Saturday, June 26, 2010

My Story







A little of our story. We grew up in Michigan and we live in a very small town where there is only one stop light. I am a "small town girl" and I love it! I am starting this blog for others to follow my son and my family. My son is a surviving twin from TTTS and was born 12 1/2 weeks early. He is strong and makes me smile everyday. He was born on October 26th, 2009 at 1:58 pm by emergency C-Section (The most frightening days of my life). I watched him grow in a "Fish Tank" (that's what my three year old called it when she first saw her brother). I sobbed when she first looked at him, she quietly said to me, "Momma, the baby sleepin, good night baby." She had to watch her brother get hooked up to a C-Pap, and got see all those tubes.
The NICU is so hard and demanding, I can remember the sleepless night and crying myself to sleep because I just wanted my little boy home. I would like to start this blog for others because it may provide hope and inspiration for their preemie. When you are in the NICU, you can only take one day at a time, and when you see a tiny little baby that doesn't look like the baby you pictured when you got pregnant, it can be rough. They call the NICU an emotional rollercoster, but I would never consider it a rollercoster because you choose to get on the rollercoster at that theme park, and with the NICU rollercoster you have no choice but to hop on. Oh, and let's not forget getting up every three hours to go pump breast milk. And I looked like I was a homeless drug addict during those days.
The problems my son experienced while in the NICU are: BPD, ROP stage 2, IVH stage 1 (it resolved on it's own), anemia (three blood transfusions), twin gestation, hyponatremia, and a few more that I may be forgetting at this time. He was on a vent for 4 days and a C-pap for 2 days and was on a nasal cannula for 6 weeks. He did come home without oxygen. He is doing well today and is a happy baby. He came home on January 5th 2010.
He amazes me everyday and I know his brother Joshua is an angel watching over him. Losing his brother is hard to talk about for me at this time.

3 comments:

  1. Hi! I found your blog through A Premature Life...

    I'm also a preemie mom (and, an angel mommy, I lost a daugther, Lily, at 23 weeks on 8/3/08. I'm very sorry about the loss of your son...) Cooper was born at 31 weeks on 11/1/09. Your description of the nicu world is very accurate...sometimes, I can't believe we all survived!

    I wanted to tell you that he is in PT every week for what started out as torticollis and has turned into Hypotonia. I read your previous post about tummy time and I think most preemies probably end up in some early intervention program for one reason or another...it's hard being a preemie mom!

    Anyways, best of luck!

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  2. Thanks JenJen! I appreciate your comment. I believe most preemies do end up with some type of intervention program too. Your son is adorable. I'm sorry for your loss, it's something that we will never forget about that little baby we imagined raising. Our kids will have angels watching over them.

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  3. Wow! My heart goes out to you. I love your description of the NICU rollercoaster. I never thought of it that way, but it is exactly right! I certainly never volunteered to take that ride :) I am so glad to hear your son made it through. The roads we travel as preemie families will always have more bumps than normal. It's amazing how much our children can handle though! My son continues to amaze me every day. Joining the blogging community has been so nice for me. I'm glad you found me on here. Funny, I come from an area right outside Detroit.

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