We cannot express the gratitude we will forever hold for being offered an opportunity like this in such a trying time.
Our little girl arrived unexpectedly at 33 weeks & 1 day. I took myself from night shift (due to reduced movements of baby) to the Wagga Base hospital. What we thought was just a check up (for peace of mind) quickly turned into our baby arriving hours later by an emergency caesarean. Our tiny little Alora Sage weighing 4 pounds 8 ounces was admitted to the Special Care Nursery.
Amongst all the emotions that come with having your first baby, we were also overwhelmed by the uncertainty we were facing over the coming weeks. Alora required breathing assistance for a few hours after birth, along with a feeding tube, cannula & continuous monitoring, phototherapy for jaundice, continuous blood sugar checks & heel pricks for blood tests.
Not being able to take your baby to your room with you was one of the most challenging times, to then being discharged to go home to a different town without your baby – the feeling is indescribable.
The doctors said we may qualify to stay with Ronald McDonald House for the duration of Alora’s stay in the Special Care Nursery – which we did. Our little girl was in the SCN for 20 days and being able to stay at RMHC Wagga for 16 of these nights took so much stress off our shoulders allowing us to be there for our baby girl.
Kiara & Jess are two of the most kind hearted people and their generosity will never be forgotten – arriving back to our room after 14 hour long days at the hospital to a bag of gifts for our Alora, or a box of chocolates to sweeten our day, are the kind gestures that got us through this hard time. Always checking in on the progress of Alora when we were leaving of a morning and offering us any additional support they could.
Both Kyle and I would like to shine a huge light on Ronald McDonald House Wagga & say THANK YOU – Brittney, Alora’s mum.
