A Kirkcudbright couple celebrated their first Christmas at home with their baby boy who was born a month premature.
Faith Shields had to undergo an emergency C-section after a scan revealed that little Leo had a heart rate of more than 230 beats per minute.
He then spent the first couple of weeks of his life in ICU in Glasgow.
But he is now happy and healthy and set to spend his first Christmas in Kirkcudbright with his parents, Faith and her partner Ryan Singleton .
Teacher Faith said: “We’re looking forward to Christmas, although he won’t know any differently!”
Faith had been due to give birth on August 27 this year.
However, a routine midwife appointment a month earlier revealed a potential problem and Faith had to head to DGRI in Dumfries – on her own, as 29-year-old Ryan was at his job as a road worker for Amey.
The 26-year-old said: “She thought I should go to Dumfries, where I was for a few hours and had a scan.
“It showed that Leo’s heart rate was more than 230 beats per minute, which is obviously way too high.
“I had to undergo an emergency C-section – I was on my own and Ryan arrived at the hospital in his work clothes.”
Leo was born at 36 weeks and weighed six pounds, six ounces but with his heart rate still extremely high, he was transferred to hospital in Glasgow, where he was for the first few weeks of his life.
Faith said: “The team there were amazing, the care was fantastic, as it was in Dumfries.
“I was an in-patient after my C section and then we managed to get a room at Ronald McDonald House, which was amazing. It meant we could stay there.”
Leo was eventually allowed to leave on August 13, which Faith said “felt like forever” even though it was just a couple of weeks after he was born.
Now, nearly five months on, he is loving life in Kirkcudbright.
Faith said: “He’s happy and healthy, he’s had no repeat episodes. We just have to monitor his heart rate.
“It was just lucky I had that appointment.”