THE STORY OF A PREMATURE BIRTH
THE EXCITEMENT OF PREGNANCY
They say having
a child is one of the greatest gifts a couple could ever receive. The joy
and the excitement starts from the moment a husband and a wife find out that
they are having a child.
Suddenly, a mother-to-be can feel how
wonderful it is to know that a life is growing inside her womb.
A father-to-be cannot hide the excitement of
welcoming his offspring into this world.
Certainly, a child is God’s most precious gift to a man and a woman united by
Him.
When my husband and I learned that we were
expecting a baby, emotions of different sorts engulfed us.
There was the unexplained feeling of joy
that in a number of months, we would be greeting our precious baby out into
this world.
There’s also the excitement on the wonderful
things that having a child has to bring.
There’s the fear of not knowing how to handle
having a baby for the first time. Will the baby be healthy, will I deliver
safely?
There are many more emotions that came and
passed as I was on my pregnancy stage. But the
best emotion of them all was the bond that pregnancy has brought me and my baby.
I thought of my baby in everything I did.
Whenever I would eat something, I would always check first if it is safe for my
baby. Whatever I did, I did with care, thinking of the welfare of the life
inside my womb.
My husband’s
excitement was even greater than mine. On my first trimester, he already bought
things that my baby would need when he would be born. Whenever he would see
something that he thought would be useful for our baby, he would buy it right
there and then.
When we finally learned what the sex of the
baby was, he immediately bought a beautiful blue coloured crib for our baby
boy. Then, he bought more clothes for our precious little one.
Our parents couldn’t hide their excitement
either. They couldn’t wait for the time when our baby would finally be born.
THE BEGINNING OF COMPLICATIONS
Then, things
started to become complicated. I have noticed that there was something
wrong at the beginning of my second trimester. During my scheduled check-up
with my doctor, she told me that I was
already developing Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH).
It is a
hypertensive condition which mostly comes out during pregnancy especially
for first time moms. I was a strong candidate because it was my first pregnancy
and my work has also been a stressful one.
My doctor
did everything she could to take care of me and my baby. My
consultations were scheduled more often to make sure that my baby and I were
always in good condition.
On the fifth
month
of my pregnancy, I noticed my eyes beginning to blur until I could no longer
see well. My vision was dark and cloudy. I couldn’t even read right that I couldn’t function well at work anymore.
My body started bloating until I felt heavy
all over. I could also feel my baby
having a hard time inside my womb.
I kept on talking to him, assuring him that
he would be alright and asking him to hold on and just keep on growing
healthily inside.
He would respond by kicking me from inside,
as if assuring me back that he is indeed alright and that he is a strong boy
willing to fight for his life no matter what.
My doctor then prescribed me medications that
would help my baby’s lungs mature faster just in case I would have to give
birth earlier than expected.
AN UNEXPECTED NEWS
The first month of my third trimester came; I
met my husband after work to have lunch before we would go to my scheduled
consultation with my doctor.
I thought it was just a normal day; after
having lunch, we headed down to my doctor’s clinic and waited for our turn to
be called inside.
While waiting, my best friend called me on my
cellular phone and told me she wanted to see me and check on how I was doing. I
told her to come to my doctor’s clinic as I was still waiting for my turn.
When my doctor finally checked on me, she
said I had to undergo an emergency caesarean section immediately. My baby was
already having a hard time inside because there’s not enough fluid from inside
my womb that could support and protect him.
The doctor
said my baby’s life was already at stake. I was shaken and couldn’t talk
well anymore because I was overwhelmed with fear and worry.
I had a lot of questions about my baby’s
chance of survival. I didn’t care about
my condition because all I really wanted at that time was for my baby to live.
I was already shaking and crying as I my
doctor assured me that she would do everything she could to save me and my
baby.
AN EMOTIONAL MOMENT
On the way to the hospital for admission, my
husband and my best friend who were my sources of strength at that time
comforted me.
It was as though God has also planned my best
friend to be there with us at that very instant to assist us during our most
crucial moment.
While my husband had to take care of my
admission to the hospital, she was the one who stayed with me assuring me that
we would make it through this stage of life well enough.
I underwent another ultrasound before I was
brought to my room. Before I was brought inside the Operating Room, my father
came and also gave me the assurance I needed to fight for my baby.
We were all filled with emotions at that
time. Tears were rolling down my eyes as
I was being brought to the Operating Room.
I kept praying for the Lord to spare my baby.
I asked Him to give us the chance to
become the parents of this wonderful being who was also fighting for his life
from inside.
MY BABY’S FIRST CRY
In the OR, I was being monitored closely as
my blood pressure kept on shooting up. The doctors and nurses kept on assuring
me that my baby would be fine but I still couldn’t stop worrying.
Then, finally, I heard the voice I’ve been longing so much to hear. I heard a
loud, strong cry. It was my baby’s loud
voice. He was strong and alive.
I couldn’t explain the joy I felt as the
doctors put him on my chest. I was
crying with so much joy and relief as I looked at him and kissed him.
He was so
tiny, yet he looked so strong. He kept his promise of fighting for his life.
I thanked God for listening to my prayers and
for letting my baby live. My husband and our parents were also praying hard
while I was inside the operating room.
THE CRITICAL STAGE
By the time I was brought in the Recovery
Room, my baby’s Neonatologist visited me and told me about my baby’s condition.
She told me he’s already in recovery inside
the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and that he’s still under close observation
for 48-hours. If my baby survives the
crucial stage of 48-hours, it means he’s on his way to continuous recovery.
I again prayed for the Lord to keep my baby
healthy and help him get through this critical stage of his early life.
The Lord again listened to my prayers and the
people around me. He was able to get past through the first 48-hours of his
life.
Our baby spent more than a month in the
hospital. The doctors did everything they could to make sure he had no
complications.
He was inside the incubator for most of the
time he was in the hospital, with tubes and IV lines all over his body. It was a painful sight but the fighter in
him gave us the hope we needed.
Despite our baby’s condition, he was the one
who has always been assuring and giving us hope by showing his unwavering
fighting spirit.
YULETIDE AWAY FROM HOME
Since he was born only a few days before
Christmas, my husband and I spent Christmas day in the hospital with our baby.
New Year came and he was still in the
hospital so we also spent our new year inside the NICU with our baby.
I still couldn’t see well during those times
so I asked my husband to take photos of our growing baby every day so I would
know how he looked like during the times I couldn’t see him well.
The doctors told me that instead of my whole
body experiencing the effect of my severely high blood pressure, my eyes were
the ones which took the toll of my condition called Severe Pre-eclampsia.
They referred to my present condition as Hypertensive Retinopathy.
A FAMILY EFFORT
Another
problem we had to go through was my inability to produce enough milk. The
Neonatologist advised us that it is best for my baby to purely breastfeed
during the first months of his life but I couldn’t produce enough milk for my
baby.
I was able to produce my first milk, which
was very important for my baby since the first milk has the most amounts of
nutrients my baby needed during his initial stage.
Since I couldn’t produce enough milk, finding enough sources for my baby’s
consumption became a family task.
My father was the one who worked hard in
finding people who could donate breast milk for my baby. Every day, he would bring clean milk containers with him and go to all
the relatives and friends he knew of who had also just given birth at that
time.
Sometimes he would even bring some of those
kind-hearted people to the hospital so they could pump their milk as stock for
my baby.
My husband would also go to other hospitals,
which have enough stocks of breast milk and avail of their milk.
MONEY CAN’T BUY EVERYTHING
That’s when I realized that the most important things in life are not
the ones that can be bought with money.
Even what seems to be just a simple thing
such as milk could be the most important thing for someone. This simple thing
is not something which can be bought but can only be availed through grace and
compassion.
The love and
empathy we have received during the most struggling moments of our lives were
the ones that helped us make it through.
A PROMISING SOUL
Our baby is
now a smart and healthy 5-year-old boy with a lot of things to say. Sometimes we
even run out of words to tell him because he has so many questions in life that
we ourselves don’t know the answers to.
He is our
only source of joy and laughter. I have quit my job from the time he was born
and decided to become a full time mother to him.
I didn’t want to miss any milestone of our
boy’s life. I realized there’s nothing
more important than family and the love we have for each other.
I have also regained my vision after 3 months
of therapy.
Now, our
son is in Kindergarten, learning his way through life one-step-at-a-time. I
am a dedicated mother with nothing more to ask for but good health for my whole
family. My husband has a small business where we live by contentedly
day-by-day.
LIVING WITH FAITH & LOVE
I can now say that we have gone through and
were able to survive one of the most trivial stages of our lives, with the help
of the people we love and the love that God has always been giving us.
Whatever
life brings us in the future, our family’s genuine love for each other and our
strong faith in God will pull us through.
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