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Trusting Your Inner Mommy
amayasmommy522 - 12:56pm Jun 27, 2012 EST
Even before pregnancy, I learned to ALWAYS go with my gut. The times that you second guess your self are the times you’re wishing you didn’t. During pregnancy, it is so much more important to listen to your body when it is telling you something is wrong. It’s always better to go to the E.R. and have nothing be wrong than not go and have something be wrong.
One night, while I was sleeping, I was woken up by terrible pain in my lower abdomen. When the pain came, the area got very hard, it would last 30 to 60 seconds, and it would be roughly every two to five minutes. That morning when I was actually awake, the pain still had not stopped. I knew then that there was something wrong. I looked up how to tell the difference between Braxton Hicks contractions and actual contractions. I had all of the tell-tale signs of actual contractions. Did I mention I was only 24 weeks and six days at this point? As you can imagine, I went into a state of panic but I didn’t want to make it worse. As I started calling family and my boyfriend, just about all of them told me it was IMPOSSIBLE to be going into labor so prematurely. Needless to say, they aren’t doctors. After I talked to them, I called 9-1-1. At this time, it was about 9:00 in the morning. It took the ambulance a good 40 minutes to get to me and then another 30 minutes to get me to the hospital… I don’t think they knew what the “E” in “E.M.T.” stood for. (EMERGENCY Medical Technician)
Once I actually got to the hospital, they immediately did a vaginal exam on me. They learned that I had an extremely bad uterus infection. Doctors quickly started me on I.V. antibiotics, gave me an I.V. steroid for my baby’s heart in case she had to come out, hooked my belly up to a heart monitor, and medicine to try to slow or stop my contractions. Even though their machines weren’t detecting me having contractions, they knew I wasn’t screaming in agony for no reason. As I was laying in the hospital bed, I felt a sudden wetness. When I pulled out the bed pad that was under me, it was soaked in blood. I then again went into panic mode… I thought I had miscarried. The nurse said that my water had broken and my daughter had to come out right away. A small problem then arose… my baby was breech! That means that she was facing feet first instead of head first. Since the pregnancy was so early on, they did an emergency cesarean section. Anything that happened during that procedure, you would have to ask my boyfriend because I don’t remember much except wondering where my baby is and why she isn’t crying. My daughter Amaya Jae was born at 9:09PM that night weighing one pound, ten ounces.
When I came out of recovery and asked why I didn’t hear her crying, they told me it was because her lungs were so under developed that she was incapable of producing a cry. I was just happy to know that she was OK. Since I was still numb, I couldn’t see her that night but my boyfriend was able to. I told him he better take pictures so when he came back to my room I could at least see those. In the photos, she looked small but not nearly as small as when I saw her in person the next day. When I looked at her and saw how incredibly long but thin she was, I couldn’t help but break down. I had never seen a baby so small. She had lights above her and around her to keep her warm and give her skin some color, something protecting her eyes from those lights, tubes down her throat, machines all around her, and a humidifier so she could feel as if she were still in the womb.
Even with all of that going on, my daughter is such a fighter. At two weeks old, they took away all of the lights, what was protecting her eyes, and the humidifier because she’s old enough to not need them anymore. She is now getting about a half of a teaspoon of water via her feeding tube every eight hours and blood transfusions to replace what they take from her and help her produce blood cells. At about a week and a half old, they found a significant sized opening in her heart which they said is normal for premature babies. They gave her three doses of medication which should help close it and they’re saying judging by her vital signs and her oxygen levels, it seems as if it is closing. They won’t look at it by x-ray yet, though, because it takes some time to completely close. There comes some times where she stops breathing because her brain isn’t developed enough to tell her to breathe and that’s what the machines are there for. The nurses said that is also common in preemies. They will not reweigh her because that means moving her. Because of her size, they said she really can’t be moved for much other than to change her diaper and even that is a risky move. Now, we just take it one day at a time, knowing that she is a soldier and will be home in no time!
CHECK OUT MY BLOG: http://bloggingformommies.wordpress.com/
Even before pregnancy, I learned to ALWAYS go with my gut. The times that you second guess your self are the times you’re wishing you didn’t. During pregnancy, it is so much more important to listen to your body when it is telling you something is wrong. It’s always better to go to the E.R. and have nothing be wrong than not go and have something be wrong.
One night, while I was sleeping, I was woken up by terrible pain in my lower abdomen. When the pain came, the area got very hard, it would last 30 to 60 seconds, and it would be roughly every two to five minutes. That morning when I was actually awake, the pain still had not stopped. I knew then that there was something wrong. I looked up how to tell the difference between Braxton Hicks contractions and actual contractions. I had all of the tell-tale signs of actual contractions. Did I mention I was only 24 weeks and six days at this point? As you can imagine, I went into a state of panic but I didn’t want to make it worse. As I started calling family and my boyfriend, just about all of them told me it was IMPOSSIBLE to be going into labor so prematurely. Needless to say, they aren’t doctors. After I talked to them, I called 9-1-1. At this time, it was about 9:00 in the morning. It took the ambulance a good 40 minutes to get to me and then another 30 minutes to get me to the hospital… I don’t think they knew what the “E” in “E.M.T.” stood for. (EMERGENCY Medical Technician)
Once I actually got to the hospital, they immediately did a vaginal exam on me. They learned that I had an extremely bad uterus infection. Doctors quickly started me on I.V. antibiotics, gave me an I.V. steroid for my baby’s heart in case she had to come out, hooked my belly up to a heart monitor, and medicine to try to slow or stop my contractions. Even though their machines weren’t detecting me having contractions, they knew I wasn’t screaming in agony for no reason. As I was laying in the hospital bed, I felt a sudden wetness. When I pulled out the bed pad that was under me, it was soaked in blood. I then again went into panic mode… I thought I had miscarried. The nurse said that my water had broken and my daughter had to come out right away. A small problem then arose… my baby was breech! That means that she was facing feet first instead of head first. Since the pregnancy was so early on, they did an emergency cesarean section. Anything that happened during that procedure, you would have to ask my boyfriend because I don’t remember much except wondering where my baby is and why she isn’t crying. My daughter Amaya Jae was born at 9:09PM that night weighing one pound, ten ounces.
When I came out of recovery and asked why I didn’t hear her crying, they told me it was because her lungs were so under developed that she was incapable of producing a cry. I was just happy to know that she was OK. Since I was still numb, I couldn’t see her that night but my boyfriend was able to. I told him he better take pictures so when he came back to my room I could at least see those. In the photos, she looked small but not nearly as small as when I saw her in person the next day. When I looked at her and saw how incredibly long but thin she was, I couldn’t help but break down. I had never seen a baby so small. She had lights above her and around her to keep her warm and give her skin some color, something protecting her eyes from those lights, tubes down her throat, machines all around her, and a humidifier so she could feel as if she were still in the womb.
Even with all of that going on, my daughter is such a fighter. At two weeks old, they took away all of the lights, what was protecting her eyes, and the humidifier because she’s old enough to not need them anymore. She is now getting about a half of a teaspoon of water via her feeding tube every eight hours and blood transfusions to replace what they take from her and help her produce blood cells. At about a week and a half old, they found a significant sized opening in her heart which they said is normal for premature babies. They gave her three doses of medication which should help close it and they’re saying judging by her vital signs and her oxygen levels, it seems as if it is closing. They won’t look at it by x-ray yet, though, because it takes some time to completely close. There comes some times where she stops breathing because her brain isn’t developed enough to tell her to breathe and that’s what the machines are there for. The nurses said that is also common in preemies. They will not reweigh her because that means moving her. Because of her size, they said she really can’t be moved for much other than to change her diaper and even that is a risky move. Now, we just take it one day at a time, knowing that she is a soldier and will be home in no time!
CHECK OUT MY BLOG: http://bloggingformommies.wordpress.com/
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