On Sunday the 1st of October at 21:31pm, our beautiful boy Renan Thomas Grisdale entered the world 8 weeks early at just 32 weeks. Our birth was far from straight forward, traumatic even and our pregnancy not much better.

At 7 weeks pregnant we had a “threatened miscarriage” followed by another at 16 weeks pregnant. At our 12 week scan we were told there were abnormalities with Hayley’s uterus which may cause complications and at 20 weeks told Renan was growing below the <1st centile, with placenta insufficiency and a few other concerning indicators showing up. This meant practically weekly visit to the hospital to check on our boy and how he was growing. We were told it was unlikely he would make it to full term and from 24 weeks we were having to mentally prepare for our baby to arrive premature. At 30 weeks & 5 days, the waters surrounding Renan broke at 5:15am - this posed further risk of infection or of course going into early labour. Amazingly, Renan held on in there until 32 weeks and 1 day, but clearly it was time for him to come. Renan was born under the <2nd centile with lungs developed of that of a 30 week old. He was born at 3lbs 5 and has since lost some weight now weighing 3lbs 4. With his heart rate dropping, forceps were needed to get him out as quickly as possible, then Renan was rushed down to NICU with daddy, and I (mummy) was taken to theatre due to my placenta de-attaching and being stuck inside. It was 4am before I was recovered enough from theatre to go and see my boy.

Since being out for 1 week, Renan has fought so so hard and overcome so much already. He has dropped from full ventilation, to CPAP mask, to now just being on high flow breathing prods up his nose. He has fought off tummy infections and is trying to build up his tolerance of taking milk through his tube, he has fought through issues with his blood and jaundice (& continues to fight this each time it comes back). After a week of knowing Renan, we were able to see our babies face for the first time (as before he had mask covering almost everything but his little nose) and we had our first cuddle 🤍

As Renan’s mummy and daddy- we are unbelievably proud of him and all that he has already overcome and continues to overcome daily. But, we know that this would never have been possible without all the amazing care we as a family have been shown from the very start and are continued to be shown by the NICU team. From staff working at fetal medicine, placenta clinic, triage, the midwife & doctors who supported his birth and the NICU team who ventilated & incubated him promptly and continue to care for him daily. The equipment and technology available to help premature babies is unbelievable and we are so lucky to have this all available for our boy- but as you can imagine, it is expensive (very expensive).

On behalf of our boy Renan, we want to raise some money to support the amazing work of the NICU team and the life saving equipment that is available to babies just like ours. We would be so unbelievably grateful if anyone could spare any donation, no matter how big or small to our fundraiser for East Lancashire NICU.

Thank you all for reading,

Nathan, Hayley and Baby Renan x