Country music singer Lisa McHugh has recalled her baby daughter's 10 "horrendous" days in hospital after contracting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The country music singer, who also shares two-year-old son Milo with husband Nathan Khan, welcomed baby girl Hallie in July of last year.
However, the first few days of her daughter's life were challenging as she had to spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit. Thankfully, Hallie made a full recovery and was able to return home to her family after a couple of days.
READ MORE: Lisa McHugh thanks health staff after daughter's 'scary' time in hospital
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But last November little Hallie faced another ten-day hospital stay, battling RSV and bronchiolitis, a period her worried mum described as "tough" and "heartbreaking".
At the time, Lisa opened up on social media about the ordeal that began when Hallie contracted RSV back in November and had to spend more time in hospital. Hallie was admitted to the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen on November 17.
The mum took to social media to raise awareness of how easy it is for babies to catch the illness, as well as thanking the medical team who looked after her little girl.
Lisa said at the time: "We can't thank all of you enough for your kind messages and prayers over the last couple of weeks. We are also incredibly grateful to all of the nurses and doctors in the SWAH who couldn't have cared for Hallie any better the whole time, they are all amazing and we're so thankful to each of them."
Reflecting on the tough time, Lisa, who lives in Co Fermanagh, told BBC News NI this week: "You feel so helpless, and it's the most horrible feeling for a parent to go through, to not be able to fix what's going on or help."
She added: "She (Hallie) had to then go on oxygen, because her oxygen levels were declining below the threshold that they needed to be for her to be doing it on her own. Within days, she just had really declined. It was absolutely horrendous to see your baby lying there, being so helpless.
"It's horrible because you can't do anything for them, even though you're trying to. I just knew that I wanted to be in the best place for her, and being at home wasn't the safest place."
She again praised the "incredible" SWAH staff who "couldn't have given her any better care or looked after us any better". "Hallie was very, very sick with it, but it could have been also a lot worse," she said.
This week, Lisa also recalled the upset she felt when her daughter Hallie spent time in NICU as a newborn, telling the Everymum podcast: "[Nurses said] We'll bring her down, bring you down to see her, to be with her, but just to give you a heads up, she does have a good few, like, wires and monitors and things on, so just to prepare you for that before you go in."
Lisa admitted she got "such a shock" when she saw Hallie, and was further heartbroken when she learned her daughter had to be transferred to another hospital. Due to a lack of available beds, Lisa couldn't go with her.
The Glasgow native said: "That was horrendous, literally just handing her over to be put in the monitor to travel up - I spent the entire day crying."
Later in the day, a bed became available and Lisa was transferred to be close to her daughter.
The mum-of-two continued: "They blue-lighted me up to the hospital, but because they had to have their blue lights on, they had to go at a certain speed. So you've just had a section, and you're gonna go on the roads in the country to get there, so that was horrendous, but at the same time, I was like, I just actually don't care."
"I just wanted to get there, you know, once I was there I was better, because I was only across the corridor. It was a long, long 10 days, it really was, and she was in the NICU then for the whole 10 days."
After the "toughest and longest" time, Lisa and Nathan were thrilled to be able to bring Hallie back home. She wrote on Instagram at the time: "We cannot describe how special it is to have our beautiful girl Hallie finally home and our little family all together."
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