Premature Birth

Premature Birth.

My Daughter Briannah was born at 27 weeks Gestation. Her water broke and she had barely any water in her sack, putting me into labour. I was rushed to Toronto Mount Saini Hospital In Toronto had a Emergency C-Section. Briannah came out blue and black due to a dry birth.

She was incubated right a way. She was very tiny. She had a lot of Apnoea Spells. I held her when she was one week old. It is hard when you are not allowed to hold your own baby and it is very overwhelming when you go into the NICU and hear all the beeping and see all the lights going off.

You see all these little babies who are in incubators that are hooked up to so many machines. Briannah was in the NICU for 30 days and in Level 2 for about the same length of time. Briannah came home on December 12th 2007.

She only weighed 4lbs 6oz when she came home and 14 inches in length. She was very tiny when I brought her home making it very hard to take care of her as I was always constantly checking on her to make sure she was breathing.

I cleaned everything 100 times a day and made everyone use hand sanitizer who ever was to touch her. I didnt want her to get sick. I pumped my milk for her for 3 months as then I dried up and could not produce anymore which was very stressful as This was the first time I had breastfed. I would try and try and then was just so upset that I couldnt give her what was best for her.

She is now 14 months old. She is 11 months corrected. Being a Preemie mom has made me the strongest person I can be. She keeps me going everyday. She can sit alone, she can slide on her belly getting around that way she is not crawling nor pulling herself up. She is still on Formula and eats our food now although she still loves pablem.

She is a very happy baby, she sleeps all night long. She has no complications just behind on her development. It was a very bumpy road and am glad she is bigger and happy.

From Crystal McGee- Elliot Lake