My Micropreemie Rockstar Journey into This World

My Micropreemie Rockstar was welcomed into this world at 21 weeks 4 days weighing 14.4oz and 10 1/4” long.

Our Rollercoaster of a Journey started at my 20 week ultrasound appointment with my OBGYN.

Up until this point in the pregnancy everything looked fine. As the doctor was preforming the ultrasound he noticed my cervix was beginning to thin and upon further exam he also saw I was 2cm dilated.

Immediately, I knew something was up.  I have been going to my OBGYN for the past few years and he delivered my son.

One kind of gets to know their OBGYN! I mean come on who else gets to see that much of you!

He then called my husband and I into his office, he told us I needed to immediately go to the hospital.

Talk about HEART PUMPING and STOMACH TURNING!

My plan that day was to buy my little girl her first dress. I was so excited to buy girl clothes. This is not how I saw my day unfolding.

We did as my doctor said and went to the hospital after packing a bag and dropping our son at his Nana’s house.

I stayed in Antepartum for 2 nights and even though nothing had changed I was sent home to continue bedrest.

Three days later, at my home, my placenta started to detach from the wall of the uterus and I began to bleed heavily. I also had PreTerm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM).

At 5am we rushed back to the hospital and went straight to the ER. If I would have been exactly 20 weeks along I would have been taken to the ER and more than likely lost the baby. Because I was almost 21 weeks I was sent to Triage in Labor and Delivery where the doctors on call sent me back to Antepartum.

Another 5 nights (almost) in Antepartum and my little rockstar decided to make her debut.

At some point in that time period because I was experiencing PPROM my water inevitably broke. I didn’t know when. It wasn’t a gush as you maybe told it will be. When your only half way along the amount of fluid is not quite as much as full term therefore was hard to tell when it happened.

I also developed an infection while in Antepartum, which could have also contributed to my daughter’s survival.  I know that doesn’t make sense.  However, because of the infection my body told her lungs to start to develop.

It was a Friday night and my husband had brought me food after work. Maybe she didn’t like what I ate because not long after we ate I felt pressure and thought I needed to go to the bathroom.

Walking back from the bathroom I felt it again and this time I knew it was her.

My husband called the nurses station and they came in quickly and I was rushed off to Labor and Delivery.

Thankfully, my OBGYN was on call that night and was in my L&D room within a couple of minutes. Ten minutes later from the time we left Antepartum to L&D I was holding my baby! She was breathing and I heard her weak cry.

Not 2 minutes after that Dr. Ahmad (Neonatologist) entered my room with his team. He accessed her and told me she had little to NO chance of survival.

“Can you try”, i asked him. He said he could. At this point a couple more minutes past and her umbilical cord was still attached (some think this may also have contributed to her survival) the Doctor cut it and Dr Ahmad and his team took over.

Once on the warmer her color improved so he decided to advance with resuscitation. They then took her to the NICU.

At this point I had no idea if she was alive. The timeframe was a little fuzzy, I think it was a couple hours later that my husband and a nurse wheeled me into the NICU to see her. She was alive and the talk of the NICU not because of her size, they see that all the time, but because of her gestational age.

She spent 126 days in the NICU.

The first 2 weeks we were told its not a DAY BY DAY thing, we are on an HOUR BY HOUR.

Between blood gases, adjusting medication, and trying to start feedings there is a reason the nurses tell you this is going to be a Rollercoaster.

She did fairly well during her stay in the NICU. Her lungs were by far the hardest part. She was intubated for 7 weeks on the oscillator and the jet. It took a lot of steroids to be able to extubate her but she still required to be on oxygen and even came home on oxygen.

Another obstacle was Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). She ended up with Stage 3 with plus disease. Most of the time at this point the baby would have laser surgery. Her oxygen dependence would mean she would have to be intubated again which her doctors felt if they re-intubated she would never be able to get off oxygen. Meaning she would not have a chance.

So instead of the laser surgery she was given a couple shots of a medicine called Avastin in both eyes. This is a procedure widely done in third world countries but not widely done here in the States. Her eye exams thereafter showed the ROP to be slowly receding. Today at more than 4 years old she does not have ROP.

As far as long term we are unsure where her eyes will be at.  As of right now her vision is good.

She did not have any brain bleeds as well as didn’t have the common Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) that affects the gut and can be deadly.

She came home at 126 days just 3 days before her original due date.

I spent all 126 days at the NICU and I saw so much and am so eternally grateful for every single person that had anything to do with her Journey.

This is part of our Rockstars journey, what was your journey?