When the bundled-up blanket was placed beside her as she lay in the operating theatre, Nicki Starkey thought the doctors had forgotten to wrap her new daughter in it.
Knowing she had just moments to kiss her premature baby before Wellington Hospital staff whisked her away to intensive care, the 30 year-old had to search through the folds, feeling a huge rush of relief when she finally saw her little girl nestled inside.
Although Nicki, of Porirua, had been warned that her baby would be small, nothing prepared her for just how tiny and fragile Trinity-Storm was. Weighing just 440g – less than a pack of butter – and no longer than a ballpoint pen from the top of her head to her bottom, Trinity-Storm had been delivered by emergency caesarean and faced a huge battle for survival.
“She was so tiny, I could actually see her ribs through her translucent skin. I could even see her heart beating inside her. And when she cried, it was like a little kitten mewing,” says Nicki, who was able to give her baby a precious good-luck kiss in the moments they had together in the delivery room.
“Thankfully she was alive and had survived the birth, but it was obvious it was going to be an uphill battle over the next few months.”
When Nicki and her partner Antz Akavi (37) discovered last year that they were having their third child together, bringing their blended family to nine, they thought it would be a straightforward pregnancy. But it wasn’t long before scans revealed something was very wrong.
“The first thing they found on the scan was that baby was really small,” recalls Nicki. “After more scans, they discovered that there something wrong with the placenta – it was not getting enough oxygen and blood to her.”
When Nicki was 26 weeks pregnant – 14 weeks before the baby was due to arrive – the loving parents faced a heartbreaking dilemma. Doctors told Nicki she needed to give birth as soon as possible – the baby would almost certainly be stillborn if the pregnancy continued. The couple was warned that because the baby was so premature and much smaller than usual, there was a chance she wouldn’t survive. And if she did, she could have significant disabilities.
“When they told me the news, I bawled my eyes out. We had to give her a chance at life,” says Nicki. “We knew that if she was born, she might not survive at all, but at least we would have had her for a short time and that meant something.
“If I had let her die in my womb, it would have felt like giving up on her and I couldn’t do that, especially after I had seen her in ultrasound scans and felt her moving around and kicking.”
So in November last year, Nicki had a caesarean section. She recalls that her newly arrived daughter’s mewing cries in the operating theatre felt like a sign Trinity-Storm was a fighter from the start.
“It was touch-and-go right from the birth. oany people thought she wouldn’t make it but she proved them wrong.”
Kept in an incubator in intensive care, Trinity-Storm needed help to breathe and went through countless operations on her heart, bowel and eyes. Nicki had to wait 27 days before her baby was well enough to be held. That first cuddle was an unforgettable moment.
“It was really scary because she was so little and I was wondering how I could hold her properly and if I was going to hurt her,” she says.
Nicki was shown how to lay her baby daughter against her bare chest in what’s known as a “kangaroo cuddle”, allowing mother and child to bond while sharing skin-to-skin closeness. After weeks of setbacks and many scary moments, it was only a month ago that doctors began to talk about Trinity-Storm being well enough to go home.
“When we heard that four-letter word ‘home’, it was a big relief,” says Nicki with a smile.
Finally, on 24 March, little Trinity-Storm left the hospital and was welcomed home by her delighted family. “Her eyes lit up when she came home. Everything was so new to her,” says Nicki. “She heard music, saw the TV and was around all her brothers and sisters – you could tell she was loving it.”
Today, Trinity-Storm weighs a healthy 3.32kg and is the size of an average full-term newborn baby. She still needs oxygen and a feeding tube but doctors say she is making good progress. Both Nicki and Antz believe Trinity-Storm’s challenging arrival in the world and determination to beat the odds have had an impact on her personality.
“She’s certainly a baby with an attitude. Sometimes she can be a real madam,” laughs Antz, who is still stunned that he could once hold his little girl in the palm of his hand.
Cuddling her bright-eyed daughter, Nicki says with a grin, “I think she wanted to be a bit more special than everyone else and make her presence known – and she’s certainly done that.”
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