Archie

Our little boy Archie was born at 28.5 weeks gestation at King Edward Memorial Hospital in Subiaco and spent the next 10 weeks of his life in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). Needless to say that when we woke up on that Wednesday he was born, we had no idea of what lay ahead of us. A NICU journey is like no other and will test you more than anything else we’ve ever experienced, but also provided us with the best thing in our lives and that’s our beautiful little boy.

Archie was only 1.6kg and 42cm long when he was born, with most full term babies being around the 3-4kg mark. There were some bubs born around us in the NICU that were only 23 weeks gestation and 400 grams when they were born (that’s the same size and weight as a can of Pepsi).

Given how young Archie was, we knew the many high risks that lay ahead and having to say goodbye to our son everyday as we left the hospital each night was the toughest thing we’ve ever done. He was so tiny that we were afraid we’d break him and he was hooked up to feeding tubes with breathing support. The staff at King Eddie’s and later St John of God were amazing and we can’t thank them enough for all of the amazing work they do to ensure we brought him home.

There are also charities like Life’s Little Treasures who provide invaluable support for parents in situations like us. We are doing this walk to help raise awareness and funds for these guys to help other parents living the NICU journey. 48,000 premature or sick babies are born in Australia each year and charities like Life’s Little Treasures Foundation support these families along their journey.

We never take for granted how lucky we are to have Archie and he has been out of the hospital for over 5 months now. He’s such a happy lovely boy and we’re lucky to have him.

If you can support our cause in any way it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Doug, Liz and Archie