I grew up in Sydney and moved to VIC 3 years ago with my husband. I am a qualified hairdresser by trade but moved into admin about 6 years ago. I worked in real estate up until i had my son. My son Ronan was born prematurely at 27 weeks in March 2006 due to premature labour and preterm rupture of membranes. He was at Monash hospital for 110 days due to chronic lung disease, PDA and a hernia. He is doing really well now and weighs around 11.5kgs at 18 months old.

Through my experiences of having a premature baby i created a website called L’il Aussie Prems (www.lilaussieprems.com.au) in March this year and it’s growing. I have had fantastic support with the media and been mentioned in magazines, newspapers, online newsletters. The site offers all the articles that i was searching for when i had my son. There are also products for prems, premmie playgroups, links to support groups, a forum which is the main feature.

I somehow moved into website creation using wordpress themes. I have been busy over the past few months creating quite a few websites including L’il Aussie Prems and they are;

National Premmie Foundation - www.prembaby.org.au

Lifes Little Treasures - www.lifeslittletreasures.org.au

Bellabee Candles - www.bellabeecandles.com.au

After Your Wedding - www.afteryourwedding.com.au

As well as working on those sites i also started a gift shop called AYW Gifts which specialises in unique gift boxes at affordable prices.

I like to keep myself busy and i certainly have been doing that!! I have to admit that you don’t realise how busy you have been over a yearly period until you write it out..

Premmies On The Net

Something is wrong i said to my husband Mark, 29 as searing pain ripped through me. “I think the baby is coming”. It was mid March 2006 and i was pregnant with my first child, but at only 27 weeks along we weren’t expecting our bundle of joy just yet. But it didn’t really matter if we were ready or not because the very next morning our son, Ronan, was born prematurely.

Nothing could have prepared us for this sudden arrival… or the length hospital stay that ensued. Poor Ronan spent the next 110 days at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne with chronic lung disease and other complications. It was a very difficult time for Mark and I. As my family lived in Sydney, I found a lot of our time was taken up calling relatives to keep them updated on Ronan’s progress. I’m going to start a web journal, i said to Mark. That way our family and friends can log on at any time to see how Ronan is doing. I got started and found the process quite therapeutic.

I was a long-time user of the internet. In fact that was how Mark and i met and we’d been together for eight years and married for three. As well as recording Ronan’s day-to-day progress, i began gathering information about premature births. I was shocked to discover there was very little information available for Aussie parents of premmie babies. There were plenty of overseas websites, but the majority of information and links were of no use to Australian parents.

`There’s not enough support for Aussie parents of prems’ i said to Mark after Ronan left hospital. `So i’m going to start a website just for them’. Several months later and i’d created my website, L’il Aussie Prems, at www.lilaussieprems.com.au. I loaded it up with all the information that i’d been searching for when dealing with Ronan’s premature birth. And i must have hit a chord, because it’s become a huge success. The forum has been particularly popular as it allows parents and family members to discuss issues and ask questions. I’ve been working extremely hard to get the word out and i’m so proud that Australian parents of premmie bubs now have a website that’s got all the information they need.

Article from issue #41 - That’s Life Magazine.

Family Living Interstate

Soon after we moved from Sydney to Melbourne i fell pregnant with our first baby. Ronan arrived 13 weeks early at 27 weeks gestation weighing 1140 grams. Ronan spent 110 days in hospital due to Chronic Lung Disease, PDA & a Hernia which was operated on 1 week before discharge.

With all my family living in Sydney i found it very hard not having the support of my family around here in Victoria. I spoke to them frequently but it was still tough on days when Ronan had not so good days. I felt a strong desire for them to be part of Ronan’s premmie journey so i created a website dedicated to him, and updated his progress daily. The news and photographs were a great comfort to my family, and an outlet for me during this stressful time.

All of my husbands family live here in Victoria and whilst they were nothing short of fantastic it just wasn’t the same as having my own family here with me. My mum flew down the day i had Ronan and she cried the whole time she was here. It was heartbreaking to see my mother crying over what i felt to be a positive experience considering the circumstances.

I do find it hard now that Ronan is growing up as my family cannot see Ronan on a weekly basis. They cannot see him grow and thrive from the small premature baby he once was to the young toddler that he is today. I still update Ronan’s journal with photographs and entries regarding his progress. My mother looks at his website daily and blows kisses to the computer screen good morning which is beautiful. We are going to Sydney in October for a week and i cannot wait for my family to see how big Ronan has become.

Ronan's Site

National Premmie Foundation

L’il Aussie Prems is a sponsor of the National Premmie Foundation which is being launched in October at the Pregnancy, Babies & Children’s Expo here in Victoria. I am apart of the foundation as i am a committee member for Lifes Little Treasures who are just a beautiful group of women. I am creating the foundations website as we speak and having alot of fun doing so. A representative from each of the 6 founding groups were flown up to Sydney overnight back in August to attend a two day meeting on how we were going to progress with starting the foundation. We had a fantastic time and spoke to great lengths about the foundation, rules, aims, visions and we all walked away feeling very overloaded with information.

We have all been working together really well and i am so proud to say that through me L’il Aussie Prems is a sponsor of the foundation. I represent Lifes Little Treasures when it comes to foundation tasks.

The foundation is made up from 6 groups, Loddon Mallee Kids, Lifes Little Treasures, PIPA, NICCUPS, Little Wonders & NNPSNS which is a new group formed on the NSW Central Coast.

Our aims are;

To act as a parent body, guiding and assisting prem support groups by helping to:

• - Raise the profile of all groups
• - Attract members and volunteers

• - Share ‘best practice’, information and resources

• - Raise money for family support and information, hospital equipment, education, and awareness.

• To be a central point of communication and publicity, proving information to families, hospitals, health professionals, relevant health authorities and the wider community.

• Represent the interests of parents of prems in terms of hospital policy, Australia wide.

• Raise the profile and awareness of the plight of NICU/SCU infants and their families, and issues surrounding their care and long term development.

• Assist with research into causes of pre-term birth and the treatment of premature infants.

This is a fantastic new journey we are all excited to be on and i wish the NPF all the success in the world.

www.prembaby.org.au