You see other parents on their NICU journey but you never actually think it would happen to you. But here we are trying to navigate life as NICU parents in a different city & a toddler at home.

On 13th February after a week in and out of hospital due to feeling genuinely unwell, reduced movements and an A&E Dr telling me I was just “anxious” I was watching tv in bed when all of a sudden I had some excruciating pain on my right side & my stomach went really hard. I genuinely thought it was trapped wind and so I moved position and then stood up, but the pain was so intense I because all hot and flustered and felt really sick. I was crying my eyes out and probably after about 20 mins, Joe just happened to come home from work early to check if I wanted to go with him to pick our daughter, Ella, up from his parents house. He ran upstairs to see me & straight away said we’re going to the hospital. At first I was like no, it’s just trapped wind they’ll laugh at me! But my god, I’m so glad he did as things could have been a totally different story for both me and Ivy.

Ivy was then born on Valentine’s Day via emergency c-section as a Category 1 due to her heart rate dropping on the monitor and me still being in so much pain which they are thinking was my placenta abrupting (they have sent my placenta off for testing but we may never get a definite answer). Our tiny little girl weighed 2.9lbs and was born at 28+1 weeks.

She was rushed straight to NICU where she was ventilated but after 48hrs still needed that support and so they had to transfer her to a Level 3 hospital which was in another City. I had to stay at Derby due to been treated for Sepsis and Ivy got moved to Nottingham. Joe went with Ivy and I spent a further 2 days in hospital without either of them by my side which was tough when eventually I was able to be discharged to be with them.

Ivy is now 2 weeks old, she is off her ventilator and on CPAP however she is now being treated for meningitis which the Drs explain it as an infection of the fluid around her brain and requires 21 days worth of antibiotics. She also has a small bleed on her brain which they are hopefully over time will be absorbed. Unfortunately she is still not well enough to be transferred to Derby and so I am staying in Nottingham and Joe is travelling back & forth each day so he can be at home for Ella after Nursery. Although Joe’s work has been really supportive, his paternity leave ended yesterday and so he is continuing to stay off work but as un-paid.

The Neonatal Care Leave & Pay doesn’t start until April and so just like a lot of parents, we aren’t able to get any extra support. I hate asking for help (it’s not in my character at all) however I’ve had a few people message me that are following our journey that are wanting to help & have suggested starting a go fund me page.

We unfortunately don’t have any savings as we had to go through numerous round of IVF for Ella and fertility treatments for Ivy.

If you could spare a couple of pounds to help out on the wages Joe will be loosing to help towards house bills, petrol and increased nursery costs we would be forever grateful and it would just be one little less thing to worry about whilst we are already on a rollercoaster journey being NICU parents & allow Joe to stay off work a little longer to support me and spend time with Ivy.

We have a long journey ahead of us but we know Ivy is a little fighter and we can’t wait for the day we can get her home to be a family of 4.

Thank you x x