hi

thanks for the encouragement. I am also a member of essential baby and all the other mums that had bubs in april, which was when isabella was supposed to have been born, well their bubs are like way huger than isabella. I originally thought isabella would be about the same size as them, thinking she might have caught up to them but not yet. My whole experience was awful. Here I was thinking I would have an average size bub and go full term but nope. I hadn't even heard of pre-eclampsia, i mean how many pregnant women really know what it is??

Well I have to say that the whole time I was in the ICU ward I was depressed.....I was on morphine and magnesium so I was totally out of it most of the time, and plus I could not even see my baby, it was like I had not even been pregnant or like someone had stolen her from me. She was only around the corner from me, in NICU yet I could not see her, and they only brought her to me once - in the humidicrib. But she couldnt come out for long as she needed to be warm and under the lights. She had all these tubes hanging off her - feeding tube, antibiotics and the other leads to monitor her heart rate, oxygen and breaths.

It was okay once I got onto the maternity ward, as I could get about and go see her. I stayed in hospital 7 days and after that, I would go visit her and stay most of the day then I would go pick my husband up from work and we would go home so he could shower etc, then up to the hospital again at night, then come home and have dinner then to bed. We did this for 8 weeks - it was like a routine to us. It was so awful having to go home without our baby.

Each day was different too, not the same. Between her forgetting to breath, getting jaundice twice, having an infection, problems with trying to breastfeed, bad reflux and needing a blood transfusion - it was hell. Our emotions worked like a yo-yo, tossing between sadness one day and then happiness the next as she would progress, back to sadness if she slipped backwards.

I will never forget my experience, our experience. All I can say is a huge thank you to all of the staff in NICU and SCN. They are truly gods angels working hard.

We were truly happy when our little princess came home and now we treasure every moment and every day with her.

Nichole

Born 3/2/05, 9 wks premature