For many parents, posting photos with strategically placed milestone cards next to smiling bubs has become an important part of documenting their child’s early years.
But others, like Channel Nine sports reporter Sam Squiers, know that when your baby is born prematurely there are a whole other set of milestones to celebrate.
Posting a photo of her cradling her one-month-old daughter Imogen Grace Squiers, who was born at 32 weeks on Wednesday, the new mum shared the progress her daughter has made while at Mater Mothers’ Hospital.
“One month… No milestone cards as milestones take on a different meaning here in (the neonatal critical care unit),” Squiers wrote.
“There’s cracking 2kgs, moving off a respirator, no more CPAP, advancing to an open cot, and saying goodbye to extra oxygen plus so many more.”
Squires last week posted a video sharing her joy that Imogen reached the “big milestone” of moving from her incubator or “spaceship” to an open cot and wearing clothes for the first time.
She said her daughter’s progression has been slow – and not without setbacks – but she was trying to keep a positive outlook.
“It can sometimes feel like we’re stuck in a cruel time warp but we’re trying to treat the premmie progression of two steps forward one step back like our new dance, knowing, however slow, we will get to our destination eventually,” she wrote.
Little Imogen almost didn’t make it to the NCCU at all. Squiers told The Courier-Mail that she and her daughter could have died when her she suffered a placental abruption at 32 weeks.
She had woken in the middle of the night with stabbing pains, and, with her husband Ben Squiers away, took a taxi to hospital.
There she discovered she was suffering kidney failure and loss of vision as a blood clot formed in her uterus. Imogen was soon delivered via emergency c-section about 5am on 12 June, weighing just 1.3kg.
“It was such a dramatic moment. I just had a quick look and then they whisked her away. I didn’t even really see her,” Squiers told The Courier-Mail
“But they were really good and sent Ben a photo, so he was sitting on a plane and the photo came through and he just lost it. He bawled his eyes out on the plane.”
Do you like celebrating baby’s milestones on social media?
Top Comments
Biggest ever milestone for my premie is coming up this week..... I got him to age 18 (mostly) undamaged woohoo 🎉
I remember being thrilled when he left his incubator for his big cot sadly the next day he ended up back in the intensive care unit in his bubble. Getting the call he could go up to the ward to room in was the best milestone it was supposed to be for a week but he was home in 2 days.