Hi Sharna,

My little one was four days overdue when she was born by emergency caesar after getting tangled in the umbilical cord. She spent 19 days in the NICU and 7 more in an ordinary ward suffering from both meconium aspiration syndrome, and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (which is a brain injury from lack of oxygen). Her prognosis was pretty bad, but she's now 18 months old and has proved all the specialists wrong- she's on track or ahead in every developmental area, and just this month is developing fabulous ordinary toddler behaviour, like prima donna tantrums every five minutes .

I'll never forget that time in the NICU- we were able to stay in parent accommodation, fortunately, but it was just awful- one terrible setback after another, and finally baby steps forward until we could escape. And it was strange having a non-premmie baby amongst all the teeny tiny ones- she weighed in at 3.575kg, measured 52cm, and was so big in comparison that they couldn't find clothes to fit her!

Sorry to hear that your family had to go through the same, and for even longer- it's so good to be past that time