Katie and Conor

Katie, Conor and Daisy Mae are taking part in our To Holles Street & Home Challenge. Read their story below:

"April 2021 a tiny little lady named Daisy Mae was born weighing 1Lb 7oz (800 grams) and that was the day our lives changed. We did not know what was going to be our journey ahead. We want to start off, first of all, by saying we are and will forever be extremely grateful and thankful for the amazing staff and team at The National Maternity Hospital for all that they have done for us and our family. From the men at the reception desk, the emergency department staff, doctors, nurses, midwives, consultants and everyone in between because from the moment we walked into that hospital until the moment we left they were nothing but welcoming, helpful and caring human beings who all saved our little girl and are the reason she is here today.

Daisy Mae was born at 25 weeks and 6 days due to severe preeclampsia. I had arrived in at 25 weeks and was placed into high dependency care. Saturday morning it was time for an emergency C-section as the blood flow had reduced to Daisy due to my blood pressure and she needed to be delivered. Within an extremely impressive 17 minutes from the time she was born she was taken to the NICU in an incubator and placed into her incubator with her ventilator and all the medication that she needed and to me that is unbelievable how fast and efficient everything was done.

It was then time to start expressing milk to help Daisy grow. To Helen the amazing lactation specialist who helped me every step of the way, I am in awe of you and how amazing and professional you were in providing the support, everyday check-ins, and help we needed on that journey.

In Daisy's case there was a massive team of doctors, nurses, consultants, that every single day checked in on her and held her while mam and dad had either come home or were on our way to her. To each and every person we can't thank enough or even begin to explain how grateful we are.

Daisy Mae started her journey in a ventilator and with a small bleed on her brain, some extra blood vessels in her eyes and an extremely nasty infection in her bowel as well as meningitis. She spent nearly two months in NICU before being moved up a class as we called it into the next room where she learned to come off the ventilator and onto a nose tube and could finally come out of her incubator into her little cot. We were waiting on Daisy to slowly come off her oxygen support and learn to feed from her bottle on her own without the support of a feeding tube.

While this took some time with the help of all the staff our little girl's bleed on her brain was cleared, she passed all of her eye tests, and she did it, she could finally breathe on her own after 11 weeks and feed!

After the first 94 days of her life and weihing a massive 6lb it was time for Daisy Mae to come home, a day mammy and daddy didn't even know was possible or even think would ever happen. After looking at our little 1lb 7oz baby to our beautiful healthy happy baby girl we were amazed by how this could happen. The time we spent in the hospital felt like it was in slow motion and the world around us was moving so fast. Now looking back on what our family and our little lady has been through is incredible.

Once Daisy came home we were then linked into the hospital through the outpatient department with her until she was two years old. She went to multiple milestone checks and smashed every single one of them. She also saw the physiotherapists as premature babies can tend to need a little more help with motor skills like walking and crawling and our little girl was behind on those, but now she will turn four years old in April of this year and our girl is happy, healthy and not a single effect on her. She loves animals, nature, to run and play with all her cousins and most of all loves jellies. She has a baby brother hopefully joining us in May of this year and you can bet he will be coming into this world in The NMH!

The start of anyone's journey in the NICU is absolutely terrifying, but we felt so safe and secure in The National Maternity Hospital. We knew that our daughter was in some of the best hands in the country and we are forever grateful for all you have done for us and continue to do for thousands of families all over the country.