In honor of November, which is Premature Baby Awareness Month, I decided to tell about my own premature baby and his birth.
The pregnancy with Ohad was a bit challenging: Clexane injections every morning. I felt unwell until about week 18. Later, gestational diabetes developed. And of course, Matan, who was 3 at the time, demanded his own.
But everything was small. This was my fourth pregnancy. All from IVF treatments. The first two pregnancies ended on their own at 8/9 weeks and the third pregnancy gave me Matan. So I treated the challenges as a gift.
The birth story begins a few days before.
Saturday, January 16, 2016, Danny and I celebrated 7 years of marriage and I was 29 weeks pregnant at the end of the week. We decided to take the whole family out for a weekend at the kibbutz. I tried not to exert myself too much, but I was still more active than usual.
When we returned home on Saturday night, I felt fewer fetal movements and a stabbing pain that came and went in my lower right abdomen. I decided to go to sleep and see if it would go away in the morning.
17.1.16. Beginning of week 30. The pains didn't go away. I consulted with a nurse at the call center and she referred me to the maternity ward. They took me seriously. They did an ultrasound monitor and everything looked normal. I also felt more fetal movements. After two hours I was discharged home. I left the hospital feeling good. I went shopping and managed to get home, cook something and also take a nap.
At about 3pm I woke up. I went to the bathroom. I started to pee but it wouldn't stop. I felt more and more coming out. I realized something was wrong. I looked down and everything was red. A stream of fresh red blood kept coming out of me without stopping.
First thought: How do I get up without dirtying the whole area? Second thought: I need to get back to the hospital as soon as possible. Third thought: In about two hours, someone needs to pick up Matan from kindergarten. And today it won't be me.
I quickly called Danny, who immediately canceled a work meeting and returned home. We called a taxi and drove to the hospital. All the way I hoped I hadn't lost the fetus.
We arrived at the hospital. When I entered the maternity ward, all the staff members immediately approached me and started treating me. I don't remember the exact order of things. They laid me on a bed. They gave me the first shot of Celestone (to ripen the fetus's lungs). They opened a vein. An ultrasound to see if the fetus even had a heartbeat. There was a heartbeat.
The diagnosis: placental abruption. The doctors explained to me that they hoped the bleeding would stop and then they would admit me to the high-risk pregnancy ward until delivery. They explained that Celeston doesn't start working right away. You have to take a second dose 24 hours after the first and then wait another 24 hours for it to take effect. They asked if I would agree to receive a magnesium infusion and explained that it helps protect the nervous system of premature babies. I agreed to receive it. They took me to the delivery room, hooked me up to a monitor, and I lay down and waited.
At about 8 pm, a doctor came in and said that the fetus had a slow heartbeat, that it was probably in distress. The doctor wanted to consult with another senior doctor and that there was a chance that they would operate on me. I was hoping that the senior doctor would say that we could wait a little longer. At least until the Celestone started to take effect. But within a few minutes, the doctor came in and announced that I was going into surgery as soon as possible.
At 8:19 PM, Ohad was already outside. 1.130 kg. Apgar 2. He underwent CPR in the operating room, as soon as he came out. He was connected to a ventilator.
And so began a 60-day journey in the neonatal intensive care unit. Ohad was on a ventilator for 6 days and needed some kind of respiratory support for almost his entire stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. Two days after he was born, his left lung collapsed. At midnight, a doctor from the neonatal intensive care unit came to update me, and the next day I realized that he was in a lot of pain and was being given morphine. Twice during the neonatal intensive care unit, they suspected he had NEC. Thank God he didn't have it. He received 3 doses of blood. 2 focal levels of grade 1 cerebral hemorrhage (the lowest grade and usually has no effect) and hyperemia of the brain. 3 times he was expected to be discharged, and 3 times they called in the morning and said that something had happened during the night and he still wasn't being discharged. The fourth time he was discharged.
After we were discharged from the hospital, there were lots of appointments. Weight monitoring at Tift Halav, sometimes twice a week. Monitoring at the premature baby clinic at the hospital and then at the child development clinic. Monitoring by a gastroenterologist. Dietitian. Physiotherapy. A bar test. Two brain ultrasounds. And maybe I forgot other tests.
Last year, when he was a year old, he caught a cold twice and had a hard time with it until I took him out of the garden for the winter months. In the spring, he returned to the garden and has been blooming ever since.
Today, a small and very mischievous toddler.
He started walking completely at 1 year and 3 months corrected (1 year and 5 chronological). We were discharged from physical therapy. He started talking recently and a speech therapist diagnosed him and said he didn't need any treatment at all.
Still being monitored by a gastroenterologist and dietitian due to low weight.
And waiting to see if the holidays will affect him down the road.
Being parents of children is a big and challenging journey. Being parents of a premature baby is an even more challenging journey. It begins with prematurity, but it doesn't end there. It continues long after.
I'm attaching a picture from the first time I saw Ohad in the nursery and a picture from a week ago when Ohad was Shabbat's father in kindergarten. Who wouldn't be willing to accept the bouquet of flowers from such a sweet hero?