Prematurity Awareness Day 2010

It was well after 10 pm of the day Ryan was born. It had been a very long 24 hours with hardly any sleep. The night before seemed to be quiet so I sent Dean home to get some rest. I had not had any contractions that the nurses & doctors detected on the monitors since my water broke 2 days before and they had even taking me off the IV fluids. Things changed a few hours after Dean left and by 2 am I kept telling Ryan to hang on and don’t come yet, but he was ready. He was born at 5:44 am by emergency c-section because #1 he was breech and #2 they had to give me general anesthesia since I was already fully dialated by the time the doctor in charge arrived. The day went by and my parents & brother stayed for many hours. I got to see pictures my brother took of Ryan and I just cried. Nothing would prepare me for when I saw my little prince in person. When one of the evening nurses came in sometime after 10 pm, she wanted me to try and get up. She asked me if I had even seen my baby yet and I told her no, that she was the first person to even tell me (okay, ask me gently) I had to try and get up. Without hesitation she said, "well I can get you a wheelchair and wheel you over there" (to the Children’s Hospital attached to the hospital I was in). THAT sure got me up! She helped clean me up (remember I just had surgery that morning) and off we went down the hallways of the hospital. Once we got to the Children’s Hospital, she let Dean take over and told us where to go. I was in pain but all I could think about was seeing my baby. We wheeled into the NICU waiting area and called back to the nurses station. Dean knew where to go since he had been there earlier so we made our way into Pod I. I could barely get up to wash my hands & arms but I managed to. The nurse even told me after a minute or so, that it was fine if I couldn’t do the entire 3 minute hand washing (which is required). Dean wheeled me across the room to the isollette nearest the window and I saw my precious baby in person for the first time.

Of course I immediately started crying. Seeing my baby hooked up to all the machines, many needles & wires coming and going from his body and how tiny he was just took my breath away. The nurse started telling us how good he was doing just from the sheer fact that he was on CPAP and didn’t have to be on the mechanical ventilator. She then started explaining all the different wires & machines but to be honest, I was just staring at Ryan and everything else I heard was background noise. I couldn’t get over that this was our child. Our first born baby. And he had to come into this world and start fighting.

But he did fight and still is a fighter.

Ryan had & still has so many incredible people helping him (and us) fight along the way. All of the doctors and nurses, his Early Intervention Coordinator, his Physical Therapists & Speech Therapists. Our family and dear friends who have stayed with us through it all and lent us their hands for anything we may need. I think most of the credit should go to not only GOD, but to Ryan himself. He is strong and determined.

That was evident 5 days after his surgery, when he was a week old and he continually removed the nasal cannula from his nose, proving to the nurses that he didn’t need any help breathing. It was evident when at 13 months old, he took his first steps and hasn’t slowed down since. It was evident at just over 2 years old when he finally started really talking, in 2-3 word sentences and not just single words, and even more so now at 3 years old because most times we can’t get him to be quiet. He has a smile that can light up a room. When he smiles, his whole face smiles. You can really see that he is happy. I’m so proud that he is MY son and I know Dean would say the same thing.

It’s almost hard to believe that he was born weighing 2 lbs. 13 oz. What does that compare to? A sack of flour? Nope, that is usually 5 lbs. A 2 liter soda? Nope, that is about 4 lbs. Next time your in the produce aisle, pick up an average size Eggplant. That's what 2 1/2 lbs feels like. Ryan was just a tad bigger than that when born but after his surgery on his 2nd day of life and not being able to eat for 10 days, he got down below 2 1/2 lbs. We got through it all though. Somehow we managed to get through it. It wasn't easy. I cried every day. I think being somewhat ignorant about it all probably helped me get through it. I barely knew what the March of Dimes was much less what it meant for a baby to be born at 28 weeks. But since then, I've found out so much that my mind can't even comprehend all of it and I have met some fabulous people along the way as well.

Today, November 17, 2010, marks a day thousands of people from around the world will unite to blog about prematurity. So today we blog. We blog about the ones we love. We blog so we can make more people aware what prematurity is and that premature birth can happen in any pregnancy. . The goal is to spread awareness about Prematurity, which is still the #1 killer of newborns.

To get more information about prematurity and how you can help visit the March of Dimes website.

If you want to read Ryan's full birth story you can start at the beginning
and then go here for the rest.