World Prematurity Day

Hello cupcakes!

It has been a while since I posted & a LOT has gone down since my last post but I have posted enough about it on my Instagram & would rather not dive back into it again. If you are wanting to see what's been going on, scroll about 3-4 weeks back on my Instagram feed @LoveofFilo & look for the picture of the bridge & sunrise.

Today's newest post is in honor of World PreMaturity Day & my 2 minions - who are both premies. They were both born at 36 weeks & while that may not seem as "premature" as most babies this day was suppose to honor, the doctors were amazed I even made it as far along as I did with both of them. 

This little minion is my oldest. He was born at 10:59pm on January 7, 2010. With this minion, he had been putting me into preterm labor since approximately 26 weeks. I was getting steroid shots almost every week to make sure he stayed put. I barely made it out of my 36 week check up without my doctor saying to go across the street to the hospital to have a baby. I totally didn't listen because she said I couldn't eat. Eff that. Try telling a pregnant woman NOT to eat. So hubby & I went & got food first then went to the hospital & had a baby. Hahah.

That should've been the end of it. We stayed in the hospital for 3 days & they sent us home. Almost 18 hours had passed before I realized that my sweet little boy wasn't latching or eating & he started turning blue & was freezing to the touch - even under tons of blankets & fleece jammies. We took his temperature & he was at 94.2! Immediately, my husband, mom, & I loaded baby man into the car & drove to CHKD (the local Children's hospital). His temperature had dropped to 93.1 in the span of 20 minutes! They rushed him back & started taking blood, running vitals, hooking him up to IVs, trying to run catheters, & even did a spinal tap! I was a first time mom, & I was losing it.

What felt like months (but was really a little over a week) later, & we were released. Baby man was eating fine & all his vitals were perfectly fine! We have no idea, to this day, what happened. The doctors didn't offer us any definitive ideas either. He is now a happy & healthy 5 year old with no other issues that we know of. (:

My second minion. Oh, my dear minion, you were a problem child from the start. Minion2 decided it was an absolutely amazing idea to put me into labor every other week starting at 21 weeks & forcing me to be on bed rest - which was really horrible timing because at 32 weeks the Navy told us we were to be leaving Virginia & moving to Oklahoma. Oi. So my dad drove down from NJ to VA & he drove my car while my husband drove the UHaul. The trip to Oklahoma was very uneventful - thank God considering we also had our oldest minion who, at that time, was 9 months old. After Thanksgiving is when all the problems started. I ended up falling down the steps & became hospitalized while they monitored myself & the baby - who was still trying to put me in labor. I was put on strict bed rest - I wasn't even allowed upstairs to sleep! I had to sleep on the couch downstairs! I followed the doctor's directions to a T - I didn't want the baby coming so early since I was all ready having complications & we didn't know how developed his organs were at this point.

At 3:30am on the 23rd of December something just clicked in the back of my head that it was time to go. I somehow made it upstairs & told my husband it was time & to lets go. I waddled back down stairs in the same amount of time it took him to get up, get dressed, & make it downstairs. Seeing as it was so cold outside, he told me to wait inside while he went to go warm up our car. I told him that was fine & I needed to go pee anyway. Not even joking, as soon as I sat down to go pee I was all ready crowning! Of course I screamed, woke up my room mate & caused hubby to come running through the house. As he was gently picking me up to lay me on the floor, I gave instanteous birth to our child on the bathroom floor (his water broke as his shoulders breeched). Our roommate was on the phone with EMT & all I remember her saying was "Yes! she knew she was pregnant!" From what I was told after that, I went into shock - convulsing & the like. I don't remember any of this. According to my husband we were rushed via ambulance to the hospital (which was right across the street) & they took the baby from us while they pumped me full of pitocin to finish expelling the placenta.

I finally got to see & hold the baby over 12 hours later & he was dark blue/purple & swollen. My OB came in & joked that he thought I was going to wait until after Christmas. We determined that the reason his face was so bruised was due to being in my birth canal for so long & the reason I never felt any signs of labor was because 2 weeks prior they had injected me with steroids to stop him from coming early. He didn't open his eyes at all until he was about 2 months or so.

Other than that, he is a rambunctious, loud, independent 4 year old.

I am lucky that there is nothing wrong with either of my boys. On this day, where the world recognizes all our babies born too early, I want to thank God that we didn't have a long & bumpy road & my prayers are always with those that are going through it & have went through it.