Laura Shanahan’s growing baby looked perfectly healthy in her 20-week ultrasound; the only concern was slightly dilated kidneys.
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As a routine precaution she was scanned again at 36 weeks. Her obstetrician wanted to keep tabs on the size of her baby too; Ms Shanahan’s first-born, Xavier, was a healthy 4.5 kilograms when he arrived overdue in May 2013.
But the scan showed Ms Shanahan’s baby had barely grown since the 20-week mark and her placenta was dying, sparking a chain of events that flipped Laura and her partner Andrew Lee’s world upside down.
Days later on June 9 Ms Shanahan was told she had to be induced immediately.
“I was very stressed and very emotional; there was no expectation of me going early at all because Xavier was 10 days over and he had to be induced,” she said.
Mr Lee recalls the trip from their Lavington home to the Wodonga Hospital Maternity Ward, trying to comfort his panic-stricken partner.
“We had a ‘go bag’ but there’d been no nesting, all the way through the Tallangatta exit she was saying: ‘I haven’t nested, I just wanted to nest!’” he said.
Savannah Maree Lee was born on June 10, weighing just 1.89 kilograms or 4 pounds 2½ ounces.
Ms Shanahan said they felt blessed the scan had picked up the problem.
“We were very, very lucky that we had the 36-week scan or she might not be here,” she said.
“If she went full term she could have dropped a heap of weight, she could have been a lot smaller than she actually was or not with us at all.”
Savannah needed around the clock care in the hospital’s Special Care Nursery for two weeks.
She had formula and breast milk through a feeding tube in her nose, gaining 90 grams a week.
As the couple spent hours in the nursery, Mr Lee, who operates Lavington Computers, said family and friends rallied around them with offers to look after Xavier and even hit the shops to buy six-zero baby sleep suits.
“We had three-zero suits; we were not prepared.
“Because we were spending all day at the hospital, I stopped working. Laura was at the hospital being a mum and I was trying to do whatever I could to support her.”
They said the hospital staff were phenomenal throughout their emotional rollercoaster ride.
“You don’t realise what some parents go through, what goes on behind the scenes and how the staff do everything they can to help you,” Ms Shanahan said.
Savannah has now passed her brother’s birth weight and this week tipped the scales at 4.9 kilograms.
Her parents said she was as determined as she was strong; they’re both fitting attributes for one who has defied the odds.
