Marleysgirl
Mum to a SCBU Warrior!
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- Mar 24, 2009
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Hi'y'all
Some of you may remember that I posted in here a couple of weeks ago with questions about potentially having a preemie baby ... well he's been born!
A week after having steroid injections in case of early delivery, I was due to return to hospital for my daily u/s scan when I had a morning of reduced movement, so I actually went in earlier than planned that day, suitcase in DH's hand, suspecting that this might be it.
They scanned me, and although baby's heartbeat was strong, they agreed that he wasn't moving much. Checking the doppler, my placental bloodflow had deteriorated to a potentially dangerous level - the choice was to deliver the baby as soon as possible, or risk losing him in the womb. Easy decision really. Seven hours later (they had to wait because I'd had lunch!), Andrew was delivered by caesarian section, weighing just 1lb 6oz, even less than the expected.
DH saw him in the theatre as they were intubating etc, and I was taken to see him in the NeoNatal unit (SCBU) the next morning, when he was stable.
Since then, his blood sugars have been up and down so he's had some insulin; they're treating him with antibiotics against infection; he was jaundiced for a day so received UVlight treatment; and he's had a couple of blood transfusions to raise his platelet & Hg levels. We've had no "major panics" yet, although headscans have revealed a couple of pre-delivery bleeds in the skull (between brain & skull) that they are monitoring, as yet we & the docs don't know what damage this may have done to the underlying brain areas.
But on the good side
Andrew came off the ventilator about 4 days ago (less than a week old), and yesterday he spent some time off the Cpap system too, as his lungs are so strong, thanks to those steroid injections.
He is still absolutely tiny, weighing 1lb 9oz yesterday - he's putting on weight now as he's on my EBM (moooooooo!). And everybody in the Unit is impressed with his progress, he's proving to be a little toughie.
Some of you may remember that I posted in here a couple of weeks ago with questions about potentially having a preemie baby ... well he's been born!
A week after having steroid injections in case of early delivery, I was due to return to hospital for my daily u/s scan when I had a morning of reduced movement, so I actually went in earlier than planned that day, suitcase in DH's hand, suspecting that this might be it.
They scanned me, and although baby's heartbeat was strong, they agreed that he wasn't moving much. Checking the doppler, my placental bloodflow had deteriorated to a potentially dangerous level - the choice was to deliver the baby as soon as possible, or risk losing him in the womb. Easy decision really. Seven hours later (they had to wait because I'd had lunch!), Andrew was delivered by caesarian section, weighing just 1lb 6oz, even less than the expected.
DH saw him in the theatre as they were intubating etc, and I was taken to see him in the NeoNatal unit (SCBU) the next morning, when he was stable.
Since then, his blood sugars have been up and down so he's had some insulin; they're treating him with antibiotics against infection; he was jaundiced for a day so received UVlight treatment; and he's had a couple of blood transfusions to raise his platelet & Hg levels. We've had no "major panics" yet, although headscans have revealed a couple of pre-delivery bleeds in the skull (between brain & skull) that they are monitoring, as yet we & the docs don't know what damage this may have done to the underlying brain areas.
But on the good side
Andrew came off the ventilator about 4 days ago (less than a week old), and yesterday he spent some time off the Cpap system too, as his lungs are so strong, thanks to those steroid injections.He is still absolutely tiny, weighing 1lb 9oz yesterday - he's putting on weight now as he's on my EBM (moooooooo!). And everybody in the Unit is impressed with his progress, he's proving to be a little toughie.
You have a little fighter there by the sounds of it! x
make sure you get a few prints taken of his teeny hands and feet-usually the nurses will help you with that. They soon grow! 
