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