My Premmie Boys Journeys

At 20, I had the world at my feet. My Fiancé and I both had strong jobs and were looking at buying our first home. It was 4:30 am when I discovered I was pregnant, (I worked at Coles in the bakery). We were both very excited!
I had Morning sickness all day, but still battled along in my job. At 16wks I had severe bleeding and was taken to hospital. Being a country hospital I had to wait around an hour or so for the Dr to arrive. When he arrived he had a feel of my tummy and told me I was miscarrying. I was heartbroken. I was only kept in overnight, they were all 99% sure I was going to lose my little bub. I saw my Dr the following day, but had to wait a week for an ultrasound to find out if my little bub had survived. It was the worst week of my life. I had already taken leave from my job, not wanting to risk anything. When they did the ultrasound I saw my little bub, he was ok!  I had bled from around the placenta, but it appeared to still be intact and healthy. I was on bed rest from then on. At around 20 wks my fiancé got another job about 4-5 hrs away, we were staying at his Nana’s.
In Jan 07 we moved to a very small town, Marvel Loch a farming/mining town approximately 30 kms south of Southern Cross WA. I stayed with my mum, most of the time. I didn’t want to travel too much, as I didn’t want to disrupt the pregnancy; I was determined to carry my baby. I was having ultrasounds every 2-3 weeks to make sure everything was going ok. At 24 wks I had finally stopped passing blood. I thought I was safe.

At 28wks my waters broke (PPROM, Preterm- PreLabour Rupture of Membranes) there was no warning. I felt ok, but starting feeling sick inside, it was way too early! My mum lives out of town and rang my hospital, they told me to go straight to King Edward Memorial Hospital. My mum drove me the 2 hrs into Perth. The next few hours were a blur, I had drips and blood tests and strapped to the CTG. At around 11:30 pm I was admitted onto the ward. I was given steroids and other drugs to stop my labour. I didn’t really sleep much that night. My mum had slept in her car as she couldn’t get a room for the night. I had an ultrasound the following day, showing a small 1108 Gms (2lb 7oz).

The next few days passed slowly, my mum was always there she didn’t go home for anything. The nurses showed me the NICU, which was scary seeing all the tiny babies. The nurse pointed out, through the window, a baby that had been born at 28 wks. I felt a little bit more prepared for what was going to happen. For the next week and a bit I had seen the inside of the labour ward 3 times with false alarms. On the 24th of Feb I woke up with contractions happening around every 2-3 mins once again it was a trip down to the labour ward. It was going to be a long day.

Closer to giving birth it was discovered I had Amnionitis (An infection of the Uterus Lining) I had given my bub an infection also.

At 3:15 am on the 25th of Feb, My little miracle boy was born weighing in at 1545 gms(3lb 6oz). I saw him being born, poor little guy was blue.

It was really hard not being able to hold him. My mum could see what was happening and tried to stop me from seeing him. Brendan had a very low heart beat and he wasn’t breathing. The whole room was silent all I could hear was them counting the compressions to help get his heart beating. He was given drugs to help his heart. It took them nearly 5 mins to get his heart beating and to get him breathing.

His Apgar scores at 1 and 5 were 2 and 4. At around 3:30 am they showed him to me. I touched his little hand and he grabbed hold of my finger. They had to pull him off so they could get him into the NICU.