Hector’s Training Log

What a lucky Hector I am, Mummy and Daddy bought me a bicycle for my birthday, so I thought I could keep Mummy company on her leg around Taupo. Unfortunately my legs need to grow a bit more and I tend to spend more time off the bike than on it, so maybe next year.

I do feel as though I’m missing out a bit though. It’s one thing to have Mummy disappearing to the gym or trying out her cycling legs with Liza, but now Daddy is joining in too. As Tamar has pulled out due to injury Daddy has said he will give it a go. I helped him find his old bike under a pile of rubbish in the garage (I’d never treat my bike like that!) and we took it to the local bike shop for a service. Daddy was most put out when they said it would look quite good in their cycling museum. Now that he’s taken the wicker basket off the front at least it looks a bit more streamlined. I’ve also now got my own comfy armchair on the back. I have to say that the view is not that great and on our ride together today I was reminded on more than one occasion that Daddy had enjoyed a particularly strong curry last night. Daddy’s told me that I couldn’t ride with him on the day - probably just as well really.

Dad received his relay entry information yesterday and immediately said he’d be starting in the fast relay group. Mummy muttered something about it being twenty years too late, and what with the issues he is having with his bike seat he’s decided that he’d better start with the recreational group.

Oh well, I’ll be cheering for you Mummy and Daddy. Good luck …… Mummy says she’s going to need it! Good luck to everyone else too, it’ll be a great experience.

Thank you very much to everyone who has supported our cause. Maybe one day us wee ones will join in too.

With Thanks....

It took me a bit of deciding on what I wanted to write my next blog about.
In the end it was simple really. We owe a million thanks to so many people. I think I'll list them. If there should be anyone I haven't mentioned, then I apologise now - you have most definitely had an impact in our lives.

From day dot, we had doctors, specialists and nurses involved in our day to day care. We were micro-managed for want of a better term and we know of and appreciate the behind the scenes care and discussions and meetings that were held on our behalf. Dr Flora Gastrell kicked it off for us in conjunction with our midwife Anna Bannister. She gave Greer the opportunity to still be here today by sending us to Wellington for further investigation. In Wellington, we had an amazing radiology team care for us, led by our very favourite Dr Jeremy Tuohy. He worked with several specialists and registrars who were so good at involving us at every turn. The nurses in Ward 12 and 14 saved my sanity in the three weeks I sat in that hospital bed holding on. I spent 5 days up and down from the delivery ward and in one 12 hour stint down there, heard 16 babies be born and give out huge healthy cries. The night we had Greer, Dr Anju Basu was on duty and along with the surgical team and incredible anaethetists, saved my life in a delivery I was grateful to have no part of as it gave her an enormous challenge to try and overcome.

The NICU team at Wellington Hospital who cared for our most precious daughter in her 7 week stay there - the doctors, nurses, and support crew of Neonates and the Neonatal Trust go so far above and beyond and always made time to make sure us parents were okay (well, as okay as you can be when your child is desperately ill).

Ronald McDonald House - well what else to say than James loves you and so do we. He thought he was the cats pyjamas at your place and we were so lucky to be so well provided for - this is an incredible facility for families in crisis - another cause which is so well deserving of as much support as can be given. To the mass of local businesses who volunteer their time and resources to come in several times a week and cook the families in the house dinner.

The Life Flight air ambulance team who transferred us between Wellington and Nelson on three trips with our little cargo.

The team at SCBU in Nelson where we spent a further 7 weeks after Wellington. To this day we still have paediatric, child development, opthamologist and audiology appointments as well as thyroid function tests and have a team that we love who oversee Greer's progress and development. Greer still gets blood tests for her thyroid and while she hates being held down for them, quickly forgives the nurses who unfortunately have to do this procedure - especially if she has bubbles blown for her and a Wiggles plaster put on her hand afterwards.

To our midwife Anna, who didn't get to continue care for us through to delivery but who still made several visits and phone calls to check upon our progress - this meant a lot to us.

To our local GP and practice who on our frequent visits in the year post-discharge always kept a room clear for us instead of having to wait in the waiting room like 'regular' people. They understood and respected our need for vigilance in avoiding unnecessary exposure to illness. To Paediatric Inpatients who had us for an 8 day stint over winter with bronchiolitis and pneumonia. To our preschool - Little People and kindergarten - Waverley Street, who have been so amazing and supportive - James attended these two centres for a start and now Greer is settled in beautifully at both.

To our family and friends who kept the home fires burning - Nanna Rob and Poppa cared for James full time with the help of Nanna Jen. For a 2 1/2 year old child who hadn't long been toilet trained he was kept in his usual routine and never once woke at night in the 10 weeks he was out of our care. In the 7 weeks after when we were back in Nelson it was still a big juggle and James went seamlessly from one person to another so we could manage hospital visits, preschool and a busy home life. He was so spoiled with evening trips to the beach for a swim with Poppa and brought to Wellington to meet his wee sister and spend Christmas.

For Hector, Mitchell, Sophie, Holly, Joss and Eva, you and your families are entwined in our lives and we think of each of you precious babies every day.

There is Greer, our true miracle and little battler. Sometimes I wonder how she did it. To go through so many painful procedures - constantly and multiple times a day. To struggle for breath, to fall ill so many times and fight her way back up each time - I am so glad for her determination and zest for life.

I think the last thanks has to go to James. The best big brother any child could ask for. In our Pushing It For Prems team, he is the only 'other' sibling. To be taken away from your parents for such a long time and to 'lose' the spotlight is a huge call on a toddler - at the best of times with a new baby in the house, let alone in circumstances like we found ourselves in. He has always loved Greer to bits and she just idolises him - a good case of 'monkey see, monkey do'. I put a lot of her progress and learning down to the huge influence he has had in her life and the enormous amounts of time he has patiently spent with her reading stories and playing games.

We know and we appreciate what all you amazing people have done for us, it never has been and never will be forgotten - so often when we look at our daughter, we think of you and are so proud to be a family of four, and parents to two beautiful children and these are the thoughts that will be running through my mind as I tackle Kuratau next weekend...wish me luck!!

Anna

BRING IT ON!!

A sinus infection is not an easy thing to train with. There aren't many places to keep a tissue while you ride and riding more than 3km gives you a headache. HOWEVER, I am now healed and managed to ride 20km last night. I'm saving the big ride for the weekend. I managed to ride 45km in the Tour de Manawatu 2 weeks ago and was so pleased with my effort. I'm actually getting very excited about the big day and feel as prepared as I'll ever be.

I'm stunned at how much money we have raised for the Neonatal Trust. It's fabulous that so many people can be so generous.

Thanks to everyone!!!

See you all in Taupo!!!


Lynette

Wow! What a night!

Costumes and an awesome mock up of an incubator definitely caught the eye of Wellingtonians last night!

Starting at Liza's local pub in Eastbourne, they were met by Jackie, one of the nurses from Wellington Neonates. Jackie then did a great job setting up the CPAP mask correctly on our baby doll for us. While we went and spoke to people about what we were doing.

After leaving Eastbourne, we headed straight into Wellington. The group of pseudo Dr's and Nurses definitely got a lot of attention. Quite often we were mistaken for a hens night, a lot of people did a double take and thought (for a second) that the baby was real and once thought we were SPCA collectors! But as people spoke to us, they were impressed with the lengths we were going to reach our fundraising target. We started on Featherston St and worked our way through over 13 bars, however a there were a few stand out people that we met and want to mention.

We met Lisa at one of the bars on the waterfront where after doing collecting from the awesome patrons, we were having a quiet drink at the bar before moving on. She came over and talked to us for a while about what we were up to and our experiences with our kids. We gave her our blog address and thinking that she was about to head on she surprised us. She pulled out her wallet. She donated $20 for each of the prem mums there. $20 for Liza, $20 for Nicola and $20 for Tamar. Thats a total of $60. We were floored and she certainly got enormous hugs from all of us.

Not long after that we were in a great little bar (3C) in Chews Lane. The band was just setting up to play for the night and we met a great guy called Colin Bailey. He listened as we told him what we were up to and then decided he was going to donate. Awesome. What was even more awesome, was that he gave us a $100 note. Wow. We got some tips of where to go from one of the other guys there as well so we headed down Willis Street and onto Manners. Just after Cuba Mall we were stopped by a young women asking what we were doing. She squealed and told us she was a prem and would love to donate. We were very surprised when she told us to wait right there and she would be back with some money. She ducked into the shop to use their eftpos and next thing we know she is back to drop her hard earned cash into one of our buckets. We learnt that she and her brother were twins born at 24 weeks. They are both grown up now and attending their first year of university. We gave her this blog address, and I'm sorry that we didn't get her name before she went off to enjoy the rest of her night.

Meeting this charming young lady was just one of the touching stories that we heard last night (we heard a lot). It certainly seems that while the neonatal journey isn't something that everyone goes through, it seems like it touches an awful lot of people when someone does. A lot of people we spoke to had nieces, or nephews or friends babies (if not their own) who had spent some time in a neonatal unit. It truly was an eye opening experience.

And then to top it all off, Kahn the lovely taxi driver from Wellington Combined dropped us (and the incubator!) back to Featherston Street for free. How about that for a charitable donation.... He did get a fair few hugs though.....=0)

So how much did we raise from inhabitants of this fair city? An absolutely phenomenal $1264.30! An absolutely HUGE thank you to everyone that "threw a few coins" in the bucket. Those few coins have all added up and we are now unbelievably close to the $5k half way point for our fundraising.

If you missed us while we were out and about, the please head over to our fundraising page to donate, as we keep saying every little bit helps.

Lastly a big thank you to Yvette, one our team members who isn't a premmie Mum but is a solo Mum of 3 children with her own business and she still found the time to make us our terrific incubator!

A different kind of Fundraising!

The wellington girls will be out an about this evening (friday) trawling the likes of courtenay place asking punters to please part with their hard earned money!

The aim of the evening is to try and fill an incubator with cash ...... while dressed in costume! We hope our appeals will not go unheard and come tomorrow, we will be able to put up some pictures and announce how much we raised......

If you are going to be in town tonight, look out for us and come and say hello!

Stay tuned....

PAIN IS TEMPORARY

“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong.

Cycling is my passion so when I heard my wife and other mums put together the ‘Pushing it for Prems’ cycling team and enter in the Taupo Cycling Challenge I decided I would also take part to help raise funds for the Neonatal Trust. I’ve been training for a few weeks now with the goal of finishing the 160km event in under five hours. I’ve found it’s been great getting out on the bike with a purpose and it’s been a nice opportunity to reflect on our time at Neonates. I feel extremely fortunate to live in New Zealand and have access to such amazing healthcare that ultimately gave our twin girls what they needed to survive and thrive after a rough start.

On December 11 2007 at 2am we woke to the shock of Nicola going into early labour at 29 weeks. I remember clearly some of the thoughts going through my head as we drove to Wellington hospital: This kind of thing doesn’t happen to us; we wont have the twins today - it will be a minor tummy upset; everything will be alright; if they are born we will have all kinds of complications.

Several hours later after attempts to slow contractions we were told it was time to go in and have the twins by emergency c-section. Overcome with emotion we went in to the theater scared, not knowing what was about to happen. Nic showed her strength all the way through the birth and while scared was positive throughout.

What felt like a few moments later Holly and Sophie were born, then in a flash they were whipped into incubators, wired up and I was told to follow them upstairs. The next thing I remember was walking into a room full of other prem babies and that’s when Anna Bolitho, another mum in the Pushing it for Prems cycling team, said ‘congratulations‘ with a big smile as she hugged little Greer for the first time. Next it was time to report back to Nic who had not yet seen her little girls, I had the fortune of being able to explain that although the girls were small they were doing good and fighting hard.

We were in the Neonatal Unit for two months, in that time we got to know most of the nursing staff on a first name basis and gained a whole new respect and understanding for all the dedicated and hard working nurses and doctors. I think like many people I had a rather negative view of premature babies and the experience changed my views completely.

So this is a chance for me to give something back and help raise funds for the Neonatal Trust. Look forward to seeing you all out on the bike soon.

Angus

Tough Choices

This is Griffin. He is a 7 month old black lab cross and he is our baby.

As you can imagine he needs a fair bit of exercise - and running round the house with a pair of stolen undies doesn't quite cut it. So most days I take him for a walk. One of our favourite walks is the Camborne walkway that walks around the edge of the Pauatahanui Inlet. It is really stunning and quite sheltered, but the best bit is that Griffin is allowed off the lead (and straight into the water!) for the
entire 3+ km walk.

So, a couple of weeks ago while doing this walk Griffin was running round like a puppy loon, splashing in the water and learning to properly swim. And I was watching him. Perhaps a little too much as I soon rolled my ankle in the drainage ditch. OW. Ow, was not the term I used at the time I tell you. I persevered with the walk as best I could and when I got home, applied R.I.C.E. The next morning it felt worse. A lot worse. So I was off to the doctor with visions of fractures and snapped tendons.

The good news was that I hadn't snapped my Achilles tendon, the bad news was that I had injured it quite badly. So strapped up and told to take it easy with the walking, but no cycling for 2 weeks! That’s not good for my training!

I also have a mild heart arrhythmia so my Doctor asked me while I was there if I had been having any heart palpitations after cycling ( which I had ) and how long it was taking to recover from a long ride. He also had a listen to my heart. He then took a deep breath and said that he was pretty sure that my arrhythmia was worse (an ECG would be needed to confirm), but I should give serious consideration to slowing down my training.

Seeing as I have a time frame (and now an injury!) its not really possible to slow down the training.

I was gutted. Without actually saying "You need to quit the challenge" this is what was being suggested. I took a bit to think about it but really, I can't mess with my heart.

So I have had to resign as a member of the relay team. I will be replaced have no doubt about that, and hopefully I will be able to tell you who that is shortly. I am really disappointed not to be able to complete this, but rest assured I am still committed to helping any way that I can to help meet our goals. And there is an awful lot to do to get there!



Tamar



P.S we have a couple of great fundraising ideas coming up, so stay tuned to find out about them!