Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Blogging For Preemies! Premature Birth Awareness Day!

Well today is National Premature Birth Awareness Day!  The March of Dimes also have an event going on today where you are to wear something purple to show your support.  I signed up through Bloggersunite.org to participate in a worldwide blogging of stories either personal or of a preemie that you know.  I planned to make today's blog the first post in my blog for a reason. This is a very important cause for me.  My son was born Dec. 30, 2008 at 8 weeks early that would have made him only 32 wks gestational age rather then the 37-42+ wks that they say is full term.  My sons story can get long if I keep to the details but I don't want people to feel sorry for him either.  He is now a healthy almost 23 month old toddler.  He only has one developmental delay that we are just now starting to notice and we are yet to be sure if it has to do with his early birth. . .

Dante's story starts back when in the summer of 2008 Tim and I found out we were expecting a surprise baby.  When I hit 21 wks we found out it was a little boy, Dante Alexander P.  We knew that I was having complications from pregnancy induced hypertension (high blood pressure) but we were keeping under control with meds.  Well things where going great till the Sunday after Thanksgiving when we were forcibly evicted (before our lease was up and rent was always paid on time) from where we were staying.  Well Tim's dad came and helped us move into their house and within a couple days I started having pain in my side and they kept getting worst, I just figured another UTI since I was so prone to them.  I finally gave into the pain thinking that all that would happen was that we would go to the ER and they would give me meds for the UTI and send me home.  Was I ever wrong!  Apparently my BP meds stopped working with me and on top of my UTI I had extremely high BP.  I cant remember the exact BP but the top number was in the 200s and the bottom was in the 100s, now for those that don't know normal BP should be around or under 120/80.  We  they wanted me in a different hospital where there was a NICU just in case they had to take him then.  Tim drove me to Bend where they took me straight into L&D.  I spent 2 wks in there on strick bedrest I was only allowed up to use the bathroom and be weighed.  They finally was able to get my BP back under control with no signs of early labor thank god and was released the day before my 22nd  birthday , Dec. 12, 2008.  Well from that point on I was made to take weekly stress tests and if you have ever went through them the name fits.  Well I went to my families for the holiday and ended up missing on of my stress tests which the doctors where not at all too worried about.  Oh and the last actually ultrasound they did of my son was when I was in the hospital at about 28-29 wks.  I had an appointment on Tuesday the 30th so I wasn't worried.  We headed home on the 29th and I was actually excited about my appointment the next day cause if all went well they wanted me to have another ultrasound.  Well we went in for my appointment and they wanted to do a kick count on my son but we tried everything and could not get him to kick.  They came in and finally told me that they were sending me over to L&D and having me emitted yet again.  Man was a bummed but I kept my hopes up that he was just being lazy and sleeping.  Well when I went into L&D the long time family friend that I knew was working the desk and said they had been waiting for me and was putting me straight into one of the rooms.  They came in and did a few tests and an ultrasound on me.  I sat in the room for about four hours before anyone came in a said anything to me.  They had to take me son one way or another!  I was freaked!  We waited for the OB on call, he turned out to be way better then my doc, he came in a explained to us that the ultrasound showed that our son had not grown and possibly had not developed since our last ultrasound.  He was sure that our son would be fine since I had the steroid shots for the lungs weeks before with my first stay.  He gave us too option, be induced and possible not have our son for at least a day with not guarantees that he would survive it with his size or have an emergency c-section within the next few hours.  We opted for the c-section and at 5:57pm, Dec. 30, 2008, our son was born screaming and kicking at 8 weeks early! He was 3 pounds 13 ounces and 15 1/4 inches long! 

He was rushed to the NICU on site with Tim right behind him, I never got to see me son for the first 24 hrs of his life.  I was in pain and heart broken, I felt like a failure.  When I first saw him the next morning it was just my mom, myself and a couple of the nurses.  I was able to hold him right then!  My mom was the one to start crying but I stayed strong, I had to for my son.  It wasn't easy seeing him that little, seeing him fighting for his life, losing and gaining weight on a daily basis.  It sent me into a deep bout of depression.  I would have to force myself to go see him, to feed him, to hold him.  He would go from one day being under the blue light for jaundice to the next day being off of it then back to being under it again the day after that.  He was in an incubator for about the first month of his life and all we could do when we weren't holding him is reach in through the holes and touch him.  He has machine after machine hooked up to him.  He was on an oxygen line, had a pic line that went in through his arm down a vein, he had a feeding tube down his throat.  We had to use a syringe to feed our son my breastmilk that was fortified with formula.  It was a long first month.  I remember the day when Tim and I walked into Dante's room and he was off the blue light for good and out of the incubator and in a bassinet.  I was more then happy!  Now we just had to make sure he kept gaining the weight and that they would take away all the tubes and machines.  Wow I just cant talk about anymore today, I'm fighting back the tears while I am typing this. 

Our son showed us that he is a fighter, and we both believe that he is going to do good and amazing things in this world.  I mean otherwise why would he have fought so hard to live right!









3 comments:

  1. What a roller coaster ride you were on. Yes, Dante was a real fighter and it's good to know he is doing well.
    On behalf of the March of Dimes, thank you so much for taking the time to help spread the word about the seriousness of premature birth. Your story is so important.

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  2. He is a fighter, as were my 24-week twins. Thank you for sharing your story. Best to you and your family.

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