Hi
I am new here.

My first and only baby was delivered at 36 weeks by c-section on December 6th 2005.

He has stopped growing at 30 weeks but it took the doctors a while to figure that out. I was given 2 steroid injections (ouch!!!) 2 weeks before the planned caesear to help develop Ethans lungs. I had to go into hospital everyday for that 2 weeks to have Ethans heart monitored and to check the fluid, placenta and see if he had grown.

On the day of the caesar I was a nervous wreck because we had been told by the doctors Ethan was only 1.5kg, that his head wasn't in proportion to his body and that there was a possibility of birth defects but we would't know any of that until he was born. It goes without saying that that was an awful 2 week wait.

To cut a long story short - Ethan was born on December 6th 2005 and weighed 1.93kg. He did not have any birth defects and his body was well proportioned.

I got to hold him for 1 minute before they took him away and I didn't see him for 2 days because he was in Special Care Nursery on the 4th level. I was on he 6th level. Due to the amount of pain after the caesar, it made it impossible to get out of bed. My fiance was fantastic - he took the video camera and digital camera down to Special Care and took heaps of footage of Ethan and would bring it back up to me to see. He even put photos in frames for me to have beside my bed. That gave me the courage to push through the pain barrier and go and see my little boy!!!

The hardest thing for me was knowing that I had had a baby but it didn't feel like it because he wasn't with me. The lady I shared the room with had her baby with her and that was difficult to watch.

Ethan had to stay in hospital for 2 weeks because his weight had dropped down to 1.77 kg and he wasn't allowed home until he was 2kg.

It was so hard going home without him. Words can't even describe it. I did alot of pacing up and down my hallway.

Ethan is now 6 weeks old and weighs 3.1kg. He has shocked everyone by the amount of progress he has made and is making each day.

I feel so blessed to have him in my life and every agonising minute of stress and worry was well worth it.