Isla is 9 years old and was born with a rare condition that has only been partly diagnosed. Her younger years were mostly spent in hospital, with her longest stay being 9 months. She has intestinal failure which is the umbrella of the diagnosis, which includes gastroparesis, pseudo obstruction, myopathic bowel disease. Due to this she is unable to eat or drink any food, as to put it simply her stomach is paralysed.
Ellie-Mai was born in 2011 at 42 weeks. She is my third child and I had an unremarkable pregnancy and straightforward labour. As soon as she was born I knew there was a problem. She was screaming, as if in pain, and would not latch on. The midwife insisted it was because of a quick labour. I was not convinced!
Sadie made a dramatic entrance into the world on the 10th October 2015 and has pretty much turned our world upside down ever since. We knew pretty early on that Sadie had trouble feeding, it was always a really stressful experience, she would scream in pain and go floppy and a horrible shade of grey pretty soon after it. My son had reflux and a milk allergy and so the medical professionals put a lot of her symptoms down to that.
Ollie (the happiest lad alive) was born on 28th August, after a 30 something hour labour, via vacuum due to low heart rate, and other labour complications. During prenatal scans we were made aware that he had a condition known as hydronephrosis and would be required to stay in hospital for a few days for monitoring, however it should be of minimal concern. Little did we or the prenatal doctors know, he had another on-going issue……
