Isabella spent her first Christmas in hospital. I brought her in a special outfit to wear and I took her presents to put under the tree on the children’s ward.

Isabella struggled to feed when she was born. At two and a half months old she stopped drinking and lost a huge amount of weight. The doctors thought that perhaps she had reflux or a chest infection, until one day she suddenly turned blue and stopped breathing for a few seconds. For the whole of her first year she was moved to and from Southampton and Salisbury hospital while they did tests. There was quite a lot of time that I couldn’t be with her, which was very hard because I didn’t know how long it would ever be until I could take her home.