Happy 1st-Month Birthday!

Sunday, 8 August 2010

Happy 1st Month Birthday to our little princess Rania!

It has been a true miracle that our little baby have gone through this far! I know our precious little baby has a long journey ahead of her, i always believed that it is never too early to thank everone especially baby nurses and doctors, whom have been so caring and loving for her and for every little contribution they make. For it is every little contribution that can make the big difference!

Brief Summary of Rania Aleesya's Story

Rania Aleesya was born at 25 weeks + 4 days gestation (13 weeks early), after my water broke at 22 weeks.  After a great deal of prayer (which many family and friends participated in!), Rania turned into a miracle. Alhamdulillah, all signs have been good and even her Doctors (including us!) have high expectations that she would grow up a healthy baby, Amin! InsyaAllah!

Pregnancy

Since I first discovered i was pregnant, it had been a smooth sailing journey for me until at 22 week when I had my "water breaking" (this wasn't a small amount of fluid!). After i went to the emergency room, met the doctor, had my medical check using ultrasound that she confirmed that i was diagnosed with PROM (Premature Rupture of the Membranes). At the time, however, I was told some fluid discharded was not uncommon in a healthy pregnancy, and the baby would either miscarry or be fine, no matter what I did. When the doctor did an ultrasound, even I could see that the amniotic fluid around our baby was extremely low. I was sent to the maternity ward on bed rest until labour. I was scheduled to meet up with the head of obstetrician the next day.

The day I saw the obstetrician was the worst day of my life. She had nothing positive to say. She explained how important amniotic fluid is to the baby at this stage, and told me that our child could come out anytime and would probably not be able to breathe at birth. She also said that if she somehow managed to breathe, she'd probably have born malformations, because there was virtually no amniotic fluid to protect her from being crushed by my organs. In addition, she was extremely at high risk for cerebral palsy, blindness, and a host of other medical issues. We were in utter shock.

The specialist advised me to "terminate the pregnancy," which Hubby and I refused to do. There was no way I was going to abort my baby.

The doctor told me I'd probably miscarry within a week or two. Rania didn't miscarry (she is one strong girl!) the first 2 weeks i was on bed rest, and I did not develop an infection, so the plan was to keep me in the hospital until at the beginning of my 28th week, for me to be allowed home resting, if Rania made it that far. At 24th weeks of my pregnancy on bed rest, i was given steroid shots to help Rania's lungs develop. The next day I had another. Ealier, I strongly questioned why I couldn't do all this sooner rather than at 24 weeks, nobody gave me a straight forward answer, other than to say the baby wasn't "viable" until 24 weeks or so. This was upsetting, but the fact that Rania hadn't miscarried in two weeks (the doctors were wrong!) gave me some confidence. I was going to carry this baby at least until 28 weeks, I decided. (I later discovered that babies as early as 22 weeks can survive outside the womb but the chance is very slim). At 25th week, I was given another steroid shot and one the day after.

I was examined and was told I wondered if maybe I had some sort of infection. The obstetric team tested the fluid, but the test was inconclusive. They also looked at the fluid under a microscope, watching for the "ferning" that typifies amniotic fluid. The fluid did not fern. (I later learned amniotic fluid often does not fern when looked at so early in a pregnancy). More and more colourless amniotic fluid was slowly discharged but in small amount. I later discovered that the baby has the ability to replenish her own fluid. That is one amazing miracle of life!! Since i was on bed, many different midwives had looked after me, monitoring for Rania's heartbeat every 4 hourly, doing observations on my temperature, blood pressures and any signs of inflamations from my blood test. But all test shows there has been no signs of infection, until later that they discovered that i might be having urinary trait infection. Even then the result was inconclusive.

Her Amazing Birth Story

At 25th week, i started to have contraction. They came and went, but eventually became pretty strong. I asked the doctor to prescribe some contraction-reducing medicine but she refused and that she preferred it all happened naturally. They continued getting stronger, until I was in real pain. Soon enough, i discovered i had some red fluid discharged. I was rushed to the emergency room. The doctor did an ultrasound to see if Rania was breech; she wasn't. However, the doctor adviced that if Rania was to be delivered safely, they could still have to perform C-section to prevent any complication. She was then going to do a physical exam to see if I was dilated to find out Rania's head was already poping out.

At 4:20 pm, through natural birth, my doctor pulled Rania out from me and handed her to a neonatologist (a doctor who specializes in treating preemies). Assisted by eight other nurses and doctors, he stucked a tube down Rania's throat and tried to resuscitate her. A nurse later told me they had difficulties getting oxygen into Rania's lungs, and felt sure this baby was not going to make it. But the doctors were (once again!) wrong. Rania was resuscitated. She weighed 1 lb. 1.5 oz. and had no malformations. She was born at exactly 25 weeks and 4 days.

Rania was and is still in a private room. Initially she was hooked up to a ventilator that did all her breathing. Rania was diagnosed with chronic lung disease (BPD) and was treated for the latter with medication. At 29 weeks gestation she graduated to a ventilator that only "breathed" when she didn't NIPPV, and then is about to start her breathing with CPAP in a couple of days time.