I’ve got such a stitch in my side,’ I moaned to my partner Lee Sherrington as I swung my legs out of bed.
‘It’ll go as you start walking about,’ he reassurred me. But it didn’t, it just grew stronger and stronger.
It was a Sunday in October 2005 and we walked over to my dad’s in the afternoon, the pains getting even
worse. By the time we reached his house, I was doubled over and I couldn’t stand up.
Lee ran to the nearby medical centre to see if he could get me an emergency appointment, but they told
him instead to take me to hospital as it sounded like an appendicitis.
So by 4pm we were on our way to Sunderland Royal Infirmary. I was crying with the pain it was so bad.
Lee came with me, holding my hand. I lay down and the doctor examined me. ‘I think you could be
pregnant,’ he said. It was such a shock - there was no way I could be - I was taking the contraceptive pill.
But worse news was to come. Because of the pains, he thought it may be an ectopic pregnancy, where
the baby is growing in the fallopian tube which can be lifethreatening, so I was rushed off for a scan.
Both Lee and I were in shock. We couldn’t believe I could have been pregnant. There was only one time
a few months ago when I had suffered a throat infection and had to take anitbiotics. Perhaps they had
prevented the contraceptive pill was working properly then.
Lee and I had never even discussed having a family. He was 25 and a railway worker, and I was just
finishing a hairdressing course at our local college. We loved going out and meeting friends, we were too
young and carefree.
I had met Lee in February 2004. I had known him for a while through a friend, and we started seeing each
other. I was still living with my mum and dad at the time, so a family definitely hadn’t been discussed.
Yet here I was being wheeled down to the scanning room because they thought I was pregnant. ‘We think
you are about six weeks pregnant, but you could be losing the baby,’ the doctor warned, as I was
wheeled in.
But then there was more shocking news to come. I was pregnant, and luckily the baby was in the right
place, not in my fallopian tube. But the shocking thing was that the baby was far too big to be a six week
old baby. ‘It looks like this baby is about 25 weeks, and you are actually in labour,’ the doctor told me. I
just couldn’t speak, I was in so much shock. How could I possibly be more than five months pregnant and
not even know it. I hadn’t put on any weight. My jeans didn’t feel any tighter. I hadn’t felt sick. How could I
possibly be pregnant?
But it was true. There was my baby, larger than life, on the screen infront of me. My sister Natasha, 22,
had come with us to hospital and she had rung my mum as soon as we had arrived. So she was there
too, looking at the screen, unable to believe what she was seeing.
Then a thought struck me. I was in labour - thats what all the pain was about. But how could my baby
possibly survive at just 25 weeks old. She may have been bigger than expected when we looked on the
scan, but she was still too tiny to survive.
The doctors tried to give me some drugs, to stop the labour. But it was too late. My baby was on her way.
I was only in labour for three hours before she arrived into the world, weighing a tiny 1Ib9.
As soon as she was born, the doctors whipped her away and took her to intensive care. I didn’t even get
to see her, and she didn’t let out a single cry. I lay in bed recovering. Natasha also had a baby at 19, who
is now three, but we all knew she was pregnant - she had a massive bump. I couldn’t believe that I was
now a mother. Three hours ago I just thought I had stomach pains - now I was a mum. It was too much to
take in.
A few hours later I was allowed to go to the intensive care unit and see her. I couldn’t believe how tiny she
was - she just looked like a tiny skinned rabbit. Her skin was see-through and she could have fitted into
the palm of my hand. I just burst into tears - how could anything so tiny possibly survive.
Lee was just as upset and shocked as I was. But he held me tight. ‘She’ll be alright,’ he whispered.
But the doctors warned us that she would probably not make it through the first 48 hours as she was so
tiny. So we sat by her bedside, never leaving, praying that she would pull through.
And she did. She battled each day to get better and it was a long haul. She had chronic lung disease and
numerous chest infections. And she had to have a tube put into her throat to help her breathe.
She was on a ventilator for three months, then she was put onto oxygen, and slowly she got stronger.
‘Come on baby,’ I would whisper to her. ‘You can do it.’
Three times the doctors told me she wouldn’t make it as chest infections ravaged her tiny body. But each
time she hung on and each day we came back to the hospital, hoping she would make it through the day.
I was studying to be a hairdresser at college, and I would sit with Chloe during the day and then do my
studying at night when we came back from the hospital.
Before we finally brought Chloe home, mum went out shopping and bought a pram and cot and all the
baby clothes that I would need. When I brought Chloe home, friends couldn’t believe that I was coming
home with a baby. When they had last seen me, I was a carefree teenager. Now I was suddenly a mum.
Chloe was brought home still on oxygen and she still needs it now, although she needs it less and less.
She is doing wonderfully well. She has a great appetite - she loves her food, especially chocolate
pudding. She’s a bit behind in her development. She can sit up but she isn’t crawling yet. But she’s just
had her first birthday - and its a day we never thought we would see.
Lee and I aren’t planning on having any more children just at the moment. To have one baby just three
hours after I found out I was pregnant was a big enough shock - and to have to watch my tiny daughter
battling for her life for five months was an emotional rollercoaster. One day we’ll think about having a little
brother or sister for her - but hopefully that won’t be for a few more years yet.