Hello ladies!
Here is our small surprise, born at 27 weeks. He had severe developmental delay; specialists believe the placenta didn`t form properly so the baby wasn`t receiving enough bloodflow. By 25 weeks he was ten days behind. I was hospitalized at that point for high blood pressure, hoping complete bed rest would help. But by 27 weeks the blood flow was still decreasing and he was barely gaining weight - at 570 grams (1lb4oz) he was in the bottom 2 percentile, the weight of a 22-23 weeker. Nightmares that I was starving my baby kept me up at night. But he was active, kicking often to remind his momma he was still going strong.
Doctors were pessimistic, giving him 25% survival odds - if he did survive, he would probably be severely handicapped. The ethics team at the nicu were wonderful and spent hours with us patiently explaining all of our options, what it would be like living with a heavily handicapped child, etc. We were offered the option of palliative care only too, even a termination if we didn't want him to suffer.
After much soul searching DH and I decided to give him a chance at life. So the doctors decided to deliver him before he showed signs of distress. He was born by c section on mother`s day, May 9th 2010. I will never forget, it snowed that day despite the warm weather.
As I`m sure you ladies understand this has been a very hard journey, an emotional rollercoaster. The first two weeks were hellish with many complications. He would flatline multiple times a day and it would sometimes take hours to stabilize him. Every time they warned us it could cause further brain damage. Early scans did show some hemorrhage (multiple ivh).
He developed every possible complication : acute sepsis, the dreaded NEC, PDA, etc. It was tearing me up inside to see his tiny body suffer so much. He was far too fragile to be picked up or receive breastmilk.
I pumped tiny amounts round the clock, every 3 hours. That stupid pump became it's own form of hell, gosh how I hated that thing.but I would have done anything to help him.
But we`re still trying to keep positive. Like... I finally got to hold him after 22 days! And watch him develop outside the womb! (weird in itself) and... play in his cute reddish hair!
So I thought it would be nice to share his incredible development with you all. It`s crazy how quickly they change!
sooo here goes
3 hours old - 570g. That gold heart is an an inch across (27w)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/Vincent3hours.jpg
4 days old - 520g oof (27w5d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/4.JPG
7 days old (28w1d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/7.JPG
11 days old (28w5d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/11.JPG
16 days old (29w3d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/16.JPG
19 days old - weight 830g (29w6d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/19.jpg
22 days old - I got to hold him! (30w2d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/22.jpg
25 days old - he weighs a kilo hurray (30w5d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/25b.jpg
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/25.jpg
28 days old (31w1d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/28.jpg
33 days old - waving at dad (31w6d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/33.JPG
35 days old - that gold heart looks SO much smaller!! (32w1d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/35.JPG
39 days old - taken two days ago! weight 1360g(32w5d)
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/39.JPG
isn't that amazing change in less than 5 weeks? we probably still have oh 2-3 months before he can come home. but we're hopelessly in love already
update Christmas 2010 - who's this cute guy! Yep, believe it or not, same baby
7 months old, 4 corrected
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/vincent_noel2010.jpg
edit april 2011 - adding a few more recent pics
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/mars2011a.jpg
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/mars2011b.jpg
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/mars2011c.jpg
https://nova.polymtl.ca/~miadel/vincent/7/20110228c.jpg
giving life is an incredible process
congrats on the birth of Riley. His a little fighter. Our consultant said that any baby still on avent after 28 days automatically gets classed as having 'chronic lung disease' - I;ve known it with quite a few babies and they are all doing well now.
