Thanks for continuing with my rather extended birthing story – If you’ve just found me check out Part 1 & Part 2 of the Worm’s rather eventful arrival.

To recap – Her birth was fantastic, very calm & civalised, the first 24 hours was crazy – this post picks up at day 1 – So the 21st of July 2011. We have been transfered into the NICU & I’m starting to realise the situation is quite serious.

Part Three – The next few days.

I woke up at 7.30 Thursday to the lady bringing in my breakfast, I was devastated, I was so emotional & pissed that the midwife who promised to wake me up didn’t, and that now I had to express all by myself, I was so distraught & the poor midwife who came to help me had me burst into tears as soon as she walked in the room.

The Farmer & Mum arrived around 8.30 & we went to see the Worm. It was horrible – my little girl was covered in wires, tubes, monitors & was sedated very heavily. I don’t know how the Farmer held it together, I couldn’t stop crying again (even though our problems were very quickly put into perspective when I realised that the baby next to my Worm shared her name – however she was born at 25wk gestation, and had been on tubes for 40 days – only reaching the 1kg mark the day my whopper girl was born.)

Thursday was a total blur, expressing milk, visiting Worm, having every advisor, doctor & specialist come through the room. Even the WCH finance lady came in (they are VERY excited to have us here as private patients – apparently WCH are going to get lots of money from my insurance.) The Worm was much the same for most of the day, they had to do an ultrasound of her bladder as the opiate type drugs they had her on made her forget to wee, thankfully they were able to avoid putting a catheter in by gently pressing on her tummy (one less tube YAY!).

Friday was good – Worm was recovering much quicker than originally anticipated. They were able to clamp the chest drain in the morning, and remove it totally in the afternoon. I was able to feed her for the first time (since the breast feed on Wednesday morning) – she was fed my expressed breast milk of 5ml every 3 hours (8feeds per day) via a stomach tube.

Saturday was a great day – Worm was exceeding everyone’s expectations, and since 12am Saturday had the intubation removed (she helped with this by pulling the tube completely out herself), all sedation & painkillers stopped, she had the arterial line removed & to finish it all off Farmer & I got our first lot of cuddles since Wednesday night. It was amazing, when I held her skin to skin, her O2 sats improved almost instantly to 100%, her breathing slowed, and her heart rate stayed wonderfully consistent. She also started to nuzzle towards the breast & made appropriate sucking type movements with her lips (although I wasn’t allowed to offer the breast as they need her to get her breathing under control first)

By Sunday (day 5) we saw Worm come alive! She was been super active, moving around & being very fun to interact with. I can’t explain how good it was to see her turn her head towards Farmer or I when we talk to her. We started going to the NICU every 3 hours during the day in time to help with her feeds, changes & the possibility of cuddles. We had a HUGE cuddle session on Sunday taking her out of the crib around 12, and not putting her back until nearly 3pm. Farmer, Mum & I all had big cuddles & lots of fun. Again she was nuzzling towards the breast, and really wanted some extra food her allowed allocation went from 10ml to 15ml at 9am, to 20ml at 6pm & continued to increase each feed.

Over the next 7 days we saw gradual improvements, Worm was moved from NICU to the special care unit and then eventually discharged on Day 12. Although the first 2 weeks as parents didnt go quite to plan, the time ever since has been wonderful. Watching my baby girl grow, develop & learn is without question the most rewarding thing I have ever been a part of.

Thanks for reading my rather extended birthing story – most of the last 3 posts was actually written whilst I was still in hospital, I needed to vent, write & reflect on what I was going through. Re-reading & writing it again now when Worm is 15 weeks old, and looking back at the photos has stired up so many emotions. However I am well aware I am a lucky one -I got to take my baby home.

I love a good birthing story, Have you written yours? Post the link below so I can check them out!

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