At almost one year old, Annie knows exactly what she wants.
She crawls wherever curiosity takes her, is learning to pull herself up to stand and has discovered that sharing snacks with the family dog is much more fun than eating them herself.
Her mom, Vanessa, has one word for her.
“She’s feisty,” she says. “And she’s been like that since day one.”
It is easy to smile at that description now. But there was a time when every ounce of that fight mattered.
WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED
For the first half of Vanessa’s pregnancy, there was little indication of what was ahead. Then ultrasounds showed Annie was measuring extremely small, leading to increasingly frequent appointments to monitor her growth and blood flow.
Vanessa had already chosen Surrey Memorial Hospital as the place where she wanted to deliver. She had heard about its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and wanted to know specialized care would be available if she needed it.
“I’d rather be somewhere where there are the resources just in case,” she remembers. “Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”
On September 13, Vanessa and her husband arrived for what they thought would be another monitoring appointment. They hadn’t packed bags. Their dog was waiting at home. They were talking about getting Indian food afterward.
Instead, they heard the words they never expected.
“You’re not going home tonight.”
Vanessa remained at Surrey Memorial for close monitoring.
Four days later, she was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication involving high blood pressure that can pose risks to both mother and baby.
That afternoon, a doctor told her she would be having her baby.
521 GRAMS
Annie was born by C-section at just 27 weeks. She weighed 521 grams and was only 29 centimetres long.
Vanessa still has a simple way of explaining just how tiny her daughter was. Think of one of the yellow 30-centimetre rulers many of us used in school.
“She was the length of that.”
From the moment Annie entered the world, she needed the highly specialized care of Surrey Memorial’s NICU.
At just 27 weeks and 521 grams, every milestone mattered. Day after day, the NICU team cared for Annie as she grew stronger, while helping Vanessa and her husband understand how they could support their daughter along the way.
Surrounded by monitors, routines and unfamiliar terminology, the NICU became the family’s whole world. But within that unfamiliar world was a team that made sure they never felt like they were navigating it alone.
Nurses came to know Annie’s personality and habits. Even when they weren’t assigned to her, some would stop by to see how she was doing.
One of those nurses was Eliza, who Vanessa remembers coming into Annie’s room and asking, “What’s my little feisty one doing today?”
For Vanessa, those small moments said so much about the care her daughter was receiving.
“No one can prepare you for this journey,” she says. “But I think I wouldn’t change a thing about our journey because the nurses were so great. They get to know your babies. They get to know you. And they remember them.”
That care extended beyond Annie’s immediate medical needs. A social worker helped the family navigate programs and practical supports, while occupational therapists showed Vanessa and her husband ways they could support Annie’s development, including through skin-to-skin contact.
Together, the team cared for Annie while helping her parents find their footing in a world they had never expected to enter.
98 DAYS
As days became weeks, Vanessa watched Annie grow and reach milestones most parents never have to think twice about.
She remembers when her tiny daughter received milk by syringe. Today, watching Annie crawl across the floor and try to pull herself to standing, Vanessa can’t help but think about how far she has come.
“You just see how strong of a fighter your kids are,” she says.
One of the moments that has stayed with Vanessa happened on Annie’s 98th day in the NICU: Christmas Eve.
When it appeared Annie might need to be transferred to another hospital, Eliza changed her assignment so she could accompany Annie in the ambulance.
For Vanessa, knowing someone who understood her daughter so well would be beside her brought comfort to another uncertain moment.
“It shows when people care,” she says. “It shows when people are there because they love what they do.”
In the end, Annie didn’t need to make that trip. Instead, after 98 days of specialized care, she went home that night, just in time to spend Christmas Eve meeting her grandparents.
FEISTY FROM THE BEGINNING
Today, the personality Annie’s nurses came to know so well in the NICU is still very much there.
“She was like that in the NICU,” Vanessa says. “She’s still like that now.”
For Vanessa, reaching Annie’s first birthday carries a meaning she couldn’t have imagined a year ago. The experience has also changed how her family sees the specialized services that were there when they suddenly needed them, and the generosity that helps support care for families like theirs.
“The donations matter,” Vanessa says. “You don’t know how much it matters until you need those services.”
For 98 days, Vanessa and her husband watched a team care for their daughter through some of the most vulnerable days of her life.
Now, that 521-gram baby is almost one year old.
Crawling. Standing. Smiling.
And, just as she has been from the very beginning, wonderfully feisty.
