On this week’s episode of The Rotunda viewers will meet Kate and Peter, whose first baby, Billy, was born far too early.
“I got bleeding and cramps, but you are not thinking straight,” Kate explains. “I was just thinking go to A&E, get it checked out and get the all-clear and come home. You are not thinking at that stage ‘oh, we’re going to have the baby.'”
But Billy was in a hurry to be born, and the tiny fighter arrived into the world at just 24 weeks.
“The shock of how small he was all we could think about at the time. It kind of takes your breath away, Kate explains. “Like he was probably the size of my hand.”
The couple recount how their firstborn spent 127 days in hospital before they were finally allowed to take him home.
“Billy was only a year and three months when I got pregnant again,” the expectant mum explains. “So naturally the drama the first time around still feels very fresh.”
Now at 27 weeks gestation on her second baby, a little girl, Kate comes in for a scan every week, because she is at high risk for a preterm delivery.
At the end of tonigh’t episode, we get to see Kate safely delivery her little girl, Ruth, at full-term.
Explaining how she lost her twin sister, Ruth, nine years ago, Kate says:
“I always promised myself that if I ever had a daughter, I’d call her Ruth.”
This week’s episode, the final one of the series, airs on RTÉ2 tonight at 9.30pm.
