# Isabella's Story....Born at 27 weeks 5 days- reduced fetal movement



## kaziscool

Hi All, 

My name is Karen & i'm 28. My little girl was born last Saturday (5th November). at 27 + 5. Isabella Grace weighed in at 2lb 5 1/2 oz after been delivered by emergency c-section.

On the Wednesday I started to notice that she wasn't kicking me anywhere near as much as usual. I put this down to a quiet day & that as I'd been very busy & stressed out at work I'd not noticed. This lack of movement (although did have a few movements here & there) continued through Thursday & Friday. On the Saturday morning I awoke early & decided to concentrate on her movements. By 11am i'd not felt anything, despite trying all sorts to make her move. I called my local midwife team & they transferred me to the local hospital. The midwife there advised me to try a couple of other things to encourage my baby to move, these included ice water & a long relaxing bath. 

After I drank some ice water around 12.30 I got a couple of small kicks, so stopped worrying & continued on with my day. Around 15.30 I got the feeling deep inside that something was wrong & that I shouldn't ignore the lack of movement. Following some advice I travelled to the local hospital to be checked over. 

Some 5 hours later I was been taken to theater as my baby had been showing signs of distress & the doctors believed that it was for the best. 

Once they had delivered my darling Isabella, I was told that my placenta was very pale & that my uterus was very weak. I now know that had I not decided to be checked over that afternoon, my baby would not be here now.

Now exactly a week on from been in theater, I'm at home & Isabella is in Neonatal Intensive Care. She's on a ventilator & not showing any signs of coming off at the moment. She has just started to take milk, around 1ml every 2 hours which they are hoping to increase.

I'm finding things so hard at the moment, trying to juggle expressing, visiting Isabella, sleeping & staying strong in front of everyone else as the moment I show signs of weakness they all break down


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## Sam182

Hi Karen,

I've written my story here too - it's a few threads down. My little Alexander was born on the same day, 2 days gestation behind Isabella due to severe pre eclampsia. He is in the scbu and is being weaned from his ventilator (they did take him off on thurs but he just couldn't manage). He is being fed 1ml of milk every 6 hours. It's going to be a long journey for our little ones but hopefully with positive thinking and bnb it will go a little quicker :)


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## Sam182

Have just seen your post on my thread! Thanks and it would be great to chat as we are both in the same boat :)


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## PleaseBaby

Congratulations on the birth of Isabella. Dont get to worried anout her still being on th vent at the moment. SHes had a masive sock to her system and needs time to recover.

AMelia was a 27 weeker and came off hers after about a week. Make the most of sort of being able to see her face because once those cpaps go on hey cover everything lol

I hope youll both be sticking around here x


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## kaziscool

Thank you both, I know that this is going to be a long & difficult road that has as many downs as ups. 

At the moment I'm just trying to process everything that's happened. 

Has anyone any tips on how to juggle the visits, expressing & eating/sleeping?

xx


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## 25weeker

Congratulations on the birth of Isabella.

Double expressing is great for reducing the amount of time you need to express and it also helps your supply. I expressed about 8 times a day with one of these being between midnight & 4 and then again when I woke up. I never expressed more than once in the night.

The first unit I was in I was staying in a ronald McDonald house 2 mins away so I was able to pop back for meals. The second hospital I had to drive too so I went to the unit in the morning and stayed all day and ate at the hospital. know others who would bring sandwiches etc in but I was never that organised!


You will get yourself into a routine so try not to worry.

Keep us updated

Xx


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## Wantabean

Hi :wave: 
My son was born at 38weeks due to reduced fetal movements and was extremely ill when he was born (emergency section) and now i have been travelling to the hosp again as it seems to be happening again. They are keeping a close eye but i dnt think things are looking too great. Congrats to both of you on the birth of your babies :hugs: the support here is great and the perfect place for you to have a break down and a cry so dont feel like you need to be strong here. Im gonna hang about if thats ok? Listening to your stories and seeing how great your babies will be doing will give me hope. Hope u dnt mind me joining? Xxxx


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## kaziscool

Just thought I'd give you all an update on Isabella....

Its been a rough week, she developed an infection last Wednesday which I found out yesterday was E-coli!!! The Dr's were also worried about her bowel & on Thursday they transferred her from Calderdale (Halifax) to Leeds General Infirmary for a Surgeon to check her bowel over.

She has now made improvements & seems to be beating the infection & as yet they have found no surgical issue with her bowels (still looking though). 

As awful as this may sound we are now stressing over the added cost of travelling to a hospital that is much further away. I was able to get the Halifax every day free of charge but its now costing a fortune on buses & trains to get to Leeds. As you can all imagine we had not put the money aside yet for her to be here & the cost is killing us.

I'm hoping that once I'm able to drive again we might be able to reduce this cost but unless we are able to get a parking permit (parking is £16.20 per day at LGI) we are still gonna have to go on public transport as can't afford the parking bills.

Its not fair to be worrying about money on top of trying to cope with have a premature baby but I just don't know how we are going to manage if she's not transferred closer to home soon.

Anyway thats my rant over for today

xx


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## AP

Kaz i will PM you x


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## vermeil

congratulations! Isabella welcome to the world! :hugs:

Every hospital I know of has special housing or a similar program for parents with babies in nicu. There MUST be one close by. our hospital had 3 different programs, one with rooms directly in the hospital, all 10$ a night or so. Or else there are many organisations that will help with the cost of travelling. I only know of those here overseas in Quebec but there are definitely some there somewhere! Ask at the nicu reception or the nurses.

As for tips... double expressing really does help. Most hospitals will rent really good pumps that work much better than the store bought ones. I think ours was 50$ a month. Though I loathed expressing with a passion (even called mine the tyrant haha) it was sooo worth it to be able to breastfeed months later. 

I suggest you name ONE person as your contact to family and friends. Every day or so you give news to this ONE person. You ask people to please NOT contact you directly, ask this person for details. This was a huuuuuuge help to me, not to have to stress about who knew what, hearing people`s empty encouragements, etc. I found most people just didn`t know what to say anyway. So just getting rid of that whole aspect was a huge relief :winkwink:

Think of yourself and your little one. Now`s the time to be selfish and focus on this little wonder that`s entered your life. Everything else is secondary :)


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## Foogirl

Just a flying visit so can't type much, but first off, congratulations.

It is an incredibly tough time and what you need to say to 'those around you' is, you need to work this through your system. In order to get through this, you must not feel the need to be strong for others, you must look after yourself. They have never been through it and cannot understand the complexities of emotions you have. You need support, not to be support. We are all here for you.

Secondly, have a word with the hospital and see if they give financial support for families in your situation. There is usually something somewhere that can help. Even if it is just a long term parking pass, or travelling expenses. Keep us informed and please do look after yourself.


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## Chiclets

> Secondly, have a word with the hospital and see if they give financial support for families in your situation. There is usually something somewhere that can help. Even if it is just a long term parking pass, or travelling expenses.

I agree with this. They were able to give us a parking pass to offset parking expenses. 

I hope everything continues to go well for Isabella. The vent can take time to come off of. Feedings were always our hurdle.


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## kaziscool

Thank you all for your advice. We have managed to get a room in a parents house, just 30 secs from the hospital door now so are no longer worrying about travelling etc.

Isabella hasn't made any progress to get off her vent at the moment but is due to have surgery next week to close her PDA. The Dr's have said that all been well once this is closed she should start to make progress.

At the moment she is tolerating her feeds really well & is nearly up to full feeds, so hopefully once the PDA is sorted she will start to flourish!!


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## kaziscool

Well here we are on day 52 & Isabella has made huge steps this last week. She had her PDA surgically closed on 15th December & finally came on the vent on Sunday 18th December after spending 6 weeks on.

She is now on high flow & taking feeds of 16ml every 2 hours. I'm desperatley hoping that we are finally on the road to recovery after surgery, kidney dialysis, blood clots, serious infections & possible brain hemmorages. 

Fingers crossed she can come home soon xx


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