The Beginning

I've been a Mom now for just over 3 months.  

My son was born May 8, 2012 - coincidentally, the same date as his uncle and as his great-grandfather - 5 weeks premature.  I was sent from a routine 35 week ultrasound to the hospital 'for observation'.  The ultrasound techs were having trouble with measurements so we went to the hospital.  

Within 10 minutes of being monitored, the on-call OB came in and told us that we needed to induce - now.  My son had stopped growing.  He wasn't getting the nutrients he needed from the umbilical cord.  Something wasn't working.  Suddenly, we went from having 5 more weeks to prepare for his arrival to having no time at all!  We didn't even have our crib built yet! 

We were not even close to being mentally prepared for this, but it was the safest thing to do.  We could ensure the baby was getting everything he needs if we brought him out early, but to leave him in could mean losing him.  The choice was obvious.

I was induced at 8pm May 7.  The Dr. came in at 9:45am and during his examination the baby went into distress.  The Dr. immediately ordered an emergency  C-section.  At 10:35am, my son was born and though he was just 4lbs 5oz, he was healthy and breathing on his own.

My husband walked the baby to the NICU while I went into recovery.  After I was moved to my room and slept, I was taken to see my boy.   It was a scary time watching my son in the NICU and not knowing what complications lay before us.  My husband and I spent 3 days back and forth from my room to the NICU and back again.  

After the third day, I was discharged, but my son had to stay in the NICU.  For the first 2 days after my discharge I was at the hospital for 14 hours a day.  It was too much.  I was hormonal and exhausted, and while the hospital provides a shared room for parents who are in and out with children in the NICU, it wasn't the same as having a room of your own to relax in.

Both days I did a 14 hour day resulted in me having a meltdown at home that night.  My husband was – IS – wonderful!  He took care of everything.  Anything that was causing me to cry was handled while I went to bed.  I don’t know how he did it.  He had to be back at work, and was putting in longer days than I was, but somehow he did.

After that we decided that as much as it killed me to do it, I would come home each day for an afternoon nap and let the nurses do an afternoon feed for the baby.  By this time, the only reason he was still there was to get his weight up. 

As all babies do, he had dropped some weight and was 3lbs 15oz at his smallest.  He had no problem taking bottles, but drinking the bottle was burning more calories than he was getting.  So for a couple days he was on a feeding tube to use for every other feed in order to allow him to get the calories without burning any.

It was a very taxing process, but by day 7 he was off the feeding tube (partly because he ripped it out of his nose!) and eating from a bottle.  The Dr. had ordered his milk to be fortified in order to get him the weight gain needed.  It worked! 

By day 10, he was back to his birth weight and we got to go home!  It was a hard road that felt much longer than it actually was, but we came home with a healthy baby and we couldn’t ask for more!

We were informed in the hospital that because he was 5 weeks early, he could potentially be 5 weeks delayed developmentally.  Made sense to me.  In addition, it can take up to 2 years to fully catch up.  At 2 months old his pediatrician informed us that he had developmentally caught up to where a full term baby should have been.  Wonderful news! 

He’s now a little more than 3 months old, and such a happy baby!  I am truly blessed!