Smallest prem baby’s birthday
Tiniest Tia’s miracle milestone ‘She’s my world’
One-year-old Tia-Jane McVeigh grabs her dad’s finger with fierce strength these days.
It’s a simple skill, but one treasured by her parents, Adrian and Alysha McVeigh, because they know the extreme battle their daughter has fought to survive her first year.
Now a photo that captures the moment she first touched her dad 10 days after her miraculous birth at only 23 weeks gestation will become one of many photographs in a time capsule the couple are creating for Tia-Jane’s first birthday on Wednesday.
Last June 15, Tia-Jane made history as New Zealand’s smallest and most premature baby to survive. Born a couple of hours after reaching the 23-week extreme limit on viability, she spent 137 tumultuous days in Wellington Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit before she was discharged home.
Ever since, Tia-Jane has stunned everyone by going from strength to strength. ‘‘Getting her off oxygen in January was a pretty momentous occasion for us,’’ Alysha says. ‘‘It was the first time she didn’t have facial accessories.’’
We want everything to be the best we can for her. Alysha McVeigh, Tia’s mother
Every milestone is celebrated – her first trip to the beach, her first tiny nibble of an Easter egg.
Her time capsule box will be filled with hospital trappings, such as vital breathing apparatus that she no longer needs, her first tiny clothes and photos of her incredible first year.
The couple intend to hide it in their Plimmerton home and give it to her when she turns 16. ‘‘For us, it’s also about closing the door on that time,’’ Alysha says.
After a year of challenges, they want to start enjoying Tia-Jane as just a baby, not a hospital patient.
A few weeks ago, they took her on their first roadie together, visiting friends and family in Taranaki and Rotorua for six days.
It seems a lifetime since they first glimpsed their daughter, shocked at her size and fragility. She weighed 516 grams and measured 27cm, her skin was transparent and her eyes fused closed.
Now she’s thriving, clutching at every finger, happily babbling baby-ese and trying to crawl.
An early photo shows her father’s wedding ring fitting comfortably around Tia-Jane’s tiny arm.
These days, it fits her thumb – evidence of a life flourishing against the odds.
‘‘We’re so proud of her,’’ Alysha says.
Her smitten dad agrees: ‘‘She is my world.’’