Fletcher, our little boy, very clearly wanted to make an entrance to the world and wanted to make it a dramatic entrance. I was 23 weeks pregnant when labour started when I suddenly haemorrhaged and went to MAU at Royal Stoke where I was quickly rushed to the delivery suite and then, at 24 weeks + 4 days, 105 hours of active labour and Fletcher arrived weighing 705grams, less than a bag of sugar. It was the most anxious moment when he was born and he was rushed over to the Neonatal Staff in the delivery suite, we didn’t hear a sound from him, desperate to know whether our little boy was going to be okay, luckily enough we saw one nurse smile, which gave us confidence that he was alright. He was resuscitated at birth and then put on the ventilator straight away (life support) he was rushed off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Royal Stoke straight away without a hold or a cuddle. When we first started our Neonatal Journey, we were quite naive to the journey Fletcher and ourselves would have to go through, just thinking our tiny baby needed to grow, we were told to expect a rollercoaster, and we did not understand the rollercoaster our Fletcher would be subjected too because he was born too early. Our little miracle has battled through multiple infections on multiple occasions such as sepsis, pneumonia, E-Coli and NEC. He has had a grade 2 brain haemorrhage. He has had half a collapsed lung since he was born which constantly needs inflating and both lungs on the verge of collapsing. He has got Stage 2 ROP. He has an open duct in his heart and POF. He has and will always have chronic lung disease. He has had 18 blood transfusions and has been tested for Covid-19 twice. Also, has a calcification mass in the ligament in between his tummy and liver and terrible reflux. He has now been discharged from Royal Stoke Neonatal Unit on 0.8 Nasal Cannula Oxygen. It’s been incredibly hard, and we couldn’t thank and appreciate all the members of staff at Royal Stoke Neonatal Unit enough, they saved our boy’s life multiple times. Fletcher was ventilator dependant for 57 days, with two failed attempts of getting off the vent, each time more harrowing than the other. He had to have steroids in order to improve his lungs to be able to get off the ventilator. Fletcher then progressed to requiring the next stages of breathing support Duopap, CPAP, high flow. Eventually we were delighted when our little Fletcher finally managed to get on to low flow which gave us hope that home was in sight. We have been incredibly lucky to be at Royal Stoke Neonatal Unit, with the fantastic nurses, doctors, consultants who all help to save our babies lives and progress them to eventually be able to come home. They also not only do medical care but they help with the difficulty of being separated by sending pictures, messages and videos via VCreate which has been such a relief to see our son’s beautiful face every single day whilst we haven’t been there. They have constantly kept us up to date with his care and any plan of next steps. We would have been lost in complete devastation without this when we had to go home, and we had to spend 14 days in isolation without him due to Covid-19. We have had so many critical moments where we have been the emergency, and so many immensely proud moments where we have celebrated. We are amazed at how hard Fletcher fought, how strong he is and was to overcome and battle so much! We’ve cried, sobbed, smiled, and laughed! Little babies are amazingly strong babies, and all the neonatal parents we’ve met are incredibly strong parents.

Rosie Brown Rosiebrown1368@yahoo.co.uk Yes Yes