We fell pregnant after 2 years and 2 IVF attempts. At my 18 wk scan the placenta was low lying but I was told that usually it corrects itself. I was due to have a scan at 32 weeks to check if the placenta had moved. At 31 weeks I had a small bleed. I presented to delivery suite and a scan showed grade 3 placenta praevia and I was admitted on bed rest. I had another bleed while in hospital and a furher scan now showed grade 4 (complete) placenta praevia. After 6 nights and no further bleeding in hospital I was allowed to go home but on strict bed rest. An elective c-section was booked for 36 weeks. At 35 weeks, as I was getting out of bed in the middle of the night I had a massive bleed of about half a litre all over the carpet. Earlier that day I had had some pain for a couple of minutes but I thought it was just a Braxton Hicks contraction which I suspect caused the bleed. We were at the hospital within 10 minutes and they took me straight to theatre where Finn was born on 19 November 2007 at 1.03am. He was 3.1 kg, 48cm long, HC35cm. He was a great size for a premmie and was the biggest baby in NICU.

I lost close to 2 litres of blood as my uterus wouldn’t contract. If I had lost any more blood my heart would of stopped. I had two blood transfusions. As my placenta was in the middle (rather then behind) there was a chance of a hysterectomy if they had to cut through it but the surgeon managed to push it to the side.

Finn’s dad got a quick look at him as they took him to NICU. He was on CPAP for a couple of hours but was getting tired so he was ventilated. He then was fighting the ventilator so they sedated him and also put up a morphine infusion. He had an arterial line in his foot and also another line in his umbilical cord for his TPN (food) infusion.He had hyaline mebrane disease and we were told he would get worse beofre he got better. After 3 days he started to inprove and was put back on CPAP on day 4 and was breathing by himself on day 6. We had our first cuddles on day 4. I was discharged the next day. It was hard leaving him there but at least we had had cuddles. My milk supply was good and they started him on NG feeds which he did well at.

He was moved to HDU after a week and he breastfeed first go the day he turned 36 weeks which is fantastic as that’s only just when their suck reflex kicks in. He was then moved to SCN and we took him home after 14 days. He wasn’t quite up to his birth weight so his NG tube was left in and we had to add a carbohydrate powder to his feeds which he didn’t tolerate that well but he didn’t need it for long.

The nurses loved him as he was so well behaved and just tolerated whatever had to be done to him.

He is now 10 weeks old (5 weeks corrected) and is smiling and laughing and grabbing on to things. His measurements are in the 50th percentile which is great. We had the name Finn picked out for ages. It means fair haired warrior and he certainly is our little warrior with his ginger hair. He feeds anywhere form 3 to 6 hours and has started sleeping longer at night now.

We have one embryo frozen but it will be awhile before we go back. I’d like it to be just the three of us for awhile so I can give Finn the time he deserves.