Preemie fact day 20: Babies born just a few weeks early are at risk of severe health problems and lifelong disabilities. At 35 weeks a baby's brain weighs just 2/3 of what it will weigh at 39 or 40 weeks! As long as your pregnancy is healthy, push for that 39th week! ♥
Prematurity Awareness Day 21:
"Little Bits"
Our pregnancies were just a "little bit" shorter;
Our babies were a "little bit" smaller;
Our hospital stays were a "little bit" longer;
... Our nurses were a "little bit" more understanding
Our doctors were a "little bit" more frustrating;
Our nerves were a "little bit" frayed;
Our families were a "little bit" fearful;
Our days got a "little bit" longer;
Our nights got a "little bit" shorter;
Our old friends got a "little bit" further away;
Our new friends were a "little bit" more understanding;
Our babys' milestones take a "little bit" more time;
Our meds we have to take a "little bit" longer;
Our winters are a "little bit" too long;
And we use a "little bit" too much hand sanitizer.
But for all of the "little bits," it equals one BIG miracle.
In just 2 days, Eli will have been born... WOW! I can't believe that he is almost 2! I am just a "little bit" more thankful this Thanksgiving! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Day 22: During a normal pregnancy that goes to term, parents have time to work through various stages of planning and anticipation as they prepare for their babe’s arrival. When your baby is born prematurely, that all suddenly changes.
Joy, grief, fear and despair—you experience the range of emotions. The dream of the perfect birth and all of your well-made plans are disrupted. Eve...n if you’ve... been confined to bed rest for some concerning complication, even when you know your chances of going “the full 40” are slim, early labor still shocks most women.
With a premature birth comes the realization that you’ll be separated from your baby while he/she’s in the NICU—the neonatal intensive care unit. Returning home to face an empty nursery inspires bouts of inevitable anger, fear, depression and anxiety. For most couples, the earlier the gestational birth, the longer these feelings linger.
Expect to be stressed and short-tempered from lack of sleep. Expect to feel jealous of other parents who have big, bouncy full-term babies. Expect to feel overwhelmed. The process of grieving “what might have been,” and facing the fearful, unknown future for your preemie tests the resolve of even the strongest couples. The good news is so many preemies survive and go on to live normal, healthy lives.
Day 23: HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY ELI!!! ♥ ♥ ♥
WELCOME TO HOLLAND (adapted from Emily Perl Kingsley)
I am often asked to describe the experience of having a baby in the NICU - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
Day 24: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT VICKY!
2 years ago today, I was discharged from the hospital on Thanksgiving... I left my 2 lb baby on a vent and with a chest tube laying in the hospital... It was the hardest thing I have had to do to date!
Premature babies who arrive between weeks 30 and 32 are likely to have thin skin as a result of the limited body fat. Extremely premature infants, those who are delivered anytime between the 24th and 27th weeks, have yet to develop the exterior layer of skin, which begins solidifying in the 26th week.