect to be paid for by the NHS. They also furnished the 'flats' on the ward where we spent our first night as a family when Austin was 33 days old. He came home the following day, at 34 days old but Bibs didn't stop caring for us then. Becky and Austin regularly attend the BIBS family support groups and I know Becky finds it really helpful to speak to other people who know what NICU life is like, as until you experience it, you can't begin to imagine.

We can't thank the team on Buscot enough for everything they did for our little boy. He is here, he is safe and he is well because of them. It was a long 34 days, Austin's insulin levels were far too high (the opposite of me) and it was a slow and steady process of keeping him stable and increasing his feeds and reducing the fluids he was getting. But under the watchful eye of the amazing doctors and nurses, he did it without the need of medication. Buscot becomes your entire world when you have a baby there, the staff become like your family, always there with a smile or a cuddle at just the right moment to get you through. So if by raising some money I can help them, then that is what I will do!