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  • To anyone that thinks that the journey of prematurity ends when you bring your baby home, you are incredibly mistaken. Almost one year since Theo’s birth at 25 weeks and 6 days gestation, he is crawling, giggling and thriving. The progress he has made in one year has been beyond our wildest dreams. But this isn’t just thanks to me. The after care and support we have received for Theo from the NHS has been exceptional. He is still under a speech and language therapist, a dietician and a physio. One year on, he still has to work harder to do things that come naturally to most babies. The speech and language therapist has helped him to learn how to suck from a breast / bottle, a skill that he didn’t get to practice inside the womb at 32 weeks. She’s now helping us to wean, very slowly, because Theo has oral hypersensitivity caused by ventilators and NG tubes. The dietician has helped Theo to make it on to the centile growth chart when he was severely underweight, a result of his bowel surgery and not being able to tolerate feeds. The physio has helped Theo to reach his physical milestones despite the fact that he had a bleed on his brain at birth. This is all because he missed out on 3+ precious months of developing naturally in the womb. Instead he spent that time receiving invasive treatment every day when he shouldn’t have even felt a human touch for months. That invasive treatment is what saved his life, and we are forever grateful, but we still feel the effects today. I’m not writing this post for sympathy. Far from it. I feel like the luckiest Mum in the world. But I’ve had quite a lot of insensitive things said to me since having Theo, so I am writing this post to make others more aware of what having a premature baby really means. A premature baby is not an extra tiny baby that ‘just needs to grow’. A premature baby has fought more battles in its short life than we probably ever will, and those battles continue long after discharge. Every premature baby is a miracle that deserves to be celebrated. Please share this post in your story if you want to help spread this message (tap the share arrow under the photo) 💫🙏🏼 Long live the NHS #PrematurityIs
  • The wonder in his eyes 💫✨💫 We’re loving Theo’s new play may this week, gifted from @munchkinandbearuk. Hope you all have a lovely weekend 💕
  • I didn’t think I could love you any more until I saw you become a father. Happy Birthday my love @scottwh9 💫🎂🎈🎁
  • Turns out travel blogging with a baby is same-same but different. I feel this photo summarises my evolution well 🤣📸
  • I can’t believe I’m saying this but my baby will be 1 at the end of this month! This cheeky boy was born at 1lb 13oz and is now over 15lb. His latest tricks are sticking his tongue out at you and practicing the “downward dog” yoga pose whilst attempting to crawl. His weight gain has slowed down a bit as he’s just so blooming active now (my health visitor said this is a typical trend in babies when they get on the move), but his development is amazing us all. Theo’s Birthday is going to come with so many mixed emotions for me; memories of the traumatic birth followed by our time in neonatal. And in my head I can’t help but think he should only be 8.5 months old on his first birthday. But regardless of age or size, our boy is a miracle. All premature babies are. It’s been an incredibly tough year, but he has brought so much joy and purpose to our lives and he has been worth every second of the blood, sweat and tears (plenty of tears, trust me). However I want to look at his age, he will have been on this planet for one whole year and that is definitely worth celebrating 🌍💕💫 #25weeker #PreemieStrong
  • What is it about men wearing babies? 😍 Love my boys so much 💕 #menwearingbabies

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