A very special baby

In Spring 2007 1st Steps' fund-raising work was in aid of the Special Care Baby Units at Stoke Mandeville and Queen Charlotte's hospitals. To date over £8,000 has been raised, with some events still in progress.

On 3^rd September 2006 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Felicity and Stephen's baby Aedhan was born at 24 weeks, weighing just 770g – around 1lb 11oz, after a 17 hour labour. Although he was not breathing by himself, he had a heartbeat throughout, and was intubated after the third attempt.

The future looked very bleak for such a fragile little boy and, once stabilised, he was rushed to Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, Hammersmith, where he spent the first 5 weeks of his life in the intensive care unit. He was on a ventilator for three days, and CPAP for around 8 weeks. He had two blood transfusions, some antibiotics for a bladder problem and had frequent desats and some bradys.

A day before his mummy’s birthday, he was transferred back to Stoke Mandeville and slowly came off all the monitors, until he was just on an apnoea mattress.

On 10^th December 2006, Aedhan came home, which was before his due date – a big surprise! He spent Christmas and New Year with his family, and became such a hungry boy that breastmilk was not sufficient, and needed formula too. By 10^th February 2007, he was approaching 7lb, and had grown out of loads of clothes! He is smiling, chatting and has even turned himself over a few times! He is behaving like a new baby, has learnt to sleep through the night, and is our little miracle.

The whole family cannot speak highly enough in praise of the work of the staff who saved Aedhan's life at the two hospitals, and the fund-raising work is just a token of appreciation.