Poppy’s Story

On 15th September 2015 at 25 weeks and 2 days pregnant I gave birth to Poppy 15 weeks early, weighing 1lb13ozs (830g) due to spontaneous rupture of membranes.  This was a huge shock to us and we knew right then that the first 48 hours were critical and we were in for a very long journey.

Poppy was put in a bag and ventilated, she soon progressed to CPAP then on to High Flow oxygen, eventually went on to low flow at 2 month’s old and came off oxygen completely at less than 3 months old.

Thanks to all the help we were provided at the RVI I managed to express all of Poppy’s milk for the first 16 weeks.  We believe that the miniboos helped with this.

She did brilliantly thanks to all the care she received at the RVI for 2 months, before being well enough to be transferred to our local hospital to be cared for, for another month before being well enough to be discharged home 2 weeks before due date.

Poppy experienced: NEC, CLD, Anaemia requiring 2 blood transfusions, stage 1 ROP (that self-corrected), sodium corrections, open heart duct (that self-corrected).

Gemma chose to fundraise for Tiny Lives

“Following a long stay in hospital to save Poppy’s life with only a few setbacks we are very lucky that we now have Poppy home and want to give something back to the Tiny Lives charity that assisted us hugely from providing us with Miniboos, parking passes, memory box, progress stickers and so much support” – www.justgiving.com/fundraising/poppysmadmarchmare

Gemma (Poppy’s Mammy) -x-