First Post after giving birth at 25 weeks

I am sorry it's taken so long to post but as you could understand I spend nearly all my days at the NICU with our Beautiful Boy.  The post that will be going up are some entried from my journal and others are just posts to groups.  It has been 6 weeks since Maxx was born and I have to admit a very long 6 weeks.

I went for my 18 week checkup in July and mentioned a few things that had happened such as a bit of pain, some mucus loss etc.  My OBS had a bit of a look only to discover that my waters were buldging.  I was sent straight to hospital for a stitch only to be told there was no bed and I had to go sit in emergency, not lie down but sit.  We rung our OBS who rung the hospital and I was put in a bed in the emergency dept.  It took over 5 hours for the surgeon to come and see me only for him to shove the speculum so far into me that I thought it was going to cut me in half.  The Dr told me that I was leaking fluid and there was nothing he could do........... we were devestated and couldn't belive we were going to loose another child.  They put us into a private room to start grieving I guess.  DH just sat in a chair and looked out the window all night and I think I just fell asleep wiith pure exhustion. 

The next morning no one had come to see us and we had heard nothing so he rung my OBS, told him that they wouldn't do the stitch and what do we do now.  Our OBS told us to discharge ourselves and go to the Royal Womens Hospital to which we did.  The Royal Woman were fantastic and caring.  They put me under and put in a McDonalds stitch and I was left to rest for a week and a half where they would monitor infection.  At nearly 20 weeks I was told they were sending me back to the hospital that wouldn't do the stitch till I reached 24 weeks as my pregnancy was classified as "viable".  That is such a horrible term and I hate it, if I can feel my child moving how can it not be viable!!

I stayed at that hospital for over 3 weeks with daily blood tests to monitor infections, 2 scans a week, daily fluid loss, bleeds etc.  At 24 weeks I was sent to yet another hospital that had the facilities to deal with a premmie baby.

The above is only a very brief version of what happened as you could understand it would take me a very long time to type everything, every emotion, tear etc we went through.

I'm home after 7 1/2 weeks in hospital and it all feels a bit strange and first time online too. The house seems like a florist and gifts have started but seems strange cause he is not here for them.

First of all both Nathan & I want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for all the love, well wishes, support, sms's, phone calls, prayers etc. It has been the hardest 7 weeks of our lives and there were times I was ready to give in but there was a little person that kept me going oh and the crosswords, games etc .

His name Maxx Cooper Garnet. He was born 10.07am Sunday 24th August through emergency C-section at 25 weeks due to a cord prolapse and he is the love of our lives. He was 845g, 32cm long and every day we get told how big he is for his gestation, infact for the first couple of days I was asked if my due dates were right and as he was IVF yes the dates were right. We had chosen Maxx as a boys name when we were having Chloe over 2 1/2yrs ago but his middle name was going to be Oscar but I loved Cooper and felt it was a strong name.

I had had alot of pain on saturday afternoon, went and had a shower and the bottom of my tummy felt heavy and hard, told Nathan when I got out, asked for pain relief and sooked most of the night. At about 1am woke with a stinging pain but I pushed through it with drugs. 3am called for a nurse, she felt for contractions but couldn't feel anything. They gave me a sleeping tablet as I hadn’t slept for 3 nights due to a mass snorer next to me (Monash don't give pre mummies single rooms you share with 3 others, guess I was spoilt at Frankston and Royal Womens). Woke up at 8 for breakie and all pain was gone which I thought was strange. A Dr came in to see me, he left, I got up to go to loo and felt something between my legs went into the loo and saw the cord hanging out. I went flying back into bed rung for a nurse and next thing I know a major code was going off, nurses and the Dr came running in, chucked me on all fours the Dr shoving his hand inside me pushing the cord back up, a blanket being chucked over me and the bed being flown straight into surgery, my head in the pillow and the Dr telling me it will be ok an he can still feel the pulse in the cord. I could see Dr's and nurse coming from everywhere as they had to have a team for me and the NICU Dr's for Maxx. I had to have both hands out as they were trying to get a drip in my hands and would use which ever went in first. I was flipped onto the bed and less than a minute I was out and Maxx was out in less than 3 minutes and took his own first breath. They have less than 10 minutes to get a baby out to survive when this happens and the Dr told me later that these are rare now and he has done 3 this yr which is more than he has done in a couple of yrs. Poor Nathan wasn't there and didn’t know that this was happening as he was on his way to visit me. Next thing I know I was waking up and Nathan said we have a son and I have to say the rest of the day was a blur. I had a T cut which means they had to cut me from my belly button to my pubic area inside due to the scar tissue plus from one side of my tummy to the other on the outside.He is on a ventilator but only needing 25% oxygen which can fluctuate from day to day but tares at your heart when it needs to be pushed up a little but I just have to remember he is less than a week old.
All the NICU Dr's and nurses are worth their weight in gold and comment nearly every day on how active he is and wriggles around so much. I got to change his nappy and do his temp yesterday for the first time. He is starting to take my colostrum and has 1ml every 2 hrs now. He is in what we call a chook bag which is a plastic bag that covers him to keep him warm and his skin soft and they are hoping to move him to a humidy crib very soon. He has big feet and hands but yet so small. He is off most of his medication such as high blood pressure, toxin meds etc, lets just say he was on 8 bags of meds and now down to 2 with one of them being antibiotics as I might have given him a bug through the stitch I had.

We are just so proud of the fight he has put in over the past 7 weeks to stay put and prove so many people wrong and mostly being the Dr's who at Frankston admitted that they didn't think we would make it past the 2w mark and to our surprise our EX obs who told Nathan the same. We only heard from him once through this whole thing which is why I say EX.

We have a long road to still travel and anything can still happen at anytime but for today he is having another good day and that we thank god. I am very emotional right now and miss him so much at night, I am scared to go to sleep sometimes as I worry something will happen when I am not there but we know he is in the best possible care and we can ring or go in at anytime of day/night. The main worry for a premmie is brain hemorrhage or lung problems at anytime.

I have to say my life has changed forever in so many ways and most of it has come from laying on my back for 7 weeks with only toilet privileges and only 2 major breakdowns. I didn't think I would have it in me but I guess when your fighting for a life you will do ANYTHING!
If I don't reply with sms's right now please understand that I am with our little man or just tired. I can't drive for 6 weeks and this first week not allowed home alone so its hard relying on others to get me to Monash which is over an hr away.

Nathan just rung me and he has been put into a humidy crib which means he has graduated. I am so proud of him.