Sam Squiers was close to losing both her baby and her life in June, when she suffered a placental abruption and was forced to give birth two months early.
But now the Channel Nine sports reporter and husband Ben are preparing to share their first Christmas together with their fighting-fit daughter Imogen.
The family flew from Brisbane to the 35-year-old’s childhood home of Orange, 250kms west of Sydney, on Saturday for the festive season.
Speaking to 9Honey before the celebration, Sam said she is finally settling into family life after a testing six-month period.
Channel Nine sports reporter Sam Squiers and husband Ben (pictured) are set to share their first Christmas together with their fighting-fit daughter Imogen
‘It just feels like now we can relax’: Sam said she is finally settling into family life after a testing six-month period
‘She’s so bright-eyed and gummy-smiled at the moment. It’s just such a lovely phase and I love it,’ Sam said.
She added: ‘It feels like only now that we can actually start planning without hospital visits … it just feels like now we can relax a little bit.’
Apart from requiring ongoing physiotherapy sessions, Imogen is now in good health and has just begun eating solid foods.
Her long-road to recovery began with a more than six-week stint in intensive care, before she was taken home connected to an oxygen tank while her lungs fully developed.
The family flew from Brisbane to the 35-year-old’s childhood home of Orange, 250kms west of Sydney, on Saturday for the special occasion
‘She’s so bright-eyed and gummy-smiled at the moment. It’s just such a lovely phase and I love it,’ Sam said
Sam was close to losing both her baby and her life in June, when she suffered a placental abruption and was forced to give birth two months early
‘Now whenever Immi lets off a big scream or something – even when it’s in the middle of the night – Ben and I just look at each other and say “Go Immi! That’s awesome”, because her lungs were so tiny,’ Sam said.
Imogen will complete a full-house at the Squiers’ family Christmas on Monday, which will include barbecue turkey and a traditional spread, Sam said.
Sam has previously detailed her horrifying experience after she stopped feeling her baby move and lost her vision at 32 weeks pregnant.
‘I had a severe case of pre-ecampsia which was shutting down my organs and my body,’ Sam told Today in September.
Sam and Ben had been warned to expect their baby would come early, but thought it would simply be a case of coming in one day for a scheduled cesarean birth.
Apart from requiring ongoing physiotherapy sessions, Imogen is now in good health and has just begun eating solid foods
But in the early hours of June 13, Sam suddenly realised she could no long feel their baby move.
‘It was two o’clock in the morning and I had been getting all these pains throughout the night. Ben wasn’t home, Ben was in NSW working,’ she said.
‘I suddenly realised I hadn’t felt Immy move for a really long time, so I sat down tried to get her to move – poked her prodded her – [but] couldn’t feel her in any way.’
Terrified, Sam rushed herself to hospital, where she learned her and Imogen only had hours to live unless doctors intervened.
‘And then all of a sudden I lost my vision and all my vision was blurry, which was fluid pooling in my brain,’ she said.
Sam has previously detailed her horrifying experience after she stopped feeling her baby move and lost her vision at 32 weeks pregnant
Separated: Ben (pictured) was working in Sydney at the time and was and unable to get a flight back to Brisbane until 6am
It was days before the new parents could hold their newborn daughter in their arms
To make matters worse, Ben was working in Sydney and unable to get a flight back to Brisbane until 6am.
‘Megan our obstetrician rang back and said [Sam] has lost her vision we have to do this now, sorry we can’t wait,’ Ben recalled.
‘At that point I just lost it … effectively we were only a couple of hours away from losing both.’
After delivering Imogen via emergency C-section, the eight weeks premature bub weighed just 1.3 kilograms and was transferred to an incubator.
After seven weeks in the hospital, Sam and Ben were finally able to take little Imogen home in August.
It was days before the new parents could even hold their newborn daughter.
‘There was no bump anymore, I wasn’t pregnant but there was no baby beside my bed,’ Sam said.
‘You just feel helpless, you’re just standing there, staring through a perspex box at your baby that you are meant to be a mother to, but you just don’t feel like you are doing your job.’
After seven weeks in the hospital, Sam and Ben were finally able to take little Imogen home in August.