7th April 2012, the day it all happened! I was at work and I noticed a missed call on my mobile, it was my wife, Robyn. I called her back and asked if everything was ok and the only words I remember are, “I think you better come home!”. That was all I needed to hear. I got all my things packed away, and made sure everything else was secure and jumped in to the car and headed for home.
Robyn was in the living room with her friend who thankfully convinced her to call me and the hospital. I asked what she needed to take and get it all packed, and ready. We slowly walked to the car and we headed for Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex. After a waddle to the Labour Ward Robyn was shown to a room where she was strapped up to a machine that monitors baby’s heart beat and contraction strength. Robyn was only 33 weeks and 6 days in to the pregnancy so we weren’t expecting anything quite so soon. After 30-45 minutes of chasing him round, as he was so active, trying to listen to his heart beat, a doctor came in to examine Robyn and double check everything was ok. She had noticed that the heart beat was up and down on the monitor, so she asked a midwife to get her an ultra sound. Once it was all plugged in and ready to go, baby’s face appeared on the screen, she moved the device around and found his heart. It amazes me that it’s possible to actually see a baby’s heart beating in front of you! The doctor watched and listened for a couple of minutes and she then said to Robyn “The baby’s heart rate is moving up and down so you will be taken in to theatre to have a caesarean section.” I then looked at Robyn, as she had been dead against have a caesarean, then I looked at the doctor and said “What, NOW?!” “Yes, now.” the doctor replied.
Robyn was wheeled out on the bed and taken to the operating theatre at the end of the corridor. I was grabbed by a midwife and shown where to get changed in to a set of scrubs. I got changed and, not before grabbing my camera, walked in to the operating theatre where they were preparing Robyn for surgery. As I was standing by her bed, feeling like I was getting in the way, another midwife called me and said “sorry dad, but you’re going to have to wait outside, we’ve got to put her to sleep” All I said was “Oh, ok”. I was ushered out of the operating theatre and the doors were closed.
My Wife Robyn is taken in to theatre and as I am ushered out I manage to get a frame of them preparing her for surgery to have our baby
While I’m pacing up and down the recovery suite, still wearing the scrubs (Which are possibly the most comfortable clothes I think I’ve ever worn!) I stop and for the first time, hear our baby cry! What a sound, knowing he’s at least got enough in him to let me know he’s ok. He was born at 14:55hrs and I will never forget that moment.
Shortly after that the theatre doors open and a midwife tells me “he’ll be out in a minute”, I smile and she walks back in to the operating theatre. Soon after that, the same midwife walks though the doors holding a bundle of blankets, and just at the top I notice a tiny hat with my little boy just underneath it all. I manage to touch his face just before he is placed in to an incubator and wheeled off to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
Baby William is put in to his incubator. In this photograph he is just over 10 minutes old!
I walked with him and the midwives to the NICU and they checked all of the thing they needed to check and then they weighed him. Even though he was nearly 7 weeks early he weighed in at 5lbs 4oz. Everyone was saying that was a good weight and that if he had gone full term he could have been a 10 pounder!
They placed him in to one of the all singing-all dancing incubators in the NICU and because he was premature his lungs hadn’t had time to mature so he was finding breathing a bit hard so they put him on oxygen to give him a hand. This is called CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure)
Baby William in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The tube on his nose is the CPAP. The nozzles sit just inside his nostrils giving him oxygen
Baby William in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
I was with him for a while, and then made my way down to Robyn to see how she was holding up. She was understandably still groggy from the anaesthetic, and was feeling a bit spaced out! I told her he was fine and they were going to be keeping an eye on him. She, along with everyone else, was shocked at his weight! After a time she started to feel a bit better and she was asking the same questions that she had asked previously, so I told her without letting her know she only asked that question 10-15 minutes ago!
Robyn got some well deserved sleep and I went back up to see baby…Baby William.
Baby William's little leg with his hospital tag
William's tiny hand and his hospital tag while he is monitored in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
They took Robyn from the Labour Ward and on to Samson Ward just down the corridor with all the other new mums. I made sure she was comfortable and got her anything she needed or wanted and then I said goodnight. Time flew by, before I knew it, it was 23:30. I was shattered. I went up to see William said goodnight and made my way home.
The next day, Robyn said they told her last night that he was struggling with his breathing so they put him on a ventilator. He could breath for himself but was finding it a bit hard. So to not make him work at it, they took over his breathing and he could rest. He was also put on morphine as a sedative, so he could be in a dreamy state, and he was fine. It was horrible seeing him on the ventilator, with the tube in his mouth, knowing it was going down in to his lungs, but it was helping him and that is what I had to keep telling myself.
My little soldier fighting his way to good health
He has a cannula (drip) in his hand and has little probes all over the place to monitor all sorts of things. Heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation…
Williams tiny hand is taped up to protect the cannula (drip) that goes in to the back of his hand
Williams incubator and all the gadgets and monitors helping him on his way
After 24 hours the doctors assessed William and they said that his blood gases (all the gases carried in the blood such as oxygen and carbon dioxide) were good and he could come off of the ventilator and back on the CPAP. That was great news for us because that meant he was progressing. I even got to hold his hand.
My little man holding my finger. This shows how tiny his hands are
The new Neonatal Itensive Care Unit where William is. The room where the little ones get better
So far I have changed his nappy (not for the last time!), he doesn’t like to be pulled about and he is strong for his size! I’ve got to learn a few things about what happens to babies that are premature and what some of the machines do, and William is still making steady progress. We continue to go to the hospital everyday to see him and check on how he is doing and we hope to have him home in the not too distant future.
Williams little foot glowing red from the blood o2 sensor. The blood o2 sensor monitors the saturation of oxygen in his blood
Little man not looking too happy. He's not keen on being pulled about and I don't think having little bits strapped to him helps either!
We can not thank the staff at Princess Alexandra Hospital enough. They are so kind, extremely professional and pull out all the stops to help you anyway they can. If every hospital had people like the midwives, nurses, doctors and everyone else that plays a part at PAH, they wouldn’t go far wrong!
He’s a little fighter and considering we were told 9 months ago Robyn could not have children, this will be something good to show him when he is older.
Obviously there will be more photographs!
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