September is #NICUAwareness Month ๐
My daughter was born 6 weeks and 3 days early and had to spend 12 days in the NICU.
Humongous shout out to Flowers Hospital in Dothan for their amazing NICU staff and doctor!! ๐
This is our NICU story ๐งต
My wife had Pre-Eclampsia and was hospitalized twice for it. The second time we spent 6 days in the hospital before they said she had to have the baby.
Pre-eclampsia is very dangerous for the mom. It's main symptoms are high blood pressure, high protein in urine, and swelling.
It can cause strokes, kidney failure, organ damage, just to name a few.
The doctors monitor BP and protein levels and when it becomes unsafe they will pull the baby to protect mommy and baby.
My wife just happened to to be 33 weeks 4 days when they decided to.
Won't go into labor details but it was relatively good. Started pitocin around 6am and by 12:40 our daughter, Noah Kate, was here.
She was born 6 weeks and 3 days early.
She weighed 4 lbs 7.9 oz.
She was 17.5 inches long.
She was TINY
They told us she'd have to go straight to the NICU for monitoring and because she was so early/little.
My wife was put on a magnesium drip due to pre-eclampsia and high BP and wouldn't be able to see her for 24 hours. ๐ฅบ
I however got to go down about 8 hours later and Facetime
The next 12 days were so emotionally and psychologically traumatic.
She was born on Wednesday Oct, 13th 2021. We got released from the hospital that following Friday and I remember going home and crying myself to sleep because my baby girl was covered in so many wires and
fighting for her life.
She had problems breathing because her lungs were underdeveloped and seeing her have an apnea episode was terrifying.
She would stop breathing and, we didn't know this at the time, the nurses would give her 20 seconds to correct herself before they jumped
in to assist. The first time that happened we were in full panic but her nurse was so calm and afterwards said, "I wanted you to see what it looked like so you could watch out for it and know what to do if she has an episode like that when you take her home."
We were grateful then, but it definitely caught us off guard haha.
Anyways.
She slept in a "space shuttle" we called it where it kept her body temp up because she couldn't regulate on her own.
We were only able to visit her twice a day for 30-60 minutes due to #COVID19.
This is the first time we got to hold her.
First time she smiled at us.
Some more photos.
And even more.
Here's a video in her space ship.
Both my wife and I have PTSD when it comes to noises and monitors peeping from the NICU.
There was 13 babies at one time and hearing those monitors go off constantly really gets to you.
Not sure how the nurses do it every day!
Speaking of #NICU nurses and doctors....
Ours were absolutely phenomenal!
They took such good care of my Heart of a Warrior and the other babies in there.
The doctor has so much love and passion for those babies too.
We ere absolutely blessed to have such a great team!
Since she had trouble breathing she was on and off with her canula (oxygen tube).
She was on a feeding tube for about a week.
She had an IV for around 6 days I believe.
It was soooo good seeing all those come out!
After 12 days, and 5 days of no breathing issues after her caffeine treatment they let us take her home!
She weighed 4 lbs and 13 ozs.
Today she is almost 11 months and a sassy, silly little hilarious sour patch kid!
Just wanted to say thank you to all the #NICU nurses and doctors out there.
They have such a hars job and they do it so well.
Shout out to all the NICU families too because it's not easy. It's scarring, it's traumatizing.
And shout out to all the NICU babies! Keep fighting!
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