Two mums celebrate premature children who are now set to start Primary school

Express & Star

Amanda and Jade met in the Neonatal Unit of New Cross Hospital and have remained friends ever since. They are now getting their kids - who have become besties - ready for their first day of primary school.

Transcript

00:00Well, we wanted to tell the story because there's not many babies.

00:04They were all born under two pounds.

00:06Yeah.

00:07And now they're all starting reception.

00:09Even when, like, Steph, when we first got out of hospital,

00:13I would always call Steph to say,

00:15you're already going through this, what's happening,

00:17how do I do this?

00:18Who do I call?

00:19Hi, my name is Steph, I'm 36.

00:22I am mummy to, what's your name?

00:24Freya.

00:25Freya, and you are how old?

00:27Four.

00:28Four.

00:30Hi, I'm Amanda, I'm 41.

00:32I'm mother to Leonardo and Kimberly.

00:36How old are you two?

00:38Four.

00:39Four.

00:40So I found out that I was pregnant in June 2019.

00:45Surprised.

00:47Everything was fine up until I was 23 weeks pregnant

00:52and my waters went.

00:56I was in hospital then for about eight days.

01:00Obviously I didn't go into labour.

01:02But then I got an infection at 25 weeks and four days.

01:09I was admitted into New Cross Hospital

01:13and then they had to bring Freya at 25 weeks and six days

01:17due to the infection and the risk to her.

01:21Well, you'd have to do it now.

01:23That's it, yeah.

01:24I had an emergency C-section and she was born.

01:27I found out I was pregnant in June 2019

01:32and then I was having a girls' trip to Jamaica.

01:36It was a planned girls' trip and I was like,

01:38oh, this is great, first girls' trip ever.

01:41I'm pregnant, so no alcohol.

01:44And then we came back and then my doctor at the time,

01:51the consultant at the hospital, kept saying I was

01:55geriatric pregnancy, yeah, geriatric pregnancy.

01:59And then, so constantly I was in there every week,

02:02every week checking my blood pressure,

02:04but they said I've got white coat syndrome

02:07and then I'd be off sick at work, on sick at work,

02:13back at work, off work.

02:15And then eventually my consultant was on annual leave

02:20and my blood pressure had gone up.

02:22I don't know if it's because my brother gave me Nandos.

02:24I don't know.

02:26My blood pressure was up and it wouldn't come down.

02:29And I was in the hospital and then they came down that morning

02:32and said, you're going to have to go into labour.

02:34I said, no, no, no.

02:36My consultant told me I've got to get to 28 weeks.

02:40It was like, no, no, no, you've got to go now.

02:43And that was 27 weeks, five days.

02:46So that was quite early.

02:49My brother was a kilo and Kimmy was 650 grams,

02:57their weight when they were born.

02:59Tiny, you could hold them in your hand.

03:04But I didn't see him that, after having C-section,

03:07emergency C-section, I didn't see them for the day.

03:11I had to wait till the next morning and went downstairs.

03:16The shock, oh, yeah, the shock.

03:19I went to a Birmingham hospital and I was like,

03:22OK, let's go and see because, oh, God, only God knows.

03:26And then they said to me, yeah, it's two.

03:30And I was like, oh, God, only God.

03:33Only you, God, could do this, only.

03:36And then I called their dad and explained to him.

03:39I said, oh, it's twins.

03:41And then my cousin was there at the time and I was like,

03:44it's a twin, it doesn't matter, it's a blessing.

03:46I was like, yeah, but we're going to Jamaica.

03:49And from what I found out, it felt like I just blew up.

03:53From that point, I just blew up.

03:56Sorry, I couldn't hide that I was pregnant.

03:59But, yeah, it was quite a rollercoaster,

04:02but it was an emotion rollercoaster.

04:06These were the nappies that they used in the neonatal.

04:09And they actually came up to their armpits.

04:11Yeah, and then you had to fold it and tuck it under.

04:14They were the best.

04:15Little dummies as well.

04:17I remember when they offered them the dummies

04:19and I was like, it would help them with crying.

04:21I was like, but why not tend to their need?

04:23Why do they need to stop them from crying?

04:25Because that was to help with their suckling

04:27and their breathing with the oxygen, that was, which we didn't know.

04:30Yeah, so I'd been in there about three weeks

04:33when the twins were admitted.

04:35And then it was about two weeks after that we got talking

04:38In the neonates, you move, as the babies get, shall we say better,

04:43as they progress, they get moved down from intensive care

04:47into higher dependency.

04:50Into higher dependency and then from there into,

04:54I don't know what these ones are called.

04:57It's just like a standard hospital.

04:59Yeah, less nurses, isn't it?

05:01So when they're better, they're in the room where there's less intervention.

05:04Because in the intensive care it was all sisters, wasn't it?

05:07Yeah, yeah.

05:08So I had one sister to two babies.

05:10Yeah.

05:11And then each, it seems like there was one sister to two babies.

05:16So then when we moved down into the high dependency room,

05:20that was when we started speaking

05:22because I recognised one of Amanda's relatives that I knew.

05:26Yeah.

05:27And that was like, I know that girl.

05:29Yeah.

05:30And that's how we got to speaking.

05:31Yeah.

05:32It got to the point where the nurses knew that we were such good friends.

05:36The twins were able to move down into the room with less intervention,

05:40but they didn't move them until Friar was ready.

05:42I was ready to move, yeah.

05:44So we moved together.

05:45Yeah, so all our beds were next to each other.

05:47So they all came home on oxygen,

05:50and Friar was tube fed for three months, all in all.

05:55But you didn't, I didn't feel that Friar was coming home

06:00probably until when you move into the last room.

06:04So that would have been January time, so only like four weeks before.

06:08It's so hit and miss, they're so up and down.

06:10Yeah, because you just don't know what's going to happen.

06:12No, and like the weights, blood transfusions that to have.

06:15Yeah.

06:16It was just awful.

06:18Yeah.

06:19The reason that I'm so proud of how far they've come

06:21is because I didn't think with all the complications

06:25that they came out of hospital with,

06:27there would be such fighting fit children,

06:30so educated, so into everything.

Category

Transcript

Recommended