Maddison 31week

kim83 - 05:44pm May 11, 2008 EST

Maddison was born at 31weeks gestation by emergency c-section without labour. This is her story

I didn’t have the easiest pg but it also wasn’t the hardest. I was at work on Thursday 26th May 2005 and it began like any other day. I did however feel the urgency to question why i hadn’t felt my daughter move since the afternoon before. I rang the l/d and they told me to come in. I went home at around 4 pm and Ryan and i headed to the hospital. Afters hours of monitoring the doctors discovered our daughter was in fetal distress and she was to be born straight away.

At 9:53pm our daughter was born my emergency c-section at 31weeks gestation without labour. At birth her weight was 1780grams her head circumfrance was 29.5cm and she was 41cm long. I didn’t get to see her once she was born as she was taken immediately to the NICU. It was 8 hours before i saw my daughter for the first time. She was so tiny and hooked up to what seemed a million machines and had hundreds of tubes coming out of her tiny body. I broke down and cried god i would have done anything for that to me be fighting for my life and not my daughter who we had yet to name. I was told that next day if i hadn’t come in the night before my daughter would have died inutro by that morning.

On admission into the NICU Maddison presented with respiratory distress and hypoglycaemia. A dose of Survanta was administrated via tude. Our little girl was mechanically ventilated for this illness for 35.2 hours. In addition to this CPAP was provided for 56.2 hours. Oxygen was ceased at 5 days of age. She was also treated with antibiotics for 2 days for sepsis. Maddison weight at birth was 1780gram, she was 41cm long and her head circumfrence was 29.5cm. Maddison was treated with caffeine for apnea of prematurity and was treated with prematurity associated jaundice with phototherapy. As hypoglycaemia was a problem for Maddison she was also treate intravenously with glucose. We spent 47 days in the NICU the longest 47 days of my life.

During her stay in the NICU Maddison also has her eyes and ears tested aswell as a cranial ultrasound. Her cranial ultrasound was done when she was almost 4 weeks old and appeared normal. This was such good news. Maddison's hearing was teated using automated measurement and revealed satisfactoring haering on both sides (although i now wonder since she never listens to what i say) Maddison's eyes were assesed for retinoathy of prematurity and were considered to be almost complete but 2 weeks after we were allowed home we had to have a follow up appointment just to make sure (she passed with flying colours) She also had a neurodevelopment physiotherapy assement prior to us leaving was it was also normal.

At day 47 of Maddison's life we went home, Maddison was 2745 grams, 48.5cm long and her head circumfrence was 33cm and her post conception age was 37 weeks.

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