Preterm Baby: Mimi's Story

Today I'm posting because of the "Preemie Awareness Day" with Mimi's Story.

This pregnancy was emotionally consuming since I found out about it. I was told to terminate the pregnancy THREE times because according to the doctors I was going to die because I had a pre-eclampsia with Mia 5 months before getting pregnant with her. Funny thing is that my blood pressure was never an issue during this pregnancy. Pregnancy was still labeled as high risk and I saw the doctor every 2 weeks since my prenatal care started. Also my doctor asked me to limit my activity level to the very minimum.

At some point during the second trimester, contractions started and they intensified in the third trimester. I also started taking L-Carnitine as according to my doctor, that was going to give the baby some extra fat. Because of the contractions I had several hospital stays, complete bedrest and was able to get two steroids shots

At 34 weeks, I was admitted again because I was getting 4 contractions in 10 minutes. The IV meds they gave me were able to keep them under control. However, I noticed Mimi wasn't moving. She would only move during a contraction. My doctor ordered a Biophysical Profile Ultrasound which measures 5 categories: Fetal movement, Fetal tone, Fetal breathing, Amniotic fluid volume and Fetal Heart Rate. Each category aims to get a score of 2 points. The result was: Very low level of amniotic fluid (oligohydramnios), no fetal movement after 30 minutes, placental calcification (looked like a placenta with 40 weeks of pregnancy), and the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around her neck.

For this reason, my doctor decided to performed a c-section,  He told me we were going to wait 4 hours because I had a full stomach. Then, a couple of hours later, Mimi's heartbeat started to drop and I was rushed to the operating room.

Mimi was born at 34,2 weeks weighting 4 pounds and 6 ounces. She got pneumonia and anemia, and needed blood transfusions. As I have an unusual blood, I had already researched for a donor and he rushed to help us. She was also born with respiratory distress, jaundice and was tube fed for 3 days. On day 3 she was transferred to an isolate with free oxygen. She ate for the first time on day 4, and that's when I held her for the first time. Just as Mia, she was discharged after 6 days in the NICU and needed 3 daily trips back to the hospital for IV meds. She was still with a little bit of low temperature when she was discharged, but she was fine.

She was discharged with almost 4 pounds (in the picture you can see how her head is the size of my fingers) and I needed to combine breastmilk with a high calorie formula for the first month (just like I did with Mia). After month 5 she refused to be breastfeed anymore.

As far as long term consequences, she has vision problems since age 5. She is also very petite and skinny for her age, even though she eats extremelly good. She is growing just at a very slower pace.

Preterm Baby: Mia's Story

To continue with the idea of the "Preemie Awareness Day" posts, here is the post about Mia's story.

Mia's pregnancy started as a normal one until week 22 when the contractions started. This time I was able to catch them on time, and we were able to keep them monitored. By the third trimester the contractions were still present and an ultrasound at 32,6 weeks showed that everything was fine and that she was already 4 pounds.

At week 33,2 weeks, when the doctor checked my blood pressure, it was high. Urine test for protein came back negative, but the doctor still wanted to keep a close eye on me. At the following week at 34,3 weeks, my blood pressure was a bit high again, protein was negative, and I was sent for another ultrasound. At this moment I knew for sure that something was not right. The baby was 4 pounds which was the exact weight she was 11 days ago. I know ultrasounds are not exact, but I knew there was something more in this case. As the contractions intensified, I was prescribed with meds to stop contractions.

At 35,6 I had another doctor's appointment and another ultrasound. The ultrasound kept pushing for less weeks of pregnancy, but my doctor and I agreed on using the original due date. We knew the baby was not growing properly. My blood pressure was still high and my contractions were still present.

Three days later, I went to Labor and Delivery because even though I was on meds to stop contractions, I was feeling a lot of contractions that morning. When I got there, I was contracting, but I also had high blood pressure. They kept me in the Hospital from Thursday until Saturday. That day I was supposed to be 36 weeks pg (according to LMP), and that it when pregnant woman are suppose to stop taking the meds to stop contractions. But the doctor told me not to stop taking them until Wednesday that she wanted it to see me again.

On my next appointment I was already 36,4 (according to LMP).  My blood pressure was higher and my contractions were non stop. They sent me for EKG, echocardiogram and urine test, and everything came back normal. However, at this point, she was still as big as a 33 weeker and the doctor determined she had fetal growth restriction.  They prescribed me meds for the high blood pressure and I was sent home.

That night I started to feel some cramps all over my body (specially in the neck) and a tingling sensation. At the ER, my blood pressure was 150/120 and it took the emergency staff almost 3 hours to have it under control. I was admitted and they were giving me Magnesium sulfate for a few more hours when I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. A few minutes later, I was rushed to an emergency c-section as Mia was showing signs of distress.

She was born weighting 4 pounds and 2 ounces.  She had respiratory distress, jaundice, umbilical hernia and was tube fed for 2 days. She was discharged after 6 days in the NICU and needed 3 daily trips back to the hospital for IV meds. She was 3 pounds and 14 ounces when discharged (notice her head is the size of the palm of my hand on the 2 weeks old picture above).

The ped asked me to breastfeed on demand, and also a special formula with extra calories three times per day.  By the time she was a month old, she had already doubled her birth weight. The only long term consequences so far are some gastrointestinal issues and red dye allergies. She also needs a yearly special imaging on her eyes but still has not been diagnosed with any vision problems.

Preterm Baby: Gaby's Story

In honor to the "Preemie Awareness Day", here is the first post I promised yesterday about the girls: Gaby's story.

I got pregnant with Gaby around my 22nd birthday.  I was a normal young woman with good eating habits and without any addictions (like drugs, alcohol and such). All my blood work were close to perfect and my overall health was peachy. The only "issue" with my health that I can think of was irregular periods and recurring cysts on my ovaries. For that reason, I found out about Gaby at around 9 to 10 weeks of pregnancy.

As soon as I found about it, I started my prenatal care and I did everything as I was supposed to. No real complications, just the regular discomforts of any pregnancy. By the middle of the second trimester, I started feeling discomfort and low back pain.  I mentioned it to my doctor, and she said it was normal.

As I first time mom, I didn't know what contractions felt like. They were asking me if the pain I was feeling was similar to menstrual cramps, but as I never had them, I simply didn't know. I kept reading about it and I found conflicting information. I insisted with my doctor, and she kept saying it was normal and sending me home. At this point, I was never hooked to the monitor to check for contractions.

One day at 36,4 weeks, I simply couldn't take it anymore and when they finally hooked me up to the monitors they noticed that I was actually having contractions. They were strong and every 10 minutes, even though I was not able to feel anything worse than a discomfort. Once they checked me, I was already 2 centimeters dilated.

Labor started at the next day and they were not able to stop it because I was already dilating. After almost 48 hours of bedrest, lots of contractions and starvation at the hospital, my water broke and Gaby was born vaginally a few hours later. She was considered “preterm” because she had an almost normal weight, however she didn’t cry right away and needed help to breath for a couple of days. She was diagnosed with Respiratory distress. The biggest emotional challenge faced with her birth is that there was no space in the NICU and she had to be transported to another hospital two hours away. I didn’t see her for 2 days until I was discharged myself. Also, she was tube fed for one day and also needed bili lights for jaundice. She was discharged on day 5 with minor jaundice left.

It makes me sad that this could have been avoided. If the doctors would have listened to me, the contractions wouldn't have been unnoticed until it was too late.

The only long term consequences so far are frequent otitis, sinus infections and also vision problems since age 5, including strabismus.

Things I missed out as a preemie mom

Today is the "Preemie Awareness Day" and even though it brings back sour memories, it makes me smile the fact that my girls are mostly healthy and growing into beautiful ladies.

There are three types of premature babies: 'micro preemies', 'preemies' and 'preterm babies'. My girls are considered preterm babies because they were born between 34-37 weeks of gestation. Mia developed Fetal growth restriction at 33 weeks, so she was the only one considered 'preemie' even though she was born after 34 weeks.

I can only imagine how horrible it is to have a baby born earlier than 33 weeks, and my experience is nothing compared to what those moms and babies went through. Still I'm only human, and I had dreams of holding my babies on my chest as soon as they were born, and I couldn't. All my babies were taken away from me as soon as they were born, and it was heartbreaking how I was not able to be in control over them, and to give them the love they needed... They received the medical care... that part is true... but not the emotional comfort they were used to while being on my belly.

Only a person that have been in this situation can understand what it is to see your baby crying and crying, and not being able to hold her because she needed to be inside of a plastic box! My head knew they needed to be there, but my heart only wanted to hold them close and sing in their ears and make them feel comforted and loved. They were sooo loved and I wasn't able to show them that.

I will be posting individually about the experience of each girl, but this first post will be about me. Why? Because it's easy to find information online about health related issues for the child, however, there is ONE thing that you hardly ever read about... The emotional scar that every mom of a baby born early can't run away from.

That doesn't seem important, and at the end of the day, it is not.  Still, I want to post about those little things I missed out... those little things that made me feel like a bad mom... those little things that made me think it was my fault... those little things that makes me want to hug hard every preemie mom I meet...

This may not be the situation for every preemie mom, but here are some of my own facts... Things I missed out and things I felt... and some other things that I would never know how they feel like...
1- I would never know how it feels to have a normal pregnancy without complications, or to be pregnant full term, or have a birth plan...
2- I would never go through the nesting stage during a pregnancy
3- I would never know what it feels to have everything ready waiting for the baby to be born.  In all three pregnancies they were born before I was even close to be ready.
4- I wasn't able to do skin-to-skin when my girls were born because they needed medical attention right away.
5- I wasn't able to hold my babies during their first day of life, because they were not allowed to be with room temperature.
6- They were not able to room in with me in the hospital, because they were in the NICU.
7- I had to ask permission to strangers to see and even touch MY babies, because the nurses and doctors were the ones in control.
8- I was not allowed to breastfeed them for the first few days, because they needed controlled IV feedings only.
9- After months of having my babies in my belly, after they discharged me, I had to go home baby-less.... No baby in my belly and no baby in my arms...
10- In Gaby's case, I couldn't even see her for 2 entire days, because she was transferred to a different hospital. This happens when there is not enough space in the NICU. Then, I needed to wait to be discharged myself to be able to see her.
11- I had to see them crying without being able to do ANYTHING about it. Then, after they were discharged, and I only wanted to hold my babies 24/7, I had to hear people telling me how it was not good for the babies to be held that much. I seriously wanted to punch every person that said that to me.
12- I wasn't able to have a good night sleep in forever... Not because my babies were crying, but because even though they were asleep, I was afraid something was going to happen in their sleep. I took me years to be able to sleep in peace, because by the time I was starting to feel comfortable that nothing was going to happen in their sleep, I already had a new preemie to worry about the same thing.

I'm sure there are more things but those were all that came to my mind. Now I will post about the experience with each one of the girls.... (post updated to add the links)

My 100 Happy Days: Day #66

When I was as young as Mia (8), I used to love to read so much that I used to read all night long with a flashlight under the covers (thing that later in life I learned my mom knew about it). By the time I was 9, my eyes started paying the toll and eyeglasses were prescribed. Whoever knows me, knows how much I have always avoided using eyeglasses, but oh God, I really need them. In the past couple of days, I have been wearing them all day long and I LOVE how good I can SEE! Embracing my eyeglasses made me smile!

Mimi's first window

Mimi's baby teeth are not even close to be loose, and yesterday we noticed that a permanent lower middle teeth was coming in behind the baby teeth. As this is a new situation for me, I took her to the dentist for x-rays.

The x-ray showed that she doesn't have enough room for the permanent teeth to come out, and most likely all her teeth would need to be extracted. The doctor said the two bottom needed to be extracted today and that the others would be to be extracted with time.

For any normal child, this would be a reason to be alarmed, but Mimi is not a normal child.  She handled the situation as an adult, as usual. She kept her cool at all times and not one tear came out of her eyes. Her face was the face of somebody that was alert, not the face of somebody that was in pain.

Both teeth were extracted and she felt really proud. We ended up getting ice cream afterwards. Here she is with her double window and also wearing one of the eyeglasses for my party to come.

There is always love

So, yes, mama bud was sick.  Blood pressure was playing tricks again and I got a very lovely (NOT) nurse that was extremely mean and was very rude when drawing blood from my arm.  A few weeks later, I still have the bruise, but this is how it looks this morning.  It actually have the shape of a heart. Makes me want to go back to the hospital and show it to her.  It means that there is always love always, even when people try to harm you (and please, ignore my hairy arms).

How Gaby got fit

Since Gaby lost her baby fat, she has always been very slim. Her weight has always been in correct proportion with her height.

She has always been a picky eater and food never was a priority for her. She would still eat which is why her weight was always average... not thin, not fat. On the picture from the right, you can see how you looked up to 7 years old.

But then, something changed. Suddenly, she started having an extreme interest in food and she would eat and eat and eat some more. It was refreshing for me to see, and I was very pleased that my very picky eater, it's now eating like there is no tomorrow. Also, as her father and I separated, I though it was normal for her to have some kind of anxiety because of that.

Months went by and I started noticing that she was looking a little chubby. At this moment, I tried to decrease the amount of carbs a little bit, and increase the amount of proteins. Still within a healthy range for her age, but just a bit less. I also cut down the starches and sugars.

My girls have never been sugar crazy and for that reason, I have never been worried about it. For example, they don't eat much ice cream, but if one day I treat them with ice cream, I would let them eat as much as they want. With this being said, if we go out to eat ice cream, Gaby would be allowed to eat, but just a moderate amount.

At this moment, I didn't anticipate what was about to happen. One hour after having a very good lunch, she would ask the maid for more rice. Then, before AND after the mid afternoon snack, she would ask her for one or two sandwiches.  This means that she was having breakfast, snack, lunch, extra lunch (more rice), extra meal (1 or 2 sandwiches), snack, extra meal (1 or 2 sandwiches), dinner, and then milk. I have NO IDEA how she was able to fit all this on her stomach, but she WAS doing that from Monday through Friday (when the maid was home).

For this reason, she gained A LOT but A LOT of weight. Her weight was not in proportion with her height anymore. Trying to understand the reason for that, I asked the maid if she was giving her candies or something like that, and she told me everything. It never occurred to her to mention it before, because for her there was nothing bad with giving food to a "hungry" child.

I was extremely concerned and I sat down with her pediatrician to design a plan of action. We both agree that she was not going to have a "diet to lose weight", but she needed a very healthy menu to get rid of the extra fat while she kept getting taller. The goal was to bring her back to proportion between her weight and her height.

I sat down with Gaby and talked to her like if I was talking to an adult. She is very smart and I knew she was going to understand better this way. I talked to her about diabetes and all the possible diseases. I talked to her how I was also going to work myself on getting fit and that it will be a goal for both of us.

As she still needed many carbs on her diet, I knew it was going to be a long road but SHE DID IT. Here are the changes she made:
- She started eating 3 meals and two snacks only
- She stopped eating "kids cereals", and started eating Honey Bunches of oats instead
- She started using skim milk and whole wheat bread
- She started eating more veggies than carbs.  She was still eating her carbs, but just the right amount. This was not a hard task because she have always eat her veggies. She simply started getting full on them instead of a bunch of rice.
- She would only drink juice with her school snack at mid morning (4 ounces)... then she would drink water at every other moment on a normal day (and lots of it)
- Sweets and sodas were down to almost nothing. She would only eat sweets and drink soda at a party or a special day
- She would play outside for at least 1 hour every day and putting extra effort on her gym class at school

After a year and a half, Gaby is back to complete proportion between her height and weight... not thin, not fat.... and I'm just really proud of her.

The buds with double eyes

All three girls have been complaining non stop for headaches and I knew checking the vision was in order. Gaby is the only one that has been prescribed with eyeglasses for reading, but Mia and Mimi were supposedly fine.

After lots of testing done, Gaby got new eyeglasses (only for reading again) and Mimi got prescription for eyeglasses full time. This doesn’t surprise me because they were born early and I knew this was something that could happen. Mia was sent for a more specialized test, but so far, it looks like she won’t need them.


And here is a close up of each one of my girls with eyeglasses...

Weight in for the girls

I weighted the girls today and here is the verdict.....

- Mimi is 41 pounds and in 22nd percentile for her age (my peanut)
- Mia is 63 pounds and in 85th percentile for her age
- Gaby is 103 pounds and in 95th percentile for her age

If you look at the picture, even when Mia is not completely straight, she is still way taller than Mimi and she is only 13 months older.  Mimi is really petite but I'm not so worried anymore... She really eats very well, and she IS growing... just in a lower pace than usual. Maybe her metabolism is just too fast and she will be one of those ladies than eat and eat and never gets fat.

The tooth fairy was in town...

... visiting Mia this time.

The first visit to Mia was back in February.  I'm proud to say that this is not an stressful situation at my house.  Gaby has been taken off all her teeth by herself.  She did an awesome job teaching Mia how to do it, and she has been following her older sister's instructions to the T.

She really looks adorable with her window!

Task #14: Checked! - Eyeglasses for me!

FINALLY!!! This was loooong overdue!! I got my butt to the doctor, purchased a cute frame and got my eyeglasses!!!

In case you didnt know, the latina singer and actress Thalia actually has an eyewear collection and it is very cute... I got the "Curiosa" model in Aqua Tortoise and Im IN LOVE with them!!

I have to confess that I should be wearing them more, but it is just difficult to get used to be using eyeglasses.. I feel that I can see better without them, even though I dont... This is not the best picture, but here I am:

Starting the year: ER trip!

What a day to be at the ER!! Gaby was at my mom's mahogany rocking chair drinking a glass of milk. Here is the rocking chair she was sitting down that day:

Camila thought it was fun to rock her and she did it sooo hard that the rocking chair felt backwards, and the back of it broke causing Gaby to cut around her elbows in two different places. She got two stitches in one side of the elbow and one in the other side! It was really painful, but she amazed me with how brave she handled it. She cried, but she let the doctors sew her with the minimum of issues.

Funny thing is that it is a VERY strong rocking chair and very well made. Not really sure where did Camila found the strength to rock it so hard, but she did.

The Purple Lunchbox # 11

I got to make lunches the whole week this week!! How fun!! The girls continue to eat most of their lunch, especially Mia and Mimi. Gaby sometimes doesnt eat everything but she normally does it after school.

Mia does very good with fruits, while Mimi does better with carbs, and Gaby does better with proteins... It is funny how they can be sisters and be so much alike, and at the same time be so different with the things they like.

I really want more ideas to change things a bit... I feel like they are eating the same ALL THE TIME... It would be just easier if I could just design the lunch in Photoshop, right?

Here is what they got this week:

- Chicken sausages
- Banana Yogurt
- Apple slices
- A cupcake

- A cheese sandwich
- Ham rolls
- Peas and carrots with blue sprinkles

- A ham and cheese wrap
- Baby corn
- Mandarines
- A cupcake

- Chicken sausages
- Cheese sandwich
- Apple slices

If played along this week, share your link here:

Dont forget to leave your comment, even if you didnt participate!! You guys know how much I love comments!!!!

Sick buds... (Updated)

I havent post much this week mostly because the girls have been sooo SICK that they have been home mostly all week... Mimi and Mia didnt go to school except for yesterday when I thought they were way better... However, I got a call at 10am that Mia had fever... After 6 days on antibiotics and 2 days without fever, she got fever again, so I went to pick her up... As of last night, Mimi was the one worst, and we had to run with her to the ER... She has a lung infiltration, which could mean she is on the verge of getting pneumonia... She got out of the ER after 3 shots (OUCH) : one for the blood work, one to lower the fever (it was 102.2 already), and the other one for antibiotics.. She also had X-Rays (hence how they know about the infiltrate), and they prescribed her 3 days of intramuscular antibiotics plus other meds... Not fun!

Gaby went to school everyday except for Monday, but I can tell how she is on her way to get really sick...

I just want them to get better ASAP... I knew they were going to get sick when they started preschool again, but I kinda forgot how bad it gets, especially at the beginning!! Mia and Mimi have cried today ALL DAY to go to school, but I wont take them until Monday (hopefully)...

UPDATED: Gaby stayed home from school today... She was really not feeling well since last night, and I didnt want to risk her more taking her out of the house. Anyway, she was playing with her sisters and she got a HUGE goose egg right next to her left eye! Poor thing!!!

Another party for Gaby!

We didnt plan another party, however my mom wanted to invite for a pizza to the daughters of two of her employees who recently had their birthdays. One of them turned 11 the same day of Gaby's birthday (the 5th), and the other one turned 9 on Thursday. So, her idea was to sing Happy Birthday to Gaby and those two other girls over a pizza.

As soon as I mentioned Gaby another birthday party she asked for her BIRTHDAY OUTFIT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! Luckily, it was washed already and I only had to iron it.

When we were coordinating the time and such, I asked her if I should get cupcakes, and she told me to do whatever I think it was cute, so with less than three hours of preparation, I came up with this:

I took a few of leftovers things from Gaby's school party and then ran to the supermarket and this is what I got:
- 12 cupcakes (6 vanilla and 6 chocolate)
- 2 large boxes of Jello (one Grape, and the other strawberry)
- A can of whipped cream
- A large package of Oreo cookies
- 2 M&M's

Then, I ran to my mom's house to put everything together... I first made the jellos and put them in the fridge so they could be ready right away. This is how they looked after they were ready:

I used again my homemade cupcake tower, and this is how each floor looked... As it was so little cupcake, I put a little crystal bowl with M&M's for the balance:

Here are the three cupcakes for the birthday girls:

Here are the birthday girls:

Gaby blew her candle before we finish singing Happy Birthday and this is her mischievous face:

The one that was turning 9 had a baby brother (11 months old) and he had a lot of fun with some of the toys we have at my mom's house:

Here is the whole group of kids (ages 11 months old to 11 years old):

The Flowers:

Even though they just met they were having so much fun that it looked they have known each other since forever... The other two girls, even though they are older, were playing with them and having so much fun, that they didnt want to leave.

We promised to do something together again very soon!

The Purple Lunchbox # 9

I didnt got to make 3 lunches the whole week, because Gaby didnt had school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday due to the teachers taking some workshops. However, she got the same thing her sisters got, but in a plate at home.

This week the one that ate the most was Mia... Everyday she was excited to tell me that she ate EVERYTHING... She would open her lunchbox and show me the empty container so I can congratulate her.. Sooo cute.. Mimi got the hint, and by the third day started doing the same thing!!!

Here is their week....

- Handfull of olives
- Ham and cheese sandwich in a flower shape
- One laughing cow cream cheese
- Grissini


- Ham and cheese rolls
- Strawberry yogurt
- Crackers with mayo dressing
- A full banana for Gaby, and half banana for Mia and Mimi


- Cheese sandwich with mayo
- Chicken sausages
- Grissini

THURSDAY:
I didnt got a photo from this day, and I cant remember for the life of me what I sent... I know I sent a biscuit, but cant remember what else...


- Strawberry yougurt (they begged for it)
- Cheese sandwich with mayo
- Ham in rolls
- Half apple for each one in slices

If played along this week, share your link here:

Dont forget to leave your comment, even if you didnt participate!! You guys know how much I love comments!!!!

Gaby's birthday's mini party - Part II *** UPDATED ***

Here are the photos that I promised from Gaby's school party...Here is how everything looked:

Flower shape sandwiches with carrot dressing:

Grape and strawberry jello with whipped cream... On the left, you can see the tray with cheese (mozarella and gooda), ham and salty crackers.

The cupcakes...


The pop cakes... I wish I had a better photo of them, but I dont... I still have two pop cakes decorated at my mom's house, and I plan to take a cute photo of those for my website (to promote the tags):

Blowing her candles:

All the kids upstairs in front of their classroom.. Even I got to be in this photo..

Gaby with her homeroom teacher and two aides:

Updating the post with a closeup of the cake pops as I know the top photo is kinda messy... It is not a good photo, and they werent even that cute because I really had a hard time melting the candy melt, but here they are: