Lucy Wallis
( 28 Weeks)
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/l/lucy29/
On 14 December 2001, my partner Simon and I attended my work Christmas party. I was 28 weeks pregnant and decided that to be festive, I would indulge in a glass of wine. This was the first drink I had had since I discovered I was pregnant. Whilst I was driving home I had a few niggles in my tummy but ignored them and put it down to either, the glass of wine or just a pregnancy ache and pain.
The next morning I got up and on my way to the bathroom bent down to pick my cat's water bowl up, as I stood up I had a gush of water run down my leg. I thought it was due to the fact that I had not emptied my bladder since the night before and ignored it. By that evening I had a further two gushes and I this point I suspected that something was wrong. I called the hospital and they asked me to come in and bring an overnight bag. I packed a night, toothbrush and toothpaste and we left the house.
When we got to the delivery suite the doctors couldn't decide whether my waters had broken or if (more embarrassingly), I was leaking urine, so I was kept in overnight. During the night I got up to use the toilet and had another gush, at this point the midwife confirmed that my waters had broken and so I was sent back down onto the delivery suite and Simon was telephoned. I was given a steroid injection to mature the baby's lungs(ow!) and some tablets to relax my uterus and stop any contractions that could start at any time. A doctor came to see us and told us that I had a 1 in 3 chance of going into labour within the next few days, and we therefore needed to prepared to deal with a premature baby and all the complications that may arise. We were given lots of scary statistics and then told that there were no special care cots in Bristol (where we live) or the surrounding areas of Bath, Swindon, Gloucester etc and that there was an ambulance on it's way to transfer me to Cardiff.
I was kept in Cardiff for a week during which time I was told that I had the Strep B infection, then on the seventh day, blood tests revealed that my infection levels had risen and they needed to get my baby out by emergency C-Section that night. Unfortunately by this time, there were no special care cots in Cardiff either so we were transferred again to Royal Glamorgan Hospital.
Once we had arrived we were seen by a doctor who advised us that they were going to delivery Lucy within the hour. I asked if I could be awake during the operation but was told no, as the risk of infection was too high. Luckily Simon's parents had arrived by then as they had been on their way to Cardiff to visit me, and so they waiting with him whilst i had my op. My baby was born on 22.12.01 at 8.25pm weighing 2lb 9oz. When I came round I was told that I'd had a beautiful daughter and that she had screamed after she was born which was a good sign. I didn't see my baby that night, but was given a picture of her to look at. I think the only thing that kept me going was the morphine drip that I could administer to myself, I had pressed it 50 times by the
morning! I'd had a bladder infection and it was so inflamed that it had been cut accidently during my Caesarian which was rather painful.
The next afternoon, I was wheeled down to special care and saw the tiniest human being I'd ever seen lying in an incubator looking so frail that I couldn't actually believe that she was my baby. Simon and I named her Lucy after my Auntie who had died from cancer the day before I found out I was pregnant. On Christmas Day, Simon and I were allowed to hold Lucy for 5 minutes each, it was the best present ever.
After 7 days in Royal Glamorgan we were all transferred back to Bristol where Lucy spent another 3 weeks in special care. She had done really well, only being ventilated for 10 hours and needing no further help at all with her breathing, she was found to have a heart murmur but that was the only problem we had. It was awful leaving her in hospital each night and coming home with no baby. When Lucy was 4 weeks old I was admitted into hospital and I spent 2 weeks there to establish breastfeeding, it took a lot of patience but we got there. Lucy was 4lb 1oz when she was allowed home and it was the proudest/scariest moment of our lives, I don't think either of us slept that night - just to be safe!
Lucy is now 17 weeks old this Saturday and weighs 7lb 4oz...She is gaining weight slowly but we will get there. She has just started smiling and cooing and things seem to be getting better and better.
Written with the permission of Lucy's mother Eva