How Hard & Rewarding it is to Take Care of a Preemie

Taking care of a preemie is one of the hardest things I believe I have ever had to do. As I have said before in a previous post(s), Brayden was born two months early. He has a lot of issues that he is going to have to overcome. I am having to travel an hour away from home to take him to three of his doctors now. He keeps having new things come up to me all the time that the doctors say I am going to have to get fixed. All of his illenesses are just taking a toll on me emotionally. I feel like I am always crying because I always think there could have been something that I could have done while I was pregnant, so he would not have ended up this way. The doctors say that there is nothing that I could have done to have stopped it from happening. I am always the type to worry, though.

Taking care of a preemie is one of the most rewarding things I believe I have ever done. Brayden is one of the best babies ever! He is not that fussy as much as I have heard other babies are. He is only fussy when it is time for him to go to bed. He doesn't really fuss when he gets his immunizations. He fusses right when the shot comes out, but then he is quiet and wants to sleep almost the rest of the day. He takes his naps during the day like he is supposed to, and he plays well with others. He just acts like a regular baby to me, and he does not act like he is premature at all. When people see him out, they never would have guessed that he was premature. They think that he looks like a normal baby at his age right now and not the age that he should have been. He makes me so happy, and I feel he always will. He will always be my pride and joy. :) <3

Brayden Now at 6 months

With all the problems that Brayden has been having lately, he is doing really well. He is now 6 months (7 months on the 26th of February), and he should only be around 5 months. As you know, he has had problems with IVH in the brain, but he has other problems that you don't even know about. He has anemia, asthma, RSV (doctors say that it is like an adult version cold that preemies get due to underdeveloped lungs), chronic lung disease, bronchiolitis, and a lazy eye (forgot the term they told me it was called). I feel like we can never stay out of the emergency room, and it is beginning to take a toll on my college homework. That cannot happen.

Brayden is going to end up seeing someone to do some physical therapy on him to help him with his development because he is a little behind most of the others at his age due to being premature. His neurologist says that he will do fine with that. The only problem that I have with everything is that I blame myself for all the stuff that he is going through being premature because I feel me being upset almost all the time while I was pregnant caused him to be premature. My family and friends tell me that I am wrong and had nothing to do with it, but they would tell me that due to they care about me and don't want me to feel depressed. They think I might be going through PPD (post-partum depression). Maybe they are right, but since I do not have insurance and can't get approved for medicaid, I cannot see anyone about it.

Anyway to get back on topic, Brayden is fine in my viewpoint. He is a loving and energetic baby. He is always happy and smiling constantly. He only gets fussy at night when it's time for him to go to bed. That is normal. He just tries really hard to accomplish new things. I also try to teach him things along the way through his development to see if I could help. He will hopefully overcome everything by the time he is one or two (hoping).

This is Brayden now :) <3

Tragic News!

When Brayden was still in the NICU at the hospital (about 3-4 weeks after birth), I got a phone call from the neonatologist (neonatal doctor or preemie doctor) while I was getting ready to leave for Savannah to see Brayden. He told me that the nurse had told him that his head measurements have been off slightly. I asked him what he meant by that, and he said that his head circumference has been growing way too quickly. He said that he was going to have him taken down to get an ultrasound of his brain to see what the problem was.

I hurried as fast as I could to get to Savannah (which is an hour away from where I live) because I was scared that I was going to end up losing my baby. When I got to the NICU, I asked the nurse if they had the results to his ultrasound. They checked, and they told me that there was nothing yet. I was going to lose my mind, if I had to wait any longer to hear the results to the test.

The nurse came into his room, and she told me that the neurosurgeon was going to come talk to me about the results. Of course, I would think the worse. Surgeon meaning surgery, I thought Brayden was going to have to have surgery to fix whatever problem he had. My mind was racing.

The doctor finally came in. He introduced himself, and he told me that he looked at the ultrasound. He said that Brayden has an intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), and that they were going to perform an MRI of his brain at the end of the week to see if it improves. They said that his was pretty bad, and they could not tell what might have caused it. He said that if it did not improve, then he might have to put a shunt in him to empty the fluid in the brain. That way it does not back up too much and swell the brain or head.

The end of the week came, and he was sent to have the MRI. I was not able to go with him, and I was just crying the entire time he was gone. I was thinking that something was going to go wrong, and they were going to come back to tell me that he had a tumor or something that was going to kill him.

The doctor came in to tell me the results, and he said that it looked like it has gotten smaller. I was so happy that he did not have to have surgery, and that he did not have anything worse.

He still has the problem, but I hope that it will completely go away soon.

These Past 6 Weeks

What have I been dealing with these past six weeks? With school, I have been dealing with trying to keep up with all my assignments and learning how to blog properly. Haha. I have never really had so much trouble before with keeping up with any assignments until real life bit me on the hind end. Trying to remember to use proper grammar is a big one for me. I am used to talking a certain way with my friends, and then I have to remember that I can not talk that way in my discussions or projects in class. I need to remember to step it up if I ever think that I am going to finish on time.

With my son, Brayden, I have been dealing with a whole lot. That is kind of making me try even harder with school to keep everything caught up. He just has so many doctors that he has to see that do not live in the same city that we live in. The good thing is that they are at least in the same state. Lol. He has just been having a lot of problems since he was born, and he has to be checked by specialists a lot. He has to see a neurologist, a neurosurgeon, a pulmonary specialist, and his regular pediatrician. When he was born, he had a blood clot found in one of his ventricles in the brain causing him to have some hydracephalus (fluid gathering up in the brain). He sees a neurosurgeon and neurologist for that. They used to think that he might need to have a shunt put in, but it is trying to get better. That happens to be a blessing. He sees a pulmonary specialist because he has asthma, acid reflux, and rsv at the moment. He will hopefully overcome all of this soon. I just have to stay positive, but it is just hard.

Something dealing with just myself is that I just had a laparoscopic assisted vaginal hysterectomy. I had a bad case of endometriosis in my uterus, and my OBGYN said that I needed to have my uterus removed. The bad thing was that I have only one child, and I am only 21 (22 next month). He wanted me to have another child, but that was just not possible for me. I could not handle another child with all the problems that I am dealing with for Brayden. He said that he understood, and he said that it was the best thing for me to get it taken out now. I am feeling so much better now. I am just glad that there is no more pain.

What It's Like to Deliver a Preemie Baby

I remember going to the maternity center here in Brunswick with the feeling of pressure and contraction pain. I was 33 weeks at the time, and I have been dealing with preterm labor contractions since I was 25 weeks. When we (my mom, dad, sister, my boyfriend and Brayden's father, and me) got to the maternity center, the nurse hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix. She said that I was just two centimeters, which I was at 30 weeks. She said that she could give me some Demerol for the pain and some magnesium sulfate to ease the contractions. I started to calm down from the pain, but I was still feeling the pressure. Plus Brayden's heartbeat was around 180+, and the doctor came in to check me and thought I was going through placenta pervia (the placenta starts to break apart). He thought that I might end up having to have an emergency c-section. He checked me for it, and he told me that I was not having placenta pervia. He told my family that he might end up having me stay the night in the hospital for observation to try to keep Brayden in as long as possible since I was only 33 weeks pregnant.

After a couple more shots of the Demerol, the doctor came in to check my cervix due to the fact that I kept waking up saying that I kept feeling pressure. He told my sister that I was at three centimeters now, and he said that they were going to have to send me through an ambulance to Savannah to deliver since they did not have a neonatal intensive care unit for premature babies. My sister went and told the rest of my family, since they went to the cafeteria to get something to eat at that time.

I got on the ambulance, and began to feel more pressure. I then began to feel something leaking and told the nurse that was riding on the ambulance with me. She told me that I was just having blood clots, and that it was nothing to worry about. I did not think that blood clots was the answer because I had known that my water had broke. The ambulance got lost trying to get to the hospital, and my family made it to the hospital before I did even though I left way before they did.

I got to the hospital, and two nurses and a doctor came in to get me set up for delivery. They hooked me up to an IV, and they were getting everything ready for the birth of Brayden Austin.

All of a sudden, the doctor checked my cervix and told me that it was time to start pushing. That was when a whole bunch of doctors and nurses rushed in to make sure they were there when he was born. I have never seen so many people in such a small room before. I remember beginning to push and feeling a whole lot of pressure. Since I had an epidural, I did not feel the contractions which was a blessing. Haha. Brayden was born on July 26th at 1:40 AM. They took him out and away from me, and I was not even able to see him until the next morning. The doctor said that I had some kind of virus on my cervix, and I had to take antibiotics for it. That was why I could not see him. Plus they had to hook him up to so many machines.

He was hooked up to oxygen, a feeding tube in the mouth, put in an incubator because he could not keep his body temperature up, pulse oximeter, etc. He weighed 4 pounds 15 ounces, which was not bad due to the fact that he was born at 33 weeks. I never knew that this was just the beginning...


Dani Marie

Plagiarism: What Would I Do??

What would I do if someone used something I created without giving me credit? At first, I think that I would be really upset and angry. I would definitely vent with my friends and family about it, then I would try to get ahold of the person that stole my work. I would say things that I would probably regret later, but I would be running off adrenaline and would not even care what I would be saying at the time.

I am such a hot head (that is what my friends and family tell me), and I will speak my mind. Stealing something of mine that I worked so hard on, there would be some major consequences. Just so you know.

:)Dani Marie:)