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Deegan

I fell pregnant when my son Hunter was 10 months old and had another smooth pregnancy. His due date was the 20th October 2007 but he had other ideas.

It all started on the 25th August 2007. I was 32 weeks and 1 day pregnant. It was a Saturday and I was having a cleaning day as I was having a photographer come and do some pregnancy shots. I did the vacuuming and cleaning (David took Hunter out for the day). I went down the street to get bread and milk and bumped in a friend and he mentioned I didn’t look too good (gee, thanks). I turned around and jokingly said – I’m probably in labour (little did I know…)

We had tea, got Hunter ready for bed and I mopped the floor. I went and had a shower because my back was killing me and I went to bed at about 8:30. I couldn’t get comfy and was having terrible Braxton Hicks. I tried to sleep but by about 9-9:30 they were becoming more frequent, every 10 minutes or so. I said to David that I thought I was in labour. I tried to get some rest as I wasn’t sure???

By 10-10:30 I got up as I was really uncomfortable. I jumped on the computer and bounced on my fit ball. I was timing the contractions and they were about every 5 minutes so I continued to bounce away (it really helped), then they started coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting about 30-50 seconds. I thought I’d better call the hospital – they said to come in. Luckily my sister lived in the next unit and was home – she came over to watch Hunter as he was asleep.

We got to the hospital at Epping at about 12-12:30am. It took me about 5 minutes to walk to the Emergency Room from the carpark. They took my details then we went up to the birthing suite. They did the usual tests then hooked me up to the CGT monitor. Yep, they’re really contractions (I don’t think they believed me). They monitored me for about half an hour and then came back saying I have to go to the Royal Womens’ Hospital (RWH) and they’re waiting for the Ambos (which on a Saturday night were busy).

The Ambos got there at about 3-3:30am. The whole time I was on the CGT. I got to the RWH at about 4am on the 26th of August. They did the usual checks and hooked me back up to the CGT (the only time I came off it was to go to the toilet). I tried to get some sleep (didn’t happen).

The next morning, David got back in at about 11am (he went to check on Hunter and get some sleep). The doctor then told me I had a Bicornuate Uterus and I asked why I wasn’t told this before as he presumed I knew. My parents came in and while they were there my waters broke at around 3:30pm.

I had a chat to one of the pediatricians who came up to see me and let me know what most likely would happen etc. At this point my contractions had almost stopped with one every now and then, I was still leaking though.

8:30 – I tried to sleep as I hadn’t slept since Friday night. He started to have some destats but he recovered ok.

9:30-45 – The nurse came to check on me and said I might be able to come off the CGT for a while to get some rest. She went and double checked with a doctor.

10ish – The CGT started going off. I thought it was because I moved as I was feeling quite uncomfortable again.

The nurse came back to look at the CGT then went to the door and the next thing I knew, every doctor and nurse were in the room. A quick internal showed I was only 3cm dilated. The doctor said – we need to do a C-section and now.

They grabbed an ultrasound machine because they couldn’t find the heartbeat. It was there but only just. They pumped me with fluids as I was starting to panic and they asked for David’s number or my parents but I couldn’t remember – I went blank.

They called a Code Green and rushed me in to theatre.

I remembered the anesthetist telling the nurse to hurry up and get me ready and I drifted off to sleep…

I woke up at about 12am in a complete daze (the morphine was working). I had no idea what day it was, or what was going on. The nurse told me I had a little boy and to try and get some rest and to press the morphine drip when I needed to.

Deegan was born at 10:30pm on the 26th of August 2007.

I woke at about 6am and the nurse gave me a few more details such as how much he weighed – a huge 2133 grams (she even went and double checked!). He had an APGAR score of 4 and 9, he took a few minutes to start breathing on his own.

I asked to get up and have a shower and go upstairs to see Deegan but they wanted to wait for the doctor before I got out of bed so I had some breaky. One of the nurses helped me express.

Finally the doctor came and checked my wound etc. and I had the catheter taken out (ouch). I had a shower and somehow I’m feeling better than I did with Hunter.

I finally got up to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at about 10-11am on the 27th – Deegan was already 12 hours old. They said he was doing well, he was already off CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure – a kind of oxygen mask) and was on room Oxygen only. He was hooked up to IV antibiotics.

The next day (28th) I got my first cuddle and he was also moved to the Special Care Nursery (SCN) later that day. Surprisingly I was getting discharged later that night (7pm), not even 48 hours after a c-section.

We went up to see Deegan before going home and I gave them the milk I had expressed (the little I had at that point). They were just getting ready to pop him under the lights as he was borderline jaundice.

Thursday they took his IV line out as he was getting transferred to Epping tomorrow morning because he was doing well. I later read his discharge papers and they said he had Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) and Sepsis – I don’t remember being told any of that.

On Friday 31st August he was transferred via NETS to Epping. We met them there – he coped well with the move.

Deegan spent about two weeks in an isolette. He had a few troubles while there with his temperature and weight gain. It took him two weeks to pass his birth weight by two grams until they beefed up his feeds. He suffered from reflux and when taking a bottle he would choke. He finally got the hang of it and was having every feed orally bar the 3am feed when they would feed him using a tube. Both the head nurse and I gave instructions to stop this and to wake him to feed.

The next two days I spent all day in there. He had a full 48 hours with suck feeds and the next day if his weight gain went well we could go home over the weekend for home leave and come back on Monday. All going well with this we could then go home for good.

He came home on the 1st October 2007 weighing 2985 grams. He was 36 days old.

Deegan is now 3yrs old and doing well he had grommets put in his ears in at 18mths for hearing loss and fluid issues and looks like he will need further grommets in the future. His had some speech delay, and some gross/fine motor delays due to low muscle tone,
But he is a very bright and happy little boy with a great imagination.

creative1

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