Adam & Ellis Grace’s story

 

I was in hospital from 20 weeks with stomach pains and while being cared for in the Westburn Ward, my waters broke. I was examined and told I was to be admitted to the Rubislaw Ward where they looked after me for 4 weeks then then admitted to the Asgrove Ward where I stayed for another 2 weeks. At 26 weeks I went to the toilet and the next thing I knew I was being rushed to have an emergency caesarean, my husband was phoned to come to the hospital right away, we had twins, a boy and a girl who were born on the 27th July 2004 at 06:34 and 06:35. I was still very ill and my precious babies being born at 26 weeks were in intensive care in the Neonatal Unit where the care the received was amazing.

 

But my wee boy, who was named Adam, was critically ill, his lungs were not working properly. Adam lived for only 14 hours before he sadly passed away, but we had to keep strong for our daughter Ellis Grace, she was still in intensive care and on a ventilator. My husband saw Ellis Grace every day but as I was still very ill I could not, but I was given a photograph of Ellis which kept me going.

 

I finally got out of hospital and our routine was designed around visiting Ellis. We changed her nappies and got involved daily in looking after her but it was not for another six weeks before I got the chance to cuddle my baby for the first time, and that is a day I will never forget for as long as I live.

 

We stayed in intensive care for 11 weeks altogether during which time we had a few ups and downs before moving into the high dependency unit where Ellis remained on oxygen for quite a while. The next big challenge was to get Ellis feeding from a bottle which happily she managed without a problem, so it was only a few more days before we got to take Ellis home, happily without taking oxygen as well!

 

We arrived home on the 4th of November 2004, 2 days after their due date, and after all we’d been through we can never thank all of the staff at the Neonatal Unit enough for all of the support we relieved during that time. At the time of writing this, our daughter Ellis Grace is nearly 4 years old and a happy, healthy girl who goes to nursery, ballet and swimming .lessons