Born weighing just 2lb 2… Look who is 2 today!

Happy 2^nd Birthday to my beautiful little girl Ella Blythe Louise Taylor!

Born on 1^st September 2012 weighing just 2lb 2 ounces and ten weeks premature! Look at her now!

Still small for her age and still yet to take her 1^st steps or speak any sense, she is the happiest little person you could ever meet! (I understand her! It’s like a secret language!)

Everyone keeps saying ‘she won’t catch up until she is 4 years old’!

I had a condition call preeclampsia which is where the placenta doesn’t work properly. Mild forms are ok but if it develops into a severe case then it is dangerous to continue with the pregnancy.

I spent 2 weeks in hospital being monitored until eventually my condition got to the point where we were both in trouble. They gave me steroids to develop Ella’s lungs and a few days later when all the charts were heading south, they decided to perform a C Section.

When the medical team said they had no other choice but to deliver the baby, my heart sunk. I still had 10 weeks to go. Would she be ok? What would she look like? Would she be able to breathe on her own?

My husband Paul arrived within the hour and by 11am I was in the operating theatre. 

Ella Blythe was born at 11.25am! She weighed just 2lb 2 and the joy when she started to cry! The steroids had worked and she was able to breathe on her own. I only got to see he for a second and she was whisked away to spend the next 8 weeks in the special care baby unit.

One of the mid wives took me to see Ella the next day in intensive care. She was so small but perfect! There was about 8 babies in the intensive care with Ella. I could put my hands into the incubator and touch her. She felt fluffy and very hot!

A few days later I was allowed to hold her! Just for a few minutes because it’s so important to keep her temperature stable. She spent 10 days on intensive care before being transferred to room 2, where the big girls slept.

Only 5 days later she was in room 3! What an achievement! She was the only baby in an incubator in room 3. All the other babies were in cots but because Ella was just small and had no apparent health problems meaning she didn’t need the intense care.

It was a long 8 weeks I can tell you! I spent 2 with her in hospital because my blood pressure was still an issue.

Once the babies can breathe on their own, keep their own temperature, do regular wee and pooh, be able to take a bottle and demand food; then they are ready to come home.

It felt like forever with the bottle! She had to learn how to feed. Babies who are born at the right time just know automatically how to suck and swallow. Ella had to learn. It was so frustrating! Sometimes she didn’t even wake up so she would then be fed through a tube in her nose!

On 16^th October we arrived at SCABU and a nurse came to us very excited. Ella woke up crying in the night demanding a bottle! Result! The day after she was allowed home! She was still only 4lb 5!

Here are some photos…

Home time!

Christening day. 

1st Birthday

with her cousins.

with Ava her 1st friend on the special care unit

With Sofia her best friend

Look who is 2!

 Ella enjoyed the perfect weekend. It makes you appreciate those special times and never to take anything for granted. We have been blessed with the perfect gift!

A special thanks to all the support from family and friends during this time and a special mention to the excellent staff at Oldham special care baby unit and maternity wards for looking after me and my special girl.

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Rosie xx