# Ellen and Sarah



## Sarah+Ellen

I tohught i should probably introduce us and tell you our story.

We had been trying for a baby for over 5 years when I finally fell pregnant. We had been told we would not conceive naturally due to my having Poly Cystic Ovaries. I was in the process of losing weight to enable me to have treatment when I found out.
I had a bleed quite early but thankfully it was diagnosed as an implantation bleed and we even got to see the babies heart beat at about 7 weeks.
I had extreme morning sickness and was put on some medication to stop the symptoms and had one night in hospital on a drip as I had become dehydrated. 
I had another bleed a couple of weeks later but it was again diagnosed as nothing to worry about. At 12 weeks I had my scan and we saw our baby wave to us for the first time. We were told my dates were slightly out by about 4 days, which meant she was due on my birthday. I remember saying that I wanted her to have her own day and not have to share it with me.
All carried on being ok, I was even able to start eating again, though I still couldnt eat chocolate. I bought my first bits of maternity wear, just a t-shirt and a set of waistband expanders, without realising that they would be the only items of maternity wear. 
My parents travelled down to our house in Borehamwood (200 miles) for a visit when I was 22 weeks. After a lovely evening we all retired to bed and that was when I saw I had had a mucus discharge. I rang my midwife who told me to go straight to the delivery suite at the local hospital (Barnet).
Once I got there I was scanned and examined and told that all was ok, we had seen the baby moving on the scan and the registrar asked me if I wanted an internal exam. I remember saying better safe than sorry so she did one. 
I had dilated to 2.5cm. I was told that I would be kept in, put on a drip and anti-biotics, and would be checked again in the morning. My husband went home to try and get some sleep, my parents stayed with me and I tried to get some sleep. 
In the morning I was examined by the consultant who saw I was at 3cm and decide to operate. I was taken straight down to the operating room but thankfully Mark was allowed to come in with me. I was given a spinal which reacted high. That meant that I passed out and Mark was kicked out of the room while they brought me back. The anaesthetic numbed me up to my chin when it was meant to numb me up to my chest. They performed a cervical curclage or a cervical stitch. I was taken through to recovery where my parents were waiting and I was given some tea and toast, both of which I brought straight back.
I was taken to a side room after a while and left to sleep. I managed to sleep through till about 4am, when I needed the toilet. I had to ring for help but for the first time in a couple of days I managed to not use a bedpan. 
I was kept in for a couple of days but was doing much better and my parents went home back to Bolton. I was finally discharged on the Monday only to be readmitted on the Tuesday after another large bleed. 
I was in Barnet for a couple of days when a team of doctors came to see me. They told me that they were not equipped to help my baby if she was to arrive before 28 weeks. So I was going to be sent to another hospital. It was University College Hospital in central London, over an hour away.
My Mum and Dad had returned when I was readmitted and my Mum travelled with me to UCH and my Dad travelled there with Mark separately. Once there I was kept on the delivery suite for the first 24 hours, on the really uncomfortable delivery beds and with a blanket rolled up for a pillow. 
I had a few pains that night and was really scared. Thankfully they eased by morning and had gone completely by early afternoon. I was transferred to the ante natal ward when I had had a scan done. I was there for a week but on the Wednesday I had a surprise, my Dad and my Brother travelled down on the train for the day just to help cheer me up and see how I was doing. 
On the Friday, we went for a scan to see if the baby was still ok, but when we got there, the radiographer saw that there were no waters. They had dissipated throughout the week. 
Later that day, the consultant came to see me and mark to tell us they would not stop labour if it was to start. We were convinced that this meant we had lost our baby.
Ellen May was born on 9th December 2005 at 10:45pm. I was 24weeks pregnant at the time. I was only in actual labour for about 10 minutes, and had no pain medication. Ellen was born in her membranes which cushioned her arrival and saved her life. 
The NNU team got her on the overhead incubator and got her ventilated. Then the Dr came and saw me and explained what they were doing and asked if we wanted everything done for her. I replied definitely. I had to stay lay down for a while then when Mark arrived I was allowed to sit up and even get changed but still was not allowed to go down to see her in the unit. Eventually, when the nurse realised I was going with or without there permission, they arranged for a porter and a healthcare assistant to escort Mark and I down.
The nurses on duty explained that she was hooked up to all different machines and had all sorts of lines coming out of her limbs. When we finally got to see her, I just cried. She was beautiful, even though she was tiny, in an open incubator and her eyes were still fused.
At first, because she was so early, she was kept under a plastic bag. This helped her skin develop so that it didnt break down when touched. 
She seemed to have a couple of good days then on the 6th day she developed sepsis (blood infection) and her blood pressure dropped. They removed her long line, the line they were pumping her fluids into, gave her Medicines and overnight she settled down a bit.
When she was 9 days old she was heard crying even though she had a tube in her throat, which you shouldnt have been able to do. So the doctor said instead of changing the tube, he would try her on C-Pap, where she would be taking the breaths for herself.
She lasted 5 days on this before she got to tired and had to be ventilated again. The main reason she was tired was because she had a PDA that needed closing. 
On 26th January at 7 weeks old she was transferred to Gt Ormand Street to have the duct closed. The operation took 45 minutes and the surgeon told us it was a complete success. Later that evening, while I was expressing, she had a bad de-sat and her dad saw her stop breathing. The team got her back and discovered she had a pnuemothorax (air gathering around the lung) and an anaesthetist came and moved her chest drain. During the night though she had another episode. This time the cardio surgeon came and had to aspirate the air off bu sticking a needle into her chest.
Luckily this worked, and she was able to have the 2nd chest drain removed and the day later she was able to go back to UCH where the other drain was removed after a couple of days.
A week after her op she was back on her C-Pap, though this didnt last. She was ventilated again after a day. The doctor we had said to us that all the intubating can cause additional problems by causing swelling to the vocal cords. So he suggested a new machine called Si-Pap which worked as a cross between C-Pap and ventilator. She was on this for a few days until she was a bit stronger then she got put on conventional c-pap.
She finally weighed a kilo at just 2 months old, and she got to wear clothes for the first time then too. A couple of weeks later she got promoted to a conventional Incubator or greenhouse as we called it.
Around the end of February, she started to take more milk than I was producing so she also had some feeds of formula. This was really upsetting for me because it was the one thing only I could do for her and I wasnt doing enough. I was on a couple of different medications as well as herbal remedies and it just wasnt doing enough. 
When she was 12 weeks old Ellen was transferred to Barnet Hospital, our local one, where she went from strength to strength. She started coming off her c-pap and having time on low flow, and got promoted yet again into a cot.
At the end of March Ellen went off to her 4th hospital to have laser surgery on her eyes. She had a condition called Retinopathy of Prematurity or ROP for short. If left untreated this can cause the retina to detach leaving the baby blind. Thankfully her operation was a success and her eyes are now fine.
Shortly after her return to Barnet she started taking some of her feeds from a bottle though she didnt take to breastfeeding at all. Another thing I felt really guilty about. You are meant to keep a baby inside you for 40 weeks, you are meant to be able to provide enough milk for you baby, and you are meant to be able to feed your baby, all 3 I couldnt do. It took a lot of talking to some very good nurses, family and friends for me to understand that none of it was my fault. It is just what happened.
She visited her 5th hospital for an MRI scan in April and her 6th was for a check up on her eyes. She has been to more hospitals and had more treatments and tests than me and her Dad put together!
At the end of April, Ellen started having time of the Oxygen, just breathing for herself and she managed about 3 days straight then she caught a cold and had to go back on low flow.
When she was discharged in May at 5 months and 1 day old, she was discharged on oxygen and it took another 4 months for her to be free and clear of that. 
All was going really well until January 2007. Ellen went to bed without eating her tea or drinking her bottle which was not like her. By midnight she was vomiting everything she had eaten all day. She had not improved the following day and I couldnt get anything in her so we went to the GPs who told us that if we still couldnt get fluid into her by the evening we should take her to the hospital.
We did that and spent a couple of nights in Barnet. They diagnosed a blockage in the bowel and sent us to the nearest surgical hospital that had a bed, that turned out to be Lewisham! (About 90 mins away). They stabilised her, looked at all her results from Barnet and even got all her old x-rays and scans from UCH sent over. After the surgeon looked at all these he decided to operate.
Ellen went under another operation then. The surgeon took all her bowel out, emptied it and took the appendix out. When she came back the surgeon explained that her bowel was fine. 
She needed a central line inserting as she kept pulling her lines out. Once they inserted that under GA, they x-rayed her to check it was in place. On that x-ray, it showed that she had pneumonia. She had been in hospital for almost 3 weeks and was only just diagnosed. 
The doctors changed her onto a specific antibiotic and she was discharged a couple of days later.
It took her almost 7 months to put the weight back on that time but she is finally doing really well.


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## Mamafy

What a journey:cry: I am so glad Ellen is now doing well:hugs:


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## wilbrabeany

Gosh, what a year, glad Ellen is doing well now.xxx


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## Samantha

Hiya,

WOW, what a journey. Some of it reminds me of the journey I went on with my little one Charlotte.

You realise you are not alone when you read stories such as yours. Ours is on a website www.charlottelow.com.

Congratulations on getting through this.

xx


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## Freya

Thanks for sharing your story, I can't imagine how strong you've had to be.

Really chuffed Ellen is doing so well!!

xxx


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## turbo_mom

wow that's quite the journey you had. But your little Ellen sure sounds like quite the fighter. It's amazing how strong they are when they are so tiny isn't it? Glad to hear she's doing well though. I too had a 24 week prem and I remember feeling all those guilty feeling of not being able to provide and feeling like a total failure. I also couldn't establish milk very well but she got it in the very beginning which is the most important!
You should be very proud of yourself for getting through that ordeal. I think it takes a special mom and dad to go through something like that and thats why I think most of us were chosen to have such tiny babies.
How big is she now?
Also welcome to BNB I hope to see some pics of your sweet LO :)


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## welshcakes79

oh your LO has had a tough start to life, she sounds like a real little fighter though
(agree with turbo-mom, would love to see pics of your baby girl :)) x


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## redberry3

wow. thank you for sharing such an amazing story, I am so happy to hear that little Ellen is doing well now.
Thank you.


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## charveyron

What a strong little girl you have there - I'm so glad that she's doing ok now :hugs:

I was born at the UCH and went to school in Barnet (Ravenscroft) - How strange!!!


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## Sarah+Ellen

thank yo uall for the kind words and the great welcome!

As soon as i work out where they go i will post some pics for you all.


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## miel

:hugs: you are a amazing mom :hugs:


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## xarlenex

Ah wow..what a story. I cant imagine how difficult that must have been. You have such a precious little fighter there :) Glad everything worked out well xx


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## Baby-Love

She's a true fighter..what a little gem.


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## turbo_mom

wow I just saw your SIG and she is BEAUTIFUL!!! She looks very well and looks like a very sweet girl. You must be so proud of her :)


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## Sarah+Ellen

thnak you all so much, we do love her a great deal and of course we think she is adorable!!! She is going through seperation anxiety at the moment but we soom to be coping ok so far...


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## Blob

Wow that was amazing, thank you so much for sharing your story. She looks so healthy congratulations :)


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## ryder

wow, what a story! I hope things keep going well for all 3 of you.


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## MummyJade

Wow what a time you had, Ellen is beautiful you must be so proud of her and how far she has come. xx


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## BlackBerry25

Wow! What a mom you are :)
Amazing story.


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## Sarah+Ellen

thank you all for your kind replies. We are so very proud of her and i hope that her story gives all the mums and dads going through this now hope. If it helps just one person it will be worth it.


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## Mynxie

so glad that your little one is such a fighter. You must be incredibly proud of her. Thank you for sharing your story :hugs:


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## faith_may

Both of you are amazing, and also your DH. She's one amazing little girl


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## babezone

oh wow wat a story..shes a right little fighter you must be very proud shes gorgeous x


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## Sweetie

Wow. What an amazing story. I'm happy to hear that she is doing well after all of that. :hug:


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## Carley

An amazing story, I hope she is well for the rest of her life :hugs:


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## Logiebear

So your daughter is the one on 20 that survive at that age, that's amazing. I can't believe how tiny she was. She looks alot older than 2 in your siggy pic hun. Gorgeous xxx


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## Abby

What an amazing story!! It gives me hope and inspiration, and strength whilst i go through this same situation.

Thanks for sharing it. By the way, Ellen is beautiful.

Abby

PS: Got your previous message on my thread. Will PM you...Thank you


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