Intro and questions (sorry it's long!)

[sam_b_88]

Hi everyone.

I've been wanting to post on here for a while but haven't been able to for some bizarre reason. So here goes...on the 15th March I gave birth to my beautiful son Benjamin by c-section. He was 30+5, delivered early due to my having severe pre-eclampsia. He is now 18 days old and has been thriving in the NICU. It has not been an easy ride so far though...

He was put on CPAP after he was born and was coping well at first. When he was 2 days old, his breathing became difficult and he was placed on a ventilator and the doctors ordered chest x-rays. He seemed stable but the xrays showed that he'd suffered a pneurothorax (collapsed lung) and the doctors had to insert a chest tube in order to drain the excess air and re-inflate the lung. I honestly thought I'd lost him at this point. I was a complete mess. But Benjamin is a fighter! The doctors removed the chest tube that very same night and Ben went back onto CPAP two days later. After one day on CPAP, he was breathing on his own and he has been ever since!

Ben was moved to the low-dependency room and has been there for thirteen days. His body temperature regulation is improving and he is able to wear clothes now. He is also on 50% premature baby milk and 50% normal baby milk.

For the past two days, he has been having a LOT of desaturations. He seems fine in himself and the doctors are trying to rule out different possibilities - they thought it could be due to reflux but now they're thinking it could be an infection. They don't seem overly concerned as he is alert and fine in himself. Have any of you had a similar experience with desats? If so I'd be extremely grateful if you'd share your story with me.

Thanks for reading!

Sam x

 

[25weeker]

Hi Congratulations on baby Benjamin

It sounds like he is doing really well not to need any breathing assistance. The doctors will always check for infections when the lo's start behaving differently because their immune systems aren't very good. My lo desatted quite a bit until around 37 weeks gestation when they started reducing and by 38 weeks they disappeared completely.

If they continue they may give him some oxygen as he may be tiring out which is also common with these prems.

I hope the desats stop soon

xx

 

[Srrme]

Hi! Congratulations on the birth of your baby. It seems like he's doing well. When my oldest was in the NICU, he had a period where he was desatting A LOT, and they thought he had an infection, but he didn't. They eventually stopped altogether though.

 

[TwoBumps]

Hi, your story is very similar to mine. My twins were born at 31 + 3 due to me having severe pre e. Both boys were put on c-pap but didn't like it and were ventilated when they were a day old. Ben (yep same name too!) then had a collapsed lung and had to have a chest drain. He did really well over the next few days and both boys were extubated by day 5. They moved to high dependency and over the next couple of days started to have a lot of desats and were both put on lo flow O2 through a nasal canula.

It sounds like your Ben has progressed quicker than my two, but when my boys were in the low dependancy room (at about 5-6 weeks) they also started to have a lot more de-sats again and they looked into infections etc and put them on antibiotics as a precaution. As it turned out they both had low haemaglobin (I think that's what it was - was a while ago now) and Ben had a blood transfusion. He picked up amazingly after that (and even looked a lot pinker!) and the desats stopped. Joshua on the other hand didn't have a transfusion as his levels were just ok & they try not to give transfusions if they can help it. Joshua also refused to be weaned of his O2 and so was put on diuretics at about 37 weeks gestation and weaned quickly of the O2 after that and the de-sats gradually stopped by 38 weeks.

I hope that my story helps a little bit and that your little boys desats stop soon as it sounds like he has been making great progress x x

 

[toothfairyx]

Sorry to be brief - not much time tonight, but Jonny did this around 33-34 weeks just as he was getting established on 4 hourly bottle feeding - one afternoon he went totally nuts desatting all over the place. An x-ray showed consolidated lungs but no other markers of infection. I think it was though as a few other babies had something similar. Had antibiotics and it went away x