My daughter Heidi arrived on the 17th december 2011 and was due on the 16th january 2012. I went into hospital on the 15th december the day of my first daughters first birthday with contractions. When I was examined I was told that I had burst membranes and that if labour didn't start establishing then I would have to be induced as me and my baby were at risk of an infection, this came as quite a shock and I wasn't prepared as I still have over a month till due date.

The next day I had some more contractions and they thought I might go into full blown labour by myself but again after they had examined me I was only 3-4cm dilated and the contractions soon cooled off again. On the 17th december the doctor come to see me and decided that I would have to be induced that day as labour wasn't progressing, he also explained that once they broke the rest of my waters that were intact if labour still didn't start they would have to give me some hormone drugs to start the contractions as they wasn't able to wait for labour to start establishing.

I waited in my room all day with my partner who was a great support, my head was in a spin I was shocked and wasn't really prepared for what was about to happen, would my baby be ok, my first daughter was born at 41 weeks and weighed 6lbs 14oz and I was worried that my baby would be a low birth weight and might struggle.

At 18.30pm that night I got transferred to the labour ward ready to be induced, I then had my waters burst which was a very painful experience, because there was so much fluid the doctor informed me and my partner that once our daughter was born that they would have to put a tube down her throat to make sure that she was able to swallow properley.

After my waters were broken I still didn't get regular contractions, so at 9pm that night they started me on the hormone drug and my contractions started coming thick and fast. At 11.56pm my beautiful daughter was born but as soon as she entered the world she was taken straight from me and handed straight to the doctor who then stuck a tube down her throat to make sure that everything was ok and that she was able to swallow properley, luckily this turned out to be the case that she was ok.

Heidi was born at 5lbs 12oz but struggled with her body temperature and breathing for the first few days, and she also suffered from jaundice. Heidi would struggle to even take 30mls at a time in her feeds but we got home after 4 days in hospital. When we were discharged from hospital heidi weighed 5lbs 5ozs, however once we got home heidi still struggled to feed and I really started to worry. The midwife came out the next day after we had got home from hospital and we told her about her problems about feeding and she told us to change to number 2 teats on the bottles as this would help her as with her being premature she was struggling to have to suck so hard in order to get some milk. She was also weighed again and she had dropped to 5lbs 2ozs and we was told that she would be weighed again in 2 days on christmas eve and that if she didn't start putting weight on and feeding she would be back in hospital.

Both myself and my partner were extremley worried about our daughter and changed the teats on the bottles as the midwife had suggested and it worked she started feeding better and eating great amounts. We took her to be weighed on christmas eve and she had put weight on and now weighed 5lbs 7ozs.

We have regular weigh in sessions with heidi being premature and she was weighed last thursday and in a week she had put on 10 ounces and now weighs 6lb 13oz. It makes me feel very proud and lucky to see how far she has come and how well she has come on.

Congrats, and Welcome, Heidi!
Great name, BTW (I'm a Heidi _

Thank you, it took us forever to agree on Heidi we kept changing our mind x x