Dressed in her perfect white wedding gown, Alana Wilkinson stared lovingly into her partner Angus Robb’s eyes.
But this was no ordinary ceremony — the couple tied the knot in a neonatal intensive care unit, as monitors beeped and other hospital activity went on around them.
And ‘witness’ to their vows was their precious three-week-old son, Rafferty, who had survived the odds after being born at 24 weeks gestation — weighing just more than a tub of margarine.
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As Alana and Angus said ‘I do’ in the NICU, their tiny newborn was in a humidicrib beside them.
Snaked in wires and hooked up to machines, the little premmie was affectionately nicknamed “best boy” for his parents’ big day.
When Rafferty was born just three weeks earlier — 16 weeks before his due date — his prognosis was grim.
His parents held onto hope their little baby would survive — but if he didn’t, they wanted him to feel the love that had brought him into the world.
“I thought if we don’t get to take him home, he would be there (at the wedding),” Alana says of her son’s involvement in her ceremony in the NICU of the Mater Mothers’ Hospital in Brisbane.
“I just wanted him to feel that love.”
The proud mum, from Lismore in the NSW Northern Rivers region, is reminiscing to 7Life about her wedding day as Rafferty, now aged two, runs around her.
The little “chaos monkey” is blissfully unaware about his dramatic entrance into the world and the 92 days he spent in hospital — at first, fighting for his life, then learning to thrive.
When Alana discovered she was pregnant, the couple decided to not learn the baby’s gender.
She suspected she was carrying a boy, despite what others would tell her.
“I just felt boy even though everyone was telling me girl,” Alana says.
“I was even told by a couple of psychics that we were having a girl.”
The couple began discussing names and, although they had a few girls names picked out, they only had one possibility for a boy.
As the excited mum-to-be ticked over the halfway mark in her pregnancy, she began experiencing some bleeding.
Numerous tests at her local hospital revealed her baby was showing no signs of distress.
So Alana pushed aside her worries to focus on her upcoming nuptials.
At 24 weeks pregnant, she bought her dream wedding gown.
But just a few days after returning home with her purchase, she returned to the hospital with strong cramping.
“I was in early labour,” Alana reveals.
“The doctors basically went through a whole list of things that would happen if the baby was born today or next week or next month.
“It was honestly just a list of issues that the baby could potentially have.”
If the baby were to be born 16 weeks early, doctors were concerned it would have severely underdeveloped organs and would need medical equipment to stay alive outside the uterus.
Alana was transferred to Mater Mothers’ Hospital in Brisbane, where a specialist team prepped for a premature birth.
“The plan was to keep the baby in for as long as possible,” Alana explains, revealing she was given medication to help stop labour.
“We now know my son was not on board with the plan.”
Just two days later, Alana alerted a midwife that her baby was coming, and coming now.
She was prepped for an emergency C-section and wheeled into theatre.
“They put a mask on my face ready to knock me out, but I had him naturally,” Alana says.
The midwives began singing happy birthday as baby Rafferty was delivered — before he let out an almighty cry.
Weighing a tiny 704 grams, he entered the world a fighter.
He was whisked into the special care nursery, with Angus by his side.
A few hours later, Alana was able to hold her boy for the first time.
“It’s certainly not what you envisage,” she says of the moments after her son’s birth.
“He was wrapped in leads, he was so tiny. He looked like a little marsupial pouch baby.”
The first skin-to-skin cuddle is a moment the new mum will never forget.
Alana, who is a singer and songwriter, began penning a song especially for her boy, as she spent every waking moment by his humidicrib.
“A whole world awaits you my babe,” she sang lovingly.
The anxious parents were warned the next 10 days would be a honeymoon period as Rafferty tried to survive.
As he hit two weeks old, they weren’t sure if their tiny son would make it.
“He was kicking off all these goals and then things started to get wobbly,” Alana says.
“We started to have all of these scary conversations with doctors about all of the complications that come with growing outside the womb.”
One morning, Alana was making her way towards her son’s humidicrib when hospital staff stopped her — bracing the new parents for the fact Rafferty had had a very rough night.
Alana says the moment she then saw her son was the first time she thought she may not be taking him home.
“Seeing him like that was the catalyst (for the NICU wedding) — I just told Angus that we should get married here in front of him,” she says.
Angus couldn’t agree more.
Making plans
Word flew around the hospital, with midwives helping to organise plans and one even donating her time as a photographer.
In just 10 days, Alana found a local celebrant on Instagram and slipped on the dream wedding dress she had bought in the days before she would go into labour.
“Everyone just moved mountains for us,” she says.
“A nurse even bought him (Rafferty) an outfit.”
And, as the couple exchanged their vows, their “best boy” was the perfect witness on the big day.
After a small celebration in the NICU, the newlyweds threw themselves back into caring for Rafferty full time.
Each day — as Alana strummed on her ukulele and sang Dream Big, her original song crafted out of the love for her boy — Rafferty grew stronger.
“Every day you’re growing bigger and I’m writing songs to sing you while you rest,” Alana sang.
With each chorus, she watched his progress, citing music therapy as a remarkable treatment.
And, after 92 long days in hospital, little Rafferty was discharged.
“We just cried and cried and cried,” Alana says.
“It was just a huge relief.”
Now, Rafferty appears to have taken up his mum’s singing skills, with the two-year-old jumping on tables bursting into song multiple times a day.
“He is just learning the world,” Alana smiles.
“He is an absolute fire cracker who has big feelings.”
Alana Wilkinson has released her song Dream Big in honour of Rafferty.
