Acacia, our premature daughter's birth story

Acacia Paige

Born: 11.09am, Wednesday 28 September 1994

Weight:1170gms (2lb10) Length 38cm

Acacia was born at 33 weeks, due to mummy having pre-eclampsia. Acacia was very small for her gestation dates and very ill.... This is her story.

The pregnancy was fine until one Monday morning I woke with pain just under my rib and between my shoulder blades. I decided not to go in to work and called my Doctor. After convincing the nurse at my Doctors, I was able to go in for an appointment. When I was Finally seen, I had high blood pressure and protein in my urine. I was referred to National Womans Hospital.

Once I arrived at hospital I was taken to the ward. I remember walking from the car and getting migraine symtoms, which meant my BP was going even higher. Once in the ward, my BP was 140/110, so they gave me medication and started tests, which showed that my liver wasn't coping."Ouch"

At 2am they decided that they were going to induce me, but is wasn't until 4am that I was taken to the delivery unit.They began a course of steriods to mature Acacia's lungs and by Wednesday morning they decided that because I wasn't progressing, I should have a scan (which I should've had on Monday night). The scan showed that Acacia was breech, very small (IUGR) and was not moving much. I spend the whole time with Brendan thinking of boys names (we had already picked Acacia for a girl and I thought that because we hadn't chosen a boys names,that our baby was a boy. An emergency ceasarean was preformed and Acacia was delivered at 11.09am. She was taken to be checked and I was told that we had a girl. I could hear crying, but it was so quiet that I thought it came from another room, but it was our tiny little girl. She was shown to me quickly and taken to SCBU and Brendan followed.

I was given a polaroid photo of her because I was unable to see her. A couple of hours later, the specialist came and saw me and told us that Acacia was going to NICU because her lungs were not as developed as they should be for a 33 weeker. But I was in HDU and the reality didn't hit me because I was too ill.

I saw her that night for the first time. She was in an open incubator with cling-film type stuff over the top. She was covered in tubes and was so tiny. The beeping machines were everywhere, but we didn't stay long because the heat in the room made me feel ill and Brendan and I could bearly keep our eyes open.

Acacia spent from 28/8 - 19/11 in hospital with Mum and Dad visiting every night. The following is an account of her stay from my diary notes...

Day 1 29/9 The day after her birth, Acacia was on feeds of expressed milk. 2mls every 4 hours.

Day 2 30/9 Weight down to 1005gms

Day 3 1/10 My first cuddle/Acacia off Ventolation on to CPAP (partial ventillation)

2/10 Move to SCBU

3/10 Dads' first cuddle

4/10 Handled (we can touch/hold her) only 1x per day. Feeds every 4 mils 2 hours. Mum discharged and went home

5/10 Has heart murmur - up to 14 mils per feed

Day 8 7/10 Totally off CPAP

9/10 Weight 1120gms

13/10 1175 gms

20/10 Murmur gone

Day 21 22/10 Off medication for breathing

28/10 "Graduated". Moved rooms - to "feeders and growers". The main focus was for Acacia to put on weight and gain temperature control etc.

2/11 Arrived to see that the nurse hadn't cleaned incubator (Acacia had an accident after the nurse took her temp).Brendan had to clean the incubator....oh and Nurse forgot to defrost milk so had to feed her formular! Can you tell I was not impressed!

Day 34 4/11 Room 27 (getting closer to the end off the hall), off monitors, 1730 gms

Day 45 15/11 Mum back in hospital ward with Acacia to get ready for home. Still very small wearing dolls clothes.

Day 49 19/11 HOME (they tried to keep us in another day) After 7 wks and 3 days in hospital. She was due to be born this week.

There were a lot of ups and downs and the hardest part was leaving her in hospital. We have a video that we took each week and a diary of her progress.

Have a look at some photos...

Photos