Alicia's Story

Our daughter Alicia was born at Dorset County Hospital at the end of November at only 25 weeks and 4 days gestation. It was a fast natural labour of 38 minutes due to a placental abruption. She only weighed 1lb 11oz. This made us both feel scared, anxious, angry, happy and just in complete shock. From the moment she was born, Alicia proved to us she was a little fighter.

As Alicia was so early, the Special Baby Care Unit (SCBU) stabilised her and she was able to breathe on her own with oxygen for three hours, before needing to be intubated (put on artificial ventilation).

Transfer to Southampton

She was transported to Princess Anne Hospital in Southampton and admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Stepping into NICU was a very scary and worrying time for us, not knowing what we were going to be told when we arrived on the unit. It was so triggering from the moment we stepped inside.

First Meeting

The first time we saw her properly, she was so tiny and her skin was almost translucent, and so delicate. For the first time, we were able to touch her through an incubator door; little did we know that we would watch her fight for her life. Holding onto every bit of hope. 

The constant noise of beeping machines will forever be a trigger to us. Our hearts raced, never really knowing what we were facing or what was around the corner. A rollercoaster of a journey: quite often one step forward, then two steps back. We had to learn a lot of NICU language, and the nurses, doctors and consultants helped explain everything superbly.

Our NICU journey

Luckily, we met some amazing people along our journey, whom we can now call our friends. Being able to talk to people who were going through the same pain made it much easier to open up to them than our own family/friends at times because they knew exactly what we were dealing with, along with the medical abbreviations, etc.. 

The family liaison team were always there to help and support us. Without the incredible nurses, doctors, and specialised equipment, our journey would have been somewhat different.

90 days in the NICU

We spent 70 days in Room 4 of the NICU before being put into room 2 of the NICU for a further 20 days. Our daughter went through so much, suffering with a large PDA (the PDA is a blood vessel that normally closes shortly after birth, but in premature babies, it may remain open (patent)). Alicia was born with a grade 2 bleed on the brain, requiring a total of 8 blood transfusions, having suspected NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis) twice and Sepsis twice, getting stage 3 RoP (Retinopathy of prematurity) in both eyes and having to have injections in her eyes, and most significantly on and off being fully intubated 5 times and using lots of different types of machines to help keep her breathing and alive. 

None of the previous is good to deal with as a parent and is extremely traumatic, quite how these little ones go through it and yet can deal with it and survive is only down to highly qualified, specialised hero people and top-of-the-range equipment. 

We are lucky

Some are not as fortunate, and when the utterly unthinkable does happen to parents, it is essential to have a safe space to grieve that is not as clinical as a random side room of a hospital and has been thought about in detail. The Ickle Pickles Charity is an amazing charity that helps facilitate this.

Ickle Pickles can be a full-term baby (40 weeks) requiring treatment or surgery, or more often and more likely babies born prematurely (before 37 weeks). Babies born before 27 weeks are classed as extremely premature, and it is often these tiniest babies who need the most help.  

Since 2009, the Ickle Pickles children’s charity has been raising money for the intensive care equipment that treats these babies and helps to keep them alive.

Moving back to Dorset

After our stay in Southampton’s neonatal unit, we moved back to our local hospital, Dorset County Hospital. This was a very upsetting time, not wanting to leave the safety net of Southampton’s NICU for everything they had done to get us where we were.

We could not afford to go backwards. We thought we would not be able to trust anybody else. We spent a further 27 days in SCBU, where we learnt to trust a new team. We were finally discharged home towards the end of March, without any requirement for oxygen at home, which we thought Alicia would need to have, but she was feeding well from a bottle. 

Home, sweet home

The mention of home was very scary. How were we going to cope without any monitoring? This was something we had relied on, but we were ready for home sweet home. We ended up getting an Owlet monitor just for nighttime, just to get some sleep and for our peace of mind. We had missed our home comforts.

A total of 117 days in a hospital has taken its toll on both of us, but we are all thriving now that we are home. Alicia gains weight well, and as I write this is 15 lb 5oz and in 3-6 month clothes. She is developing a lovely character and has a lot to say already. 

She remains under consultant care for the next couple of years, but has proven to be a true Ickle Pickle warrior throughout.

Alicia’s Grandma takes to the sky to give back

At the end of May, Alicia’s grandma, Theresa, took a leap of faith at Skydive Buzz and raised a fantastic £2,675 for premature and sick babies with Ickle Pickles.

Here’s what she shared about her skydive adventure:

“I arrived at Skydive Buzz, Dunkeswell Airfield, full of nerves, checked in, and was immediately guided through to the training room where about nine other nervous people were already waiting. 

Lex, our instructor, took us through exactly what we should do when, provided much reassurance and humour, putting us at ease and went out of his way to face me so that I could lip-read in support of the sounds I get through my cochlear implant. 

Before I knew it, Lex was kitting me out in a yellow flying suit, cool dude black glasses and told me he was going to be my tandem diver… yay! I had just a minute or two for a quick hello to my wonderful family and friends, I was so grateful they were there to support me, and a quick cuddle with adorable Alicia before making my way out to the waiting plane. 

I let Lex know I get travel sick, but had taken a tablet just in case and thank goodness I had. We sat astride benches in the plane, tightly packed against the person in front and the person behind, sliding along the bench and into position by the open door when it was our turn.

I looked out to a patchwork of tiny fields, the odd fluffy bit of cloud and the airfield three miles below as the cold, crisp air buffeted against me. Was I really doing this? 

Then, as Lex pushed my head back against his shoulder, we were off. It’s a very surreal feeling, but I was not scared, like I expected to be, as we left the plane. Lex spun us round, then again the other way, and my stomach lurched.....oh no! I waved my hands frantically to tell him to stop, and we plummeted straight down as the fields rapidly got larger below us. A massive sense of exhilaration with the speed and a Bart Simpson hairdo thrown in for free!

Sadly, there were no birds around us, but it was good to see a couple of other skydivers. When the parachute opened, the expected hard jerk was milder than expected, but that’s when my troubles began. We were turning in what felt like tight sweeps as we descended, and much though I was trying to control and ignore it and just enjoy the view, the nausea was overwhelmingly intense, especially as Lex was bringing us in to land. 

I lifted my legs up, reached twice, but managed not to be sick somehow. A light bump and slide, and I was SO grateful to be back on the ground! 

From always wondering what it must be like to fly like a bird, I now know I couldn’t hack it! I’m so pleased to have done it. I’m proud to have raised a decent chunk of money for Southampton NICU as a thank you for looking after Alicia for us, but I won’t ever be doing another skydive!!”

Please help Theresa reach her target of £3,000 and support her.

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