Our journey started on the day of my 20 week ultrasound. Everything with our baby boy looked great during the long anatomy scan, but before we were finished, the technician did one last check of my cervix, and everything changed. She immediately left the room and I knew in my gut something was wrong.
The radiologist came back in to speak with us, she had already called the hospital and they were waiting for us. My cervix was only measuring 4mm and I was 2cm dilated – I was in labour due to an incompetent cervix.
The next 72 hours were a complete whirlwind, I was given an emergency cerclage and then eventually sent home on strict bed rest. Monitored closely by home nurses and weekly ultrasounds I was stable until 25 weeks. I then began having regular contractions and my cervix was starting to shorten, so I was admitted into ante-partum where I knew I would not be getting discharged until after our son was born.
At 26 weeks and 1 day we welcomed our first baby, Harrison into the world. He came out kicking and screaming (although his little screams were faint and sounded more like a little kitten). He was quickly whisked off with the resuscitation team, put in a plastic bag and put on respiratory support. Nothing can prepare you to see your 2 pound 1 ounce baby in a plastic bag with tubes and wires all over them. But he was here and he was 'ok', we were all 'ok'. My husband and I had an unspoken declaration that we were determined to have a positive outlook, roll with the punches and be there for our little boy, who was going to be OK. We celebrated his arrival with announcements to our family and friends and welcomed visitors and congratulations.
In total we had a 126 day stay in the NICU with Harrison, which is pretty lengthy even for a 26 weeker. He had his share of ups and downs, between a hospital bacterial infection that required him to be intubated, a blood transfusion, countless pokes, IVs, scans and tests, a pesky PDA that decided to finally close after multiple rounds of treatment and an inguinal hernia surgery right before discharge, we consider ourselves very lucky that our little, yet mighty boy had a relatively smooth course for his gestation. He became a great feeder and before our eyes was the big blonde beefcake in the NICU, he was 9 pounds 8 ounces when we got discharged! Our stay was so long because he held on to a small amount of oxygen for a very long time, we later discovered (post discharge) that he had cysts that were blocking about 85% of his airways. Since the surgery to remove the cysts we have had a healthy, happy, strong breathing boy.
Harrison is almost 3 years old and thriving. We are so fortunate and happy to be a success story. He has been hitting almost all of his developmental milestones, the area in which he is experiencing some delays is speech and communication; however, with some help of speech therapy we are seeing him gaining strides every week and hopefully will catch up soon!
During our stay in the NICU, we learned how to find joy in the little things, have perspective and celebrate all the moments we could. The staff showed us that every gram gained, every drop of breastmilk produced and every bit of progress was something to celebrate. In a world that is so scary with so many unknowns and too many things out of your control, our motto became 'Don’t worry about it until you are told it is something to worry about. To this day, this is something that rings true for us. Having a micro preemie, you will always worry about them in a different way that only a preemie parent can understand. However, our son has taught us to live in the moment, always laugh and smile, and trust that is it all going to be ok!
Shannon MacLaren – Harrison's mom
