The Early Birth Association makes a positive difference for babies, families and staff in Neonatal Care at the Trevor Mann Baby Unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, and the Special Care Baby Unit at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

Our Story:

As you all know our little man Theodore made his way into the world 4 weeks and 3 days early but not many people know why, so here is my story and why I am fundraising for the early birth association. 

On Thursday 16th December I went to my midwife appointment for a routine check-up, I heard our little man’s heartbeat which was strong but my bump was measuring 5weeks smaller than it should have. The midwife requested a growth scan and I left waiting to hear when it would be. I received a call Friday saying my growth scan would be on Monday so I had a full weekend worrying about everything and panicking if I didn’t feel him move for an hour. Monday came around and Scott couldn’t get the time off work so my mum came to the growth scan with me (thank God she did!). We had the scan and sure enough our little man was only measuring 30w3d, they also checked my placenta and my amniotic fluid it turns out my fluid was disappearing and my placenta was intermittently failing. I was asked to sit in the waiting room while they looked at the scan. 20 long minutes later I was called to the day assessment unit on my own due to covid, leaving my poor mum on her own worrying in the waiting room. I was asked to do a urine sample and was then hooked up and my blood pressure was monitored and Theodore was monitored. It turns out not only was my placenta intermittently failing, my fluid disappearing and our baby had stopped growing but I also had preeclampsia! When the doctor came round to see me, they told me I was being moved to the labour ward and I was booked in for a C-section on Tuesday.full blown panic and requesting my mum to come join me (no matter how old you get you will always need your mum!) they explained everything again with my mum there and then left me to come to terms with what was going to happen and to be monitored while they waited for a bed to become free on the labour ward. I called Scott to tell him so he could make preparations with work and called my work to let them know I was going to be starting my maternity leave early. My mum went to the gift shop to buy us some tiny baby clothes so our little man had something to wear when he was born as we had nothing that would fit him. At about 11 o’clock I was transferred to labour ward and Mum had to leave me. Fast forward to 9:30pm, me and Scott were cuddled up in the hospital bed watching the Witcher when they came in to monitor Theodore this was nothing unusual as I was monitored every couple of hours throughout the day…. Whilst being monitored I started having tightening in my uterus and each time I had a tightening Theodore’s heartbeat dropped, he was going into distress. They decided at about 10:30pm that it was best to give me an emergency C-section as they were worried, he wouldn’t survive it much longer. This was much sooner than any of us expected so we were told that he might not cry, he would have to be put on a hot cot so we wouldn’t be able to hold him and that there was a chance he would need to be rushed to Brighton to the Trevor man baby unit and we would have to follow once the epidural had worn off. I have no idea how I remained so strong through all this but we took it in our stride and made the best out of a bad situation laughing at our surgery clothes. At 11:30 we were taken into the theatre and I was drugged up ready for surgery. I was so scared but thankful that Scott was there right next to me holding my hand and stroking my hair. At 12:22am on Tuesday 21st December 2021 Theodore was born, it felt like 5 minutes before he cried but Scott said it was less than 30 seconds. They cleaned him up and to our surprise,  despite his weight of 3lb 6oz and his small size he was a strong little man and was doing so much better than anyone expected him to do and was able to stay at the Princess Royal Hospital in the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU). We were both allowed a quick cuddle and he was taken to SCBU.bScott made sure I was ok but I requested he go with our little man and make sure he was ok. Once they got him settled, cleaned and hooked up to all this monitors Scott came back to me with lots of pictures so I could see him. At about 5am the feeling in my legs had come back and I was eager to get out of bed so I could go and see our little man. He was so tiny and had all these wires coming out of him which was heart-breaking to see but he was here and he was doing well. We were so lucky that he did so well and only had one bad day where he struggled with his breathing so 12 days later, we were able to bring our little man home on 1st January 2022. 

I am so thankful that we were so lucky but I know that a lot of other families aren’t. They made our Christmas Day so special with presents for Theodore, Scott and myself and the nurses on the ward made us beautiful cards and decorations with prints of his feet on it which they didn’t have to do, they made such a hard time so special! 

So, I am raising money to thank them all for all their hard work and so they can continue to help other families. It’s so hard having a Newborn but it’s even harder when they need extra help and care and you can’t hold, feed or change them whenever you want but they are so supportive, kind and caring and didn’t care if I came in at 2am and cried. They even came get me throughout the night to feed him! 

So, I will be waking 60miles in April to help raise money so they can continue all the hard work they do and buy anything they need or to treat the babies and parents in their care. I hope you can support me by donating anything you can afford :) 

Thank you for reading and supporting this local charity. 

Lots of love

Charlotte, Scott and Theodore xxx

Ps Theodore is doing amazing now and was  3 months old on 21st  March and weighed 10lb at his last weight check on Thursday 31st March.