Hosptial stay for Preemies

As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, the visits to the NICU will become so routine...don't despair the day you get to go home with your preemie will be soon! For me it was 96 days, (3 months and 6 days) later my son came home. But the days leading up relief is extremely hard. The standard routine for preemies is that they have blood tests several time a day. Because their veins are so small, the nurses will pin prick their heals and take just a drop or two of blood, which for preemies is a lot of blood. There is a problem with the nurses handling preemies to much, they can break a bone if they are too rough...which is exactly what happened to my son. Preemies have rickets, which is descriped as - Rickets is the softening and weakening of bones in children, usually because of an extreme and prolonged vitamin D deficiency, found in the Mayo Clinc at: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/rickets/DS00813
Preemies are small not stupid..they no what they like and don't like even at a very young stage of their life. My son didn't like have blood taken, so when you would touch his feet he would get very agitated and move around alot. One of the nurses got a impatient with him and tried to make his foot move the way she wanted it to and broke his femur in half. Believe it or not they actual put a cast on his leg...see picture. This is actually the 3rd cast they put on him, which is a body cast because he wiggled out of the other two which only cover half of his leg. He was in his cast for about 3 weeks. And when the were cutting off the cast they cut his let, so now he has a scar as a reminder of his broken leg when he was only 2 months old!!

Preemie babies First day in the Hospital

All preemies are immediately put into the NICU, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, were it's full these lights and buzzer and people are hovering over a tiny baby. As a mother, all you want to do is to see and hold your new born, but instead you are greeted by doctors and nurses telling you when you can come and see your baby and maybe, just maybe you will be able to hold your child, but more an-likely you will not. Don't worry in time you will!! Most preemies are put on oxygen, but for my son with his lungs fully developed, because of the Predizone, he was not. He was put in an incubator with flood lights shinning down on him to keep him warm. He also had all the buzzers connected to him. At 29 weeks babies have not learned how to suck, so the nurse had to teach him how to suck by giving him a pacifier immediately. A tiny tube was put down his throat so that the nurses could give him milk. This was also done so that he would not burn calories and loose weight that he didn't have. After a week of being in the NICU, all of the lights, buzzer and doctors and nurses become a comfort zone for you. Remember all these things are here to help your baby!

Premature baby

From my last posting you saw a picture of my premature son. Yes, this picture is real! and yes it's not flattering, but when it's your baby they look beautiful! Like I said earlier, because of the Predizone, his lungs were fully developed. This was unheard of, a premie this small and not having to be on any oxygen. Doctors and EMT's from around California were coming to UCLA to see this amazing child. My son was well known and he wasn't even a month old. The long journey to weight gain and coming home had started....

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Advantages to Heprain and Prednisone

There are very few advantages in having to take these drugs. The Heprain was used so that my blood would stay thin, this way my body would not recognize my pregancy as a invader trying to hurt me. As for the Prednisone, there were more advantages, but not necessarily good ones. It kept me from catching a cold or the flu, but it made me eat alot. The only real advantage to taking this drug was that it helpd develop my baby quicker and stronger. Even though I gave birth to my son at 29 weeks and he weight only 1lb 3oz, his lungs and organs were developed as though he was a full term baby.

disadvantages of Heparin and Prednisone

So...at 15 weeks I started to take Heparin shots and 60mg of Prednisone, which is a VERY high dosage! I had to get blood work done every week and to the doctors. With the blood work they would check my white blood cell count and if they were normal, I would be able to lower my dosage of Prednisone, in the 15 weeks of takin the drug I only lowered the dosage once for a week and it was to 40mg. I would not recommend taking Prednisone if you are trying to lose weight, it makes you extremely hungry all the time! In 15 weeks I gained 30 pounds. My face was so swollen that I didn't recognized myself when I saw my reflection in the mirror, I stopped looking in the mirror. My hair grew fast and became very dark, I'm a burnette and I looked as though I had black hair.

As for the Heparin, I was taking 2cc shot twice a day. My blood was so thin that if I cut myself I would bleed as though my blood was water. I was what the medical field would call a Hemophiliac.

So there I was, young and now 9 weeks pregnant...my life was about to change in more ways than I expected. Once I was was diagonsed with LA, I was told that I would have to see a specialist for the duration of my pregancy. So off to UCLA I went, now 15 weeks pregnant, I met with Dr. Tavish, a man of few words, but when he did speak you heard what he said. He immediately asked my husband and I why we were coming to him so late in my pregnancy? Late?! We had no idea what he meant by that, we had followed the medical red tape procedure. We thought that we had done everything right. Only to find out that I was at a high risk of a miscarriage again because we didn't see him before I got pregnant. We reminded him that we didn't know I had LA until after I was pregnant and the delay of seeing him was do to another Doctor's incompentance..a possible law suit was in the making. 15 weeks into a pregnancy is very dangerous of women with LA, our bodies have already started to attack the placentia, like the video game Pac Man eating the blinking lights. Immediately I was put on a regiment of Predizone and Heprin. The Predizone was to make the fetus grow and gain weight at a rapid pace. The Heprin was used to make my blood thin, to trick it, so that the fetus and placentia would not be considered the enemy.

Until next week..when I talk about what the Predizone and Heprin did to my fetus and my body.