In honor of Premature Baby Week, I am also sending you my life story, a story about a premature baby and a great miracle.
Premature Birth Awareness Month… So yes, we too became parents of a premature baby a year ago.
This was our second pregnancy, the first pregnancy went smoothly until week 40, and even then, until the baby was born, we didn't know or recognize the concept of premature.
Who are they? What week are they born? What do they go through? What are the consequences of premature birth?
No one prepares you for this and it can fall on you on a bright, clear day and without any warning.
10/28/17 Week 23 Examination of the review of the systems of feeling was normal. Examination and home.
The doctor checks the fetus and everything is fine and perfect. He reaches the cervix and sees a dilation of 3. I'm sorry, but you have to go to the hospital urgently. You have dilation and the situation doesn't look good.
Great panic - arriving at the emergency room, undergoing tests, doctors, more tests, jumping from one doctor to another, concerns, lots of crying.
A doctor arrives and announces hospitalization and pregnancy preservation in the hospital. The situation doesn't look good - they are hospitalized.
Crying, sleepless night.
Morning arrives: doctors visit, tests start again, monitor, ultrasound.
Then they inform you: Sorry, but the pregnancy won't last, there's a risk of a major infection and the baby and you are in danger, and if you give birth now at such a young week, the fetus won't survive, decide what you want to do?!?!
The world is destroyed by you – a bad dream – only unfortunately this is not a dream, it is reality.
Doctors, psychologists, consultations with doctors from abroad, rabbis, and everyone comes to the decision that a birth needs to take place... a quiet birth.
Me? – I don't accept it, I know I will get very anxious, I know that if I see the baby and hear him cry and hear his last breaths, I will simply get depressed. I have a child at home, what do I do?
My mental state is not good. The professor comes and tries to help and says that if I want, it is possible to have a stillbirth injection before birth so that the baby doesn't suffer from being born.
We move back into a decision mode of what to do? We consult and decide again that this might be an option so that the baby and I, in particular, won't suffer.
They come to the hospital committee, sit down, and tell us that for some reason the committee didn't approve the injection and say sorry, but you have to give birth naturally, which means I'll have to hear and see.
A difficult day of crying, a heart paralyzed and bleeding from pain.
Entering the delivery room.
Doctor: After we give you 20 minutes of induction and the child is out, you're already at a 3-point lead, let's get started.
Epidural, induction, 20 minutes pass, doctors come in and out, more induction, an hour passes, two hours, doctors come in and out, more induction, 5 hours pass, no change, no progress in dilation, there is the opposite, yes, yes, the opposite, dilation has narrowed.
Morning has come: 10 doctors come in and tell you good news
"There are no words to describe what happened here – except the word miracle"
The little one is a real fighter, he's not ready to come out yet. We'll take you out of the delivery room. You'll move on to continued prenatal care.
We leave the delivery room and, thank God, with the baby in my belly alive, kicking, and breathing, ready to fight alongside me.
Week 24 - Pills, injections, complete lying down, peeing, showering and bedwetting, homesickness for my oldest child, worries, lots of concerns that this could happen at any moment.
Week 25 - pills, injections, doctors, monitor, ultrasound, not moving, psychologists, doctors from the preterm labor ward to preparing to give birth to a premature baby - P.H.D.
Week 26 - A little more optimistic. The chances of giving birth to the warrior this week are a little better.
Week 27 - Brings a smile, the little one is still fighting.
Week 28 – Date 11/30/16 The warrior gave up, he's allowed, a little uncomfortable here in the hospital, there's a lot of noise, but I held on from week 23.
Contractions begin, strong contractions, doctors, injections again, medication, a monitor, the contractions are really strong.
Forward to the delivery room, lots of panic, fear, anxiety, pain, doctors coming in and out.
Labor begins, giving birth to the warrior at week 28, weighing one kilo. The warrior breathes on his own. I already said, a true warrior!
A pediatrician arrives and rushes him to intensive care for the infant for further treatment.
Stitches, pain, crying mixed with tears of joy and worry.
So after a month and a half of hospitalization, I'm being released home without the fighter. He's fine and continues to prove that he's quite a fighter.
A little strange, a little sad, but the path we've been on in this month and a half, nothing will break me and the warrior Bar Yohai is simply a great miracle. Apparently neither we nor the doctors decide in this world.
We spent 72 days in the womb, some were happy days, some were less so:
Lots of beeping, a drop in heart rate, concepts you've never heard of and you're just learning, becoming an expert, lots of kangaroo, sedation, pumping, his weight gain which becomes hilarious, jumping classes, haha, yes, these premature babies jump classes, they say they're the smartest????
These premature babies are true warriors, they teach you the meaning of life, they put you into different proportions.
Suddenly the big becomes small.
And the small becomes big.
Bar is one year old today chronologically and nine months corrected. He is a lovely boy, making great progress, a little nervous, haha, but his smile is genuine, a true warrior!
He is a gift – "a small gift that comes in a big package"
Thank you to HaEmek Hospital, Afula, for the mother and fetus department for the amazing and unparalleled treatment.
Thank you to the pediatrician at HaEmek Hospital, Afula, pediatrician number 1.
We send you kisses. We will soon arrive with a bar to celebrate a year.