Other Preemie Stories

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After two normal, full-term pregnancies, we were excited to learn I was pregnant with #3, and it was a BOY. (I already had two girls) I had some spotting early on, but it was dark and very light, so we did an ultrasound at 18 weeks to make sure it wasn't placenta previa. Everything looked normal, maybe a problem with the baby's kidneys, but we would do another US at 27 weeks to see if things had changed.

At about the 25 week mark, I was at work and felt totally exhausted, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I left work and went to my MIL's to rest, and found some spotting again. I laid down to rest and felt a lot better a few hours later. That was on a Friday. I went back to work on Monday and was o.k. On Tuesday I had sever back pain, but no bleeding, so I continued on at work. As I picked up the girls from the sitter, I felt a POP and a gush, and blood was everywhere. The sitter rushed me to the hospital and had her son make phone calls to find the rest of my family. (My DH was at home stripping the wallpaper in the baby's room) I was bleeding very heavily and was only dilated to 1 cm. so the OB said I had to have an emergency c-section or we would both die.

The whole event is so surreal and blurry, I was knocked out and Corwin Everitt was born 20 min. later. He was 25 weeks and 5 days, weighed 1 lb 15 oz, and was 13 1/4 in long. I guess my placenta had almost completely separated and I was hemorraging. I lost a lot of blood.

"Cory" was whisked away to the NICU about 90 miles away and I didn't see him for 2 days. How tiny he was. He was on the vent for 32 days, had a PDA which resolved with medication and a Grade II IVH. He also had stage V ROP which has left him almost completely blind. He was discharged at 82 days with home O2 and an apnea monitor.

At 18 months he started having seizures, and after 6 months of medication they are under control. He has brain damage from birth that has left him non-verbal (for now) and cognitvley delayed. He can walk and run and his generally a happy little kid. He has taught us so much in 2 1/2 years and I would not trade him for the world. God is good-all the time!

We have his first transition meeting for preschool next week, he is going to be such a big boy- He now weighs 28 lbs. and is 37 in. tall You''ve come a long way baby!!

Anne & Cory

I had previously lost a baby at 27wks so this pregnancy they were going to keep a close eye on. I had ultrasounds every 4wks. At my 14wk appt I had a vaginal u/s and showed we were having a boy (Ryan was his name). At my 18wk ultrasound showed my fluid was low, blood flow between placenta and cord was poor and baby was a little behind in growth. At that time I was put on Heparin Injections 2x a day to try and increase blood flow to the placenta. After 4wks of no improvement I was put on the steroid Prednisone, to see if we could chunkin the baby up. A couple days after that ultrasound I went to another perinatologist to see if he had any thought or inputs on what was going on. He informed me that there was no kidney blood flow and the kidneys had shut down, he also said the pregnancy wasn't viable and the baby would die inutero any day due to heart decells. I was devistated, how could this happen again!? What the heck was going on!? So I got home and called my peri and OB and told them I wanted to terminate the pregnancy. I couldn't live day in and day out wondering if the baby had died or not. They respected my wishes.

Later that night, the great OB that I have called me on his own time to talk to me. He said he understood my decsion but he really wanted me to keep going at least for 2 more weeks to the viable stage of pregnancy, he didn't feel in his heart that it was over. I agreed, I had felt the baby moving and kicking all day, it was like he was saying "Don't give up on me". So we kept going. Those 2wks were horrible, I didn't know if the baby had died or what was going on. I had my 24wk ultrasound and it showed, fluid increase, baby grew 3oz and grew insize, AND there was urine in the bladder....can't have urine without working kidneys! So we decided to keep going. 25wk u/s showed very low fluid, we could only find one pocket to meassure. We decided that we would deliver next week at 26wks. I had an ultrasound the day before my c-section and I asked if the baby had grown any if we could keep going. On Jan 16, 2002 I had an ultrasound that showed no change at all. So Jan 17, 2002 I was scheduled for my c-section in the morning. I was scared, and shocked this was happening all over again, but held out hope.

All this time we were told we had a boy, it was a shocking surprise to see "It's a girl" on our braclets.

The neonatolgist tried 2 times to get the ET tube in and failed. He knew how much we wanted this baby and tried one last time..Thank goodness! He got it in and she immediatly perked up. She weighed a mere 10.9 ounces (310grams) and was 8 3/4inches long. Her APGARS were 2 at one minute and 8 at 5 minutes. She was tranferred to another hospital that had a level 3 NICU. We were told she probably wouldn't live 48 hours...

It was a long rough road. Jessyka had been through a lot. Infections including a horrible yeast infection in her blood, I thought we would never get rid of that!, CLD (chronic lung disease)or BPD (Broncho Pulmonary Dysplasia)-whatever you might call it, NEC (Necrotizing Enterocolitis--which corrected itself, without surgery), kidneys failure, kidney stones (still has that), acities (she had to have surgery to put a drain in her belly to drain the fluid),riketts (still has that), clot in the liver (resolved), enlarged liver and spleen (Liver is still enlarged), many Apnea and Brady episodes, many many blood and platelet transfusions, low platelets (resolved) She was on the high frequency vent for 6wks, switched to a conventional vent for 4wks, put back on the high frequency for 2wks due to pneumonia back to the conventional. On 4/29/02 Jessyka got off the ventalator and put on nasal CPAP. On 5/1/02 she got taken off CPAP and put in an isollete under a oxygen hood. On 5/16/02 Jessyka had a liver biopsy to try and figure out whats wrong with her enlarged liver.

Her liver biopsy showed she was storing bile in there. They thought either she had a clogged bile ducts or her bile ducts never formed, which meant they couldn't do anything else.... So on Thursday (5/30/02) she had an ERCP done which is a procedure in which a long scope with a light is passed through your esophagus, stomach, and small intestines until it reaches the spot where the ducts of the biliary tree and pancreas open into the small intestine...it showed she was draining bile, which is what they were hoping for. So they have dx'd her liver with Neonatal Hepatitis ...doesn't mean she has the infection hepatitis, just means inflammation of the liver...they hope in time it will regenerate itself and all will be ok....but there is still a chance that she will need a liver transplant later on in life if it was damaged too much. As of Feb 2003 her liver disease has resolved! Jessyka finally got taken off the vent for the second time. She was on the vent for the liver biopsy then came down with a lung infection.

Jessyka spent 6 months and 2 days in the NICU and had 4 Surgeries while in the hospital. She came home on July 19, 2002 and has since been doing great! She's about 6 months behind developmentally and physically but catching up!
By Christie Frazier

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