mummy_mi
~*Mum to Chloe*~
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- Apr 29, 2009
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Hello everyone, warning this will be a long one!
I thought it was about time I gave myself a few minutes and wrote down what seems like it happened months ago and share my experiences with you all.
Firstly a bit of background info, I was 32+3 when I waddled along to my scan on a thursday, my other half had called to say he couldnt get out of work to make it, so I was already feeling a little tense. In case you are wondering, my bmi is high so I was booked in for this extra scan to check on things. So anyway, in I go for the scan, and the sonographer was doing the poking and prodding and he asked me how far along I was, and the due date (15 december) and kept making 'hmmmm' noises before prodding around elsewhere. I was trying to stay relaxed, he said 'oh she is looking quite small for your dates' and then carried on probing and he kept saying 'I just need one more measurement' before taking a picture and then carrying on taking more. I am a natural worrier and being on my own as well, I could just feel tears prickling my eyes. Anyway after what seemed an age he said he was done and to wait outside whilst he added up some things, which is what they usually tell you so I sat outside the room, taking deep breaths, trying not to work myself up, when he came out and then said he had to go confirm somethings with a colleague and just to wait there. So I sit back down, feeling worse and after 5 minutes he comes back, hands me my notes and tell me to go round to the other reception where they'll do my blood pressure and things as normal. So now I feel a bit confused, maybe I'm over-reacting, so off I go, hand in my notes there and sit down, and I get called in to see the midwife almost right away, before I've had my bp taken or anything.
She is really nice and explains that baby is measuring small, rather then 32 weeks, more like 28 weeks, but that isnt a problem in itself, she is fully formed, its not a case of part of her being small or anything, she is just petite if you like. The other issue is there wasnt much amniotic fluid, they usually like a measurement of between 15-20 but mine was reading as 8, yet again she reassured me that this isnt always a big problem, it could be that I've been losing some or that there wasnt much there to begin with. So I felt slightly calmer, then she took my bp and said that she would get a colleague to check it as it seemed high and asked my for my urine sample so she could go check it. Off she went for a few minutes and another lady came into check my bp, I dont remember the reading but it was high, and I kind of thought, of course its high, I feel stressed!! The midwife came back and said my urine is reading high for protein (+3) and that she would just have a word with the Doctor and they would be right back. So then I'm left in this room for 15 minutes! I just start to work myself up and some tears do start, mainly I think because I was alone and no one was there to hug me and say its going to be okay. So anyway the Doctor comes in and bluntly says, it looks like I have pre-eclampsia so they are going to admit me now and to be prepared for labour to happen at anytime, to which I burst into tears and she just says, there's no need to cry about it. The midwife comes in and comforts me a bit and then I'm being lead off, and I say I have to make some calls, and she says I'll show you to your bed first then you can go and do that.
So I get taken upto the the labour ward level and I assume I'm going for a bed on there but then I get led into the high dependency unit and get showed a bed surrounded my monitors and leads, which upsets me slightly. They have time to put a wristband on my before I'm off asking for directions to go use my mobile, once there I call other half (and I'm not sure how he understood what I was saying between the blubbering) and tell him to get here now and to get my hospital bag on the way. (At this point please note, my hospital bag consisted of a bag with a spare hairbush, some extra toiletries and a small towel and that's about it, so please ladies, be prepared and put in some spare underwear, etc etc just in case!)
I ring my mum too, she lives 2 and half hours drive away, I tell her not to come up as nothing is certain yet and I dont know whats going on but I'll update her later. So back to the room I go, and get strapped into moniters and bleeping things, a machine automatically checks my bp every 15 mins, I have the ECG thingy round my middle monitoring baby (who is completely fine, heartrate is strong and steady etc), have lots of bloods taken and I'm also told that from now on every time I need to pee I am to collect in a jug, record the amount I peed and then pour it into a larger bottle, as they wanted a 24 hour urine collection to measure for protein. So time passes, other half arrives with the bag that hes packed himself, full of things I dont actually need, another pair of jeans, control knickers (!), 1 tshirt and about 5 pairs of socks, oh and no pj bottoms. Bless I know he was stressed, this is why I beg you all to put spares in a bag, even if you go through it closer to your due date and change it, at least you'll be okay should the worst happen.
Back to the story! So the consultants come round and said the same thing as earlier, my bp is still high and although baby is fine at the minute, it could all change so prepared yourself for delivery in the next few days, they ideally would like to keep her in for as long as possible but it is going to be sooner rather then later. So I spent an uncomfortable night there, I didnt sleep at all and in the morning I was told that there was no free special care baby cots in the hospital so I would have to be transfered asap. They said they wouldnt know where I'm going but there is a possibility it could be Liverpool (I am in Sheffield) but thankfully there was a spare cot at Worksop which is a 30 min drive away, so off I get bundled into an ambulance and sent there where I get put on the labour ward. Over the next 24 hours my bp is up and down and the send my 24 hour urine collection to the lab to test which takes a day for the results, On the sunday morning when the doctors come round they say that my results from the urine collection are not good and that it was full of protein and they have no option but to deliver today and that I'm booked in for 2pm for the c-section.
I get a tour of the operating room and the special care unit and get told that I wont be able to see my baby as she will get taken straight out of the room and whisked off the the special care unit, to be honest it all felt a bit surreal and even tho the surgeon talked to me and I signed the consent form I didnt really think about the fact that I was having an operation, I was more worried about the baby and what might happen. So other half gets to wear some blue scrubs and sit by my head, the spinal has taken hold and although I can feel the surgeons leaning against my sides there is no pain just an odd feeling. There is a big screen put up so we cant see the actual operation and after a few minutes someone says the baby is about to be delivered, then more silence then a bit of movement and ppl leaving the room and a very faint cry from the next room. the midwife comes in a few minutes later to say the baby is breathing on her own but is being closely monitored and I will be wheeled round to see her later. It takes another 40 minutes to get me all stitched back up and in the recovery room, I send daddy off to go see baby and he comes back with pictures, she is so tiny but looks perfect. I get wheeled round to see her shortly after and she is connected to monitors and has a line in her hand for fluids and machines beeping but she is still breathing on her own in the incubator. The night passes slowly, I almost demand a breast pump so that I can express some milk for her, its not much, only about 10mls but I ask that can I be reminded every 3 hours through the night to express again.
In the morning I get moved back onto the labour ward and there are 2 other ladies there that have their babies in cots by the bed, that was the hardest, hearing them cry and be fed and mine was down the corridor. The Doctors informed me that my placenta was in a pretty rubbish state so that it is good that she came out when she did. I had 3 drains put into my stomach, one lead into a little bag that I had to carry around with me for 3 days, not nice.
Fast forward a week and I was discharged and a cot was found back at the hospital in Sheffield and on her week birthday she was moved there. It is now almost a month since she was born and she is doing really well. the line in her hand was out after a week, the heartrate and oxygen monitors where off her after 2 weeks and this week she was moved from an incubator into an open cot.
She weighed 2lb 8oz at birth and is now 3lb 5oz.
She was on 0.5ml of milk and is now on 34ml every 3 hours.
I tried to breastfeed but a combination of her being so small and my mipples being a bit flat meant that she couldnt latch on properly and couldnt suck strong enough, so she is now taking most of her feeds in a bottle and when she is too tired via the tube. She is exclusively on breastmilk, and there are times when I'm sat at home on my own feeling low and the thought of expressing not what I want to do, but I like to think that her amazing progress may be in part due to getting the best from the start so I keep on.
I will update with some pictures at some point once she is home.
I hope this may prepare some people for what could happen, I know we are very lucky, there is another girl on the unit that was born at about the same weight and is on oxygen and her parents havent been able to hold her for weeks. Our little girl is a fighter and although it is very hard not being able to take her home with us, I know she will be with us as soon as she is ready.
Best wishes and good luck to you all and remember even when they are tiny they are fighters!
~* Update *~
Chloe is now home with us, she came home on her 1 month birthday and now weighs in at 3lb 10oz and is guzzling about 50ml every 4ish hours.
Thanks for all the lovely comments everyone.
The sleepless night are well worth it
Here are a few pics of her at a few days old, a week old and one of her yesterday in her swing!
I thought it was about time I gave myself a few minutes and wrote down what seems like it happened months ago and share my experiences with you all.
Firstly a bit of background info, I was 32+3 when I waddled along to my scan on a thursday, my other half had called to say he couldnt get out of work to make it, so I was already feeling a little tense. In case you are wondering, my bmi is high so I was booked in for this extra scan to check on things. So anyway, in I go for the scan, and the sonographer was doing the poking and prodding and he asked me how far along I was, and the due date (15 december) and kept making 'hmmmm' noises before prodding around elsewhere. I was trying to stay relaxed, he said 'oh she is looking quite small for your dates' and then carried on probing and he kept saying 'I just need one more measurement' before taking a picture and then carrying on taking more. I am a natural worrier and being on my own as well, I could just feel tears prickling my eyes. Anyway after what seemed an age he said he was done and to wait outside whilst he added up some things, which is what they usually tell you so I sat outside the room, taking deep breaths, trying not to work myself up, when he came out and then said he had to go confirm somethings with a colleague and just to wait there. So I sit back down, feeling worse and after 5 minutes he comes back, hands me my notes and tell me to go round to the other reception where they'll do my blood pressure and things as normal. So now I feel a bit confused, maybe I'm over-reacting, so off I go, hand in my notes there and sit down, and I get called in to see the midwife almost right away, before I've had my bp taken or anything.
She is really nice and explains that baby is measuring small, rather then 32 weeks, more like 28 weeks, but that isnt a problem in itself, she is fully formed, its not a case of part of her being small or anything, she is just petite if you like. The other issue is there wasnt much amniotic fluid, they usually like a measurement of between 15-20 but mine was reading as 8, yet again she reassured me that this isnt always a big problem, it could be that I've been losing some or that there wasnt much there to begin with. So I felt slightly calmer, then she took my bp and said that she would get a colleague to check it as it seemed high and asked my for my urine sample so she could go check it. Off she went for a few minutes and another lady came into check my bp, I dont remember the reading but it was high, and I kind of thought, of course its high, I feel stressed!! The midwife came back and said my urine is reading high for protein (+3) and that she would just have a word with the Doctor and they would be right back. So then I'm left in this room for 15 minutes! I just start to work myself up and some tears do start, mainly I think because I was alone and no one was there to hug me and say its going to be okay. So anyway the Doctor comes in and bluntly says, it looks like I have pre-eclampsia so they are going to admit me now and to be prepared for labour to happen at anytime, to which I burst into tears and she just says, there's no need to cry about it. The midwife comes in and comforts me a bit and then I'm being lead off, and I say I have to make some calls, and she says I'll show you to your bed first then you can go and do that.
So I get taken upto the the labour ward level and I assume I'm going for a bed on there but then I get led into the high dependency unit and get showed a bed surrounded my monitors and leads, which upsets me slightly. They have time to put a wristband on my before I'm off asking for directions to go use my mobile, once there I call other half (and I'm not sure how he understood what I was saying between the blubbering) and tell him to get here now and to get my hospital bag on the way. (At this point please note, my hospital bag consisted of a bag with a spare hairbush, some extra toiletries and a small towel and that's about it, so please ladies, be prepared and put in some spare underwear, etc etc just in case!)
I ring my mum too, she lives 2 and half hours drive away, I tell her not to come up as nothing is certain yet and I dont know whats going on but I'll update her later. So back to the room I go, and get strapped into moniters and bleeping things, a machine automatically checks my bp every 15 mins, I have the ECG thingy round my middle monitoring baby (who is completely fine, heartrate is strong and steady etc), have lots of bloods taken and I'm also told that from now on every time I need to pee I am to collect in a jug, record the amount I peed and then pour it into a larger bottle, as they wanted a 24 hour urine collection to measure for protein. So time passes, other half arrives with the bag that hes packed himself, full of things I dont actually need, another pair of jeans, control knickers (!), 1 tshirt and about 5 pairs of socks, oh and no pj bottoms. Bless I know he was stressed, this is why I beg you all to put spares in a bag, even if you go through it closer to your due date and change it, at least you'll be okay should the worst happen.
Back to the story! So the consultants come round and said the same thing as earlier, my bp is still high and although baby is fine at the minute, it could all change so prepared yourself for delivery in the next few days, they ideally would like to keep her in for as long as possible but it is going to be sooner rather then later. So I spent an uncomfortable night there, I didnt sleep at all and in the morning I was told that there was no free special care baby cots in the hospital so I would have to be transfered asap. They said they wouldnt know where I'm going but there is a possibility it could be Liverpool (I am in Sheffield) but thankfully there was a spare cot at Worksop which is a 30 min drive away, so off I get bundled into an ambulance and sent there where I get put on the labour ward. Over the next 24 hours my bp is up and down and the send my 24 hour urine collection to the lab to test which takes a day for the results, On the sunday morning when the doctors come round they say that my results from the urine collection are not good and that it was full of protein and they have no option but to deliver today and that I'm booked in for 2pm for the c-section.
I get a tour of the operating room and the special care unit and get told that I wont be able to see my baby as she will get taken straight out of the room and whisked off the the special care unit, to be honest it all felt a bit surreal and even tho the surgeon talked to me and I signed the consent form I didnt really think about the fact that I was having an operation, I was more worried about the baby and what might happen. So other half gets to wear some blue scrubs and sit by my head, the spinal has taken hold and although I can feel the surgeons leaning against my sides there is no pain just an odd feeling. There is a big screen put up so we cant see the actual operation and after a few minutes someone says the baby is about to be delivered, then more silence then a bit of movement and ppl leaving the room and a very faint cry from the next room. the midwife comes in a few minutes later to say the baby is breathing on her own but is being closely monitored and I will be wheeled round to see her later. It takes another 40 minutes to get me all stitched back up and in the recovery room, I send daddy off to go see baby and he comes back with pictures, she is so tiny but looks perfect. I get wheeled round to see her shortly after and she is connected to monitors and has a line in her hand for fluids and machines beeping but she is still breathing on her own in the incubator. The night passes slowly, I almost demand a breast pump so that I can express some milk for her, its not much, only about 10mls but I ask that can I be reminded every 3 hours through the night to express again.
In the morning I get moved back onto the labour ward and there are 2 other ladies there that have their babies in cots by the bed, that was the hardest, hearing them cry and be fed and mine was down the corridor. The Doctors informed me that my placenta was in a pretty rubbish state so that it is good that she came out when she did. I had 3 drains put into my stomach, one lead into a little bag that I had to carry around with me for 3 days, not nice.
Fast forward a week and I was discharged and a cot was found back at the hospital in Sheffield and on her week birthday she was moved there. It is now almost a month since she was born and she is doing really well. the line in her hand was out after a week, the heartrate and oxygen monitors where off her after 2 weeks and this week she was moved from an incubator into an open cot.
She weighed 2lb 8oz at birth and is now 3lb 5oz.
She was on 0.5ml of milk and is now on 34ml every 3 hours.
I tried to breastfeed but a combination of her being so small and my mipples being a bit flat meant that she couldnt latch on properly and couldnt suck strong enough, so she is now taking most of her feeds in a bottle and when she is too tired via the tube. She is exclusively on breastmilk, and there are times when I'm sat at home on my own feeling low and the thought of expressing not what I want to do, but I like to think that her amazing progress may be in part due to getting the best from the start so I keep on.
I will update with some pictures at some point once she is home.
I hope this may prepare some people for what could happen, I know we are very lucky, there is another girl on the unit that was born at about the same weight and is on oxygen and her parents havent been able to hold her for weeks. Our little girl is a fighter and although it is very hard not being able to take her home with us, I know she will be with us as soon as she is ready.
Best wishes and good luck to you all and remember even when they are tiny they are fighters!
~* Update *~
Chloe is now home with us, she came home on her 1 month birthday and now weighs in at 3lb 10oz and is guzzling about 50ml every 4ish hours.
Thanks for all the lovely comments everyone.
The sleepless night are well worth it
Here are a few pics of her at a few days old, a week old and one of her yesterday in her swing!
