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Birth Stories
jnc07x3
member
A Premie Birth Story
jnc07x3
member
a little late in posting this, but it took time to be okay with what happened (and to type this without tears).
My due date with my second child was March 10th. Overall, the pregnancy seemed to progress normally. No real problems or complications and at the gender ultrasound he measured roughly a week and a half ahead. I did fail the one hour glucose by a little bit, but passed the three hour without an issue.
So on January 21, my regular 33 week appointment I didn't think anything was wrong. I sent my DH off to work that morning, put my five year old on the bus, ate and then went off to my 9:15 appointment with a plan to go to my office after the appointment. that was the plan at least.
At 9:20 while doing the doppler, my OB said something seemed off even though bub's was kicking the doppler like normal so he sent me up for an NST. What he didn't tell me was that the heart rate was only measuring to the 60's and 70's aka not doubling and there seemed to be a abnormal beat. So I walked across the hospital and then up to L&D getting there about 9:30. During my walk I sent a message off to my mom and DH that I was going for the NST but should be done in half hour to an hour and hopefully I wouldn't be late to work- I can laugh at that now because if I had known wat my OB didn't tell me I would have asked them to head towards the hospital asap (and would have called to ask my brother and SIL who live right there to come with me)
Once at L&D, there was another one of the OB's as well as the head nurse were waiting for me (that should have sent off warning bells). so they hook me up and start talking about how bub may be moving and kicking, but he was destating quickly as his heart rate was then in the 50's and 60's compared to minutes earlier when it was in the 60's and 70's and I was having a c section NOW (it was 9:35/9:40 at this point). In the flurry of what happened next I called and left a voicemail for my DH to get to the hospital ASAP, called and told my mom what was happening and to get ahold of dh and have dh call my boss/office, had my phone taken away at that point (yeah that didn't help), signed a millions forms quickly while they put in an iv and a mask on me, heard them call code on bub's as well as heard them call for a crash cart as they are rushing me into the c-section area and putting me under. Apparently I almost coded during the c-section, and bub's coded twice before they stabilized him. My brother made it in during all of this and DH and my mom got there as I was moved to recovery. Bubs was born at 9:45am January 21, 6 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches long (at 33 weeks!!! He was one of the biggest premies in the NICU).
Once I was out of the anesthesia my mom finally went and got my daughter from school and I finally got to see bubs before they transported him to a NICU unit at the hospital half an hour away. It wasn't until later they let me know bubs had a third degree heart block arrhythmia as well as a murmur. To put into perspective- third degree is an automatic pacemaker in adults. In babies it unfortunately is normally not caught until it is too late and the baby either is born stillborn or passes away from SIDS (they do consider it a cause of SIDS) and in many cases, it can cause serious harm to the mom as well--- not exactly what a new mom wants to hear about her premature baby. Bubs and I were lucky I had the dr appointment and everything happened when it did.
It was three days before I was discharged and able to travel to see bub's at the NICU. Those first few days with the vent and incubator at the NICU were not easy. We were praying for good news as if they didn't get the desatting from the heart block under control they were discussing life flighting him to the NICU an hour away. With how hard it was on us, it was even worse for my daughter who wasn't allowed in the NICU at all.In all, bub's spent 28 days in the NICU being discharged February 17th. The first couple weeks were getting his arrhythmia under control and weaning him off the machines. The last week was trying to get his blood pressure under control as well as trying to get him to eat from a bottle (instead of the feeding tube in his nose).
I ended up having post partum pre-eclampsia which has not been much fun. I am hoping to come off the meds that are controlling my blood pressure soon.
Bubs is now 4 months old. We continue to deal with weekly blood pressure checks (still unknown as to why his BP is an issue), and he continues to have a minor arrhythmia (now a 1st degree as it does not cause him to destat) and murmur, but otherwise he is a happy 12 lb baby now.
My due date with my second child was March 10th. Overall, the pregnancy seemed to progress normally. No real problems or complications and at the gender ultrasound he measured roughly a week and a half ahead. I did fail the one hour glucose by a little bit, but passed the three hour without an issue.
So on January 21, my regular 33 week appointment I didn't think anything was wrong. I sent my DH off to work that morning, put my five year old on the bus, ate and then went off to my 9:15 appointment with a plan to go to my office after the appointment. that was the plan at least.
At 9:20 while doing the doppler, my OB said something seemed off even though bub's was kicking the doppler like normal so he sent me up for an NST. What he didn't tell me was that the heart rate was only measuring to the 60's and 70's aka not doubling and there seemed to be a abnormal beat. So I walked across the hospital and then up to L&D getting there about 9:30. During my walk I sent a message off to my mom and DH that I was going for the NST but should be done in half hour to an hour and hopefully I wouldn't be late to work- I can laugh at that now because if I had known wat my OB didn't tell me I would have asked them to head towards the hospital asap (and would have called to ask my brother and SIL who live right there to come with me)
Once at L&D, there was another one of the OB's as well as the head nurse were waiting for me (that should have sent off warning bells). so they hook me up and start talking about how bub may be moving and kicking, but he was destating quickly as his heart rate was then in the 50's and 60's compared to minutes earlier when it was in the 60's and 70's and I was having a c section NOW (it was 9:35/9:40 at this point). In the flurry of what happened next I called and left a voicemail for my DH to get to the hospital ASAP, called and told my mom what was happening and to get ahold of dh and have dh call my boss/office, had my phone taken away at that point (yeah that didn't help), signed a millions forms quickly while they put in an iv and a mask on me, heard them call code on bub's as well as heard them call for a crash cart as they are rushing me into the c-section area and putting me under. Apparently I almost coded during the c-section, and bub's coded twice before they stabilized him. My brother made it in during all of this and DH and my mom got there as I was moved to recovery. Bubs was born at 9:45am January 21, 6 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches long (at 33 weeks!!! He was one of the biggest premies in the NICU).
Once I was out of the anesthesia my mom finally went and got my daughter from school and I finally got to see bubs before they transported him to a NICU unit at the hospital half an hour away. It wasn't until later they let me know bubs had a third degree heart block arrhythmia as well as a murmur. To put into perspective- third degree is an automatic pacemaker in adults. In babies it unfortunately is normally not caught until it is too late and the baby either is born stillborn or passes away from SIDS (they do consider it a cause of SIDS) and in many cases, it can cause serious harm to the mom as well--- not exactly what a new mom wants to hear about her premature baby. Bubs and I were lucky I had the dr appointment and everything happened when it did.
It was three days before I was discharged and able to travel to see bub's at the NICU. Those first few days with the vent and incubator at the NICU were not easy. We were praying for good news as if they didn't get the desatting from the heart block under control they were discussing life flighting him to the NICU an hour away. With how hard it was on us, it was even worse for my daughter who wasn't allowed in the NICU at all.In all, bub's spent 28 days in the NICU being discharged February 17th. The first couple weeks were getting his arrhythmia under control and weaning him off the machines. The last week was trying to get his blood pressure under control as well as trying to get him to eat from a bottle (instead of the feeding tube in his nose).
I ended up having post partum pre-eclampsia which has not been much fun. I am hoping to come off the meds that are controlling my blood pressure soon.
Bubs is now 4 months old. We continue to deal with weekly blood pressure checks (still unknown as to why his BP is an issue), and he continues to have a minor arrhythmia (now a 1st degree as it does not cause him to destat) and murmur, but otherwise he is a happy 12 lb baby now.
Re: A Premie Birth Story
me: 33, Factor V Leiden, MTHFR + hubs: 37
BFP #1: 9/25/14 -- EDD: 6/4/15
Jesse, our baby boy: 2/25/15 @ 25.6 weeks, 2lbs 2oz & 13.5 inches. spent 66 days in the NICU.
BFP #2: 7/29/16 -- EDD: 3/30/17
baby #2 on the way.
But for anyone else whom reads this and especially has been in the same boat, many HUGS