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My Friends
Drake:
Drake
was born at 25 weeks gestation, weighing 1 lb. 13 oz.
I will never forget
how tiny he was or the day
to day worry involved in having a preemie.
During his hospital stay of 93 long
days, there were several challenges we had
to face. Of the 93
days, Drake remained on the ventilator for 72
days, during this time he developed an infection with the
bacteria Pseudomonas, which grew in his airway tubing
and further developed
into Pneumonia which lasted 4 days. After the battle with Pneumonia,
he began to have a feeding intolerance which led to
weight loss. After a number of tests, he underwent
surgery to correct a duodenal webbing which restricted
the flow of milk into the intestine. After
this surgery Drake
completely progressed without complication and came
home on April 30, 1999. Three days later, in follow up with his eye
doctor, Drake underwent immediate laser eye surgery
due to Retinopathy of
Prematurity.
Currently,
Drake is a very curious and loving child! Despite the
challenges and the day to daymilestones he has faced
as being a preemie, he has accomplished his
developmental skills quite well and has no ongoing medical problems
to speak of.
I appreciate
the piece of mind that I have gained in reading
your book and hope that every family that has a preemie gains
the same peacefulness as
well. Meaning...Your child will get
through this and finally
outgrow being a preemie... Sincerely, Drake's Mom
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Finn:
Hi, just wanted to say a big
Thank You for posting such a positive, helpful
page. Many sites on preemies are either too clinical
or about children who
didn't make it. It's lovely to be able to celebrate
our child's life (and
survival) without the guilt...
Our son, Finn, was born at 25 weeks, 4 days,
weighing 1 pound, 12 ounces. He
had the usual run of life-threatening conditions -
blood on the brain, kidney
failure, chronic lung disease. But mercifully, he
pulled through and today is
a happy, healthy 3-year-old. He does have residual
problems in the form of
significant motor delays (he's still not walking),
but otherwise shows no
signs of cerebral palsy.
Every day we thank God for our little comedian, who
loves to laugh and make
others laugh with him. Nothing he loves more than
playing to an appreciative
audience, and we're so proud!!! Sincerely, Finn's Mom
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Jordan:
Here
is a picture of Jordan that was taken 12/12/02 when
he weighed 7 lbs 5 oz. Thanks so much for your
words of encouragement. Sincerely,
Jordan's Mom
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Isabel:
I just
came across your “little thumbs up” site through a
google
search. Wow! I wish I would have
found this site and your book 3 years ago. I
gave birth to twins, Sean (1.5lbs) and Isabel
(1.3lbs), at 23-weeks and 6 days gestation. Sean
lived for two-weeks; he had too many micro-preemie
issues to overcome—a stage 3/4 brain bleed and a
very severe infection among other more minor issues.
Isabel
recently turned three and is a happy, healthy toddler
with no signs of her very early arrival. When I
think back to the 109 days we spent in the NICU—it
would have been fabulous to have this collection of
stories from other parents. Especially, in the
early days when you are clinging to the tiniest bit of
hope that things will be “normal” someday. What
a powerful word…normal.
We
delivered at Bronson
Hospital in Kalamazoo. Their NICU is
fabulous and the doctors
and nurses that took care of us will be family
for life. However, even in this state-of-the-art
facility with experienced staff, “hope” was not
abundant. The studies and journal articles were
20+ years old describing the most heart-wrenching
outcomes for low
birth weight babies. I would think to
myself—they don’t treat these preemies the same
way they did 20 years ago—the outcomes must have
improved? Why isn’t there any updated
information? Even the preemie books (for the
most part) concentrated on the “challenges” that
any baby born before 28-weeks will surly face.
I
know how truly blessed we are and that not all stories
end this way—but thinking back to those days, having
a book of “positive” stories would have made those
109 days much more manageable.
Anita
Mehta-McNamara
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Powerful Resource for Parents of
Preemies...Inspiring Reading for All Families!
