For “Volunteer Of The Year” with my local council!!!

I do not know who nominated me but i just received a letter in the mail that i need to attend a ceremony on Australia Day for the announcement of winners. It does say that i was nominated for all the hours or hard work and dedication i have put into helping premature baby charities and my good will.

I have had a very busy year i have to admit. Creating L’il Aussie Prems was my first challenge. Whilst it is easy to create a website i needed the media’s help with getting the word “out there” that the site is here. The advice i have always been given is “people will not go to your site if they do not know it exists”. I have been very lucky within the media circle and i cannot thank the media enough for their help. You can view the media articles i have so gratefully received HERE.

In June i organised an event in my area for the first ever National Premmie Day. It was a great success and we had over 35 people attend the morning tea. Through this event i came into contact with Lifes Little Treasures.

In July i joined the committee for the Melbourne group Lifes Little Treasures. I joined their committee and earned the role of “webmaster”. I created their website and had great fun in doing so.

In August this year i became a part of the committee for the National Premmie Foundation. I also created their website and whilst it took a good month to get it online i was very happy with the results.

In between creating websites i also attend morning teas here in Victoria for not only Lifes Little Treasures but also my own personal premmie playgroups. I am actually creating a new website for another one of Australia’s prem support groups so things never slow down for me.

I do not know what i would be doing in my life path had my son not been born prematurely. I was not aware of the “premature life” but i would not change it for the world. I love helping people and it is a passion that i hold close to my heart. I always have time to help people and love every minute of it.

I know that i will be up against many many inspirational people within the community and whether i win or lose is not important to me, knowing that i helped make a difference to people’s lives is.

Wow the forum has been really CRAZY over the past month. There are now 261 members and it is great to see so many join each month. The forum has been a great support for many parents like myself and everyday it is turning into a little online community. Members are becoming friends, meeting for lunch or just coffee (i am jealous that i cannot meet everyone) but that is what makes the forum such a great place, the diversity of the members and also the fact that members are from within Australia or afar.

I set up the forum with as many categories as possible to cover a wide range of main topics. From the gestation from when your baby was born to feeding, birth complications, milestone setback and delays which a lot of premature babies face, general chatter and game threads. The forum was set up not only for support but also to encourage friendship and communication for those who may live hours away from a town which is why i wanted the forum to showcase a range of areas not just premature baby related sections.

I encourage everyone to join! Many of the members have had premature babies born from 23 weeks to 36 weeks all due to different complications (pre-eclampsia seems to be in the running for the most cause of premature birth).

We would love to see you on the forum. You can join www.lilaussieprems.com.au/forum

If you feel that you may wish to share information and progress with your family and friends you can also create your own blog www.lilaussieprems.com.au/bloggers 

What a tiring day i had today. I was an exhibitor at the expo in Melbourne representing the National Premmie Foundation.  We decided to officially launch the foundation at the expo as we had a chance to talk one on one to parents of premature babies and also family members who knew someone that has had a premature baby. We had a table full of brochures, a raffle with many fantastic prizes, fundraising items like pens, clips, bubbles for the kids and more.

The biggest feature in our exhibition was the humidicrib which was generously donated to us to borrow for the launch. We also had dolls made which represented the size of a real premature baby and the amount of people from the public who just could not fathom how small a premature baby could be and survive was out of this world! Quite a large amount of the general public were not aware of prematures babies and their fight for survival.

Amanda from Loddon Mallee Kids and myself walked one of the humidicribs around the expo for a short while. We had a few people come up and comment that they thought a real baby was going to be inside the crib! I thought that was pretty funny. The day actually went relatively quickly but that would be because of the amount of people i spoke to. I haven’t spoken to so many people in one day for quite a while, since i was in hairdressing actually. My feet are still feeling the soreness from standing all day but it was totally worth it for all the beautiful premature babies out there in NICU and at home with their families.