I completely understand why you want to be as prepared as possible - especially after going through that painful ordeal with your mum. The fact that you may have to go through the same thing for the second time, and in this instance it'll be because of your child, breaks my heart a little for you but I know you will get through it once again.

I've been there with the no food, no money, no nothing all because of having to pay for things that we just shouldn't have to worry about when our baby is born under those circumstances. But I made it through - and you know exactly how . If anything, because you are an Aus citizen you will have so many more support services accessible to you that just weren't an option for me at all and I hope that provides just a little reassurance to you.

I promise you: the people at your hospital will do all they can to get you there every day. So much research has been done about how important Mummy contact is with prem babies, even when we can't physically touch them yet, and as your hospital is set up to deal with Coffee Bean's care, they will definitely be on top of how integral your presence is. Royal Women's here even has accommodation available for families who live a long distance away so I have to believe the medical profession in this field supports all of the research undertaken. In fact, I heard fellow mums get kindly told off for not getting in there every day so if you are wanting to go, and the only thing preventing you is a lack of funds for transport, they will bend over backwards to get you there. And if for some reason they don't, so many other community support services will.

When you're stressed about preparing and planning, etc... and want a bit of reassurance, just picture me being wheeled into Emergency wearing no pants or underwear, definitely no hospital bag and all alone, thinking I was constipated. Ninety minutes later Seth was here and 5 weeks and 6 days later he was at home. Yes the process sucked at times, really badly, but if we end up sharing similar experiences you will one day wake up and realise that although we can't control much of anything despite how much we try to, sometimes it's those things that surprise us out of the blue that matter the most.

S xo