NICU Newsletter "Our Story"

Hey Everyone! Hope you all are enjoying this Christmas season! I was asked last month to write my story in the NICU newsletter and thought you guys might like to read it!

On New Year’s Eve Day 2009, my husband and I were thrilled to find out we were expecting! Our excitement also came with a lot of nervousness and fear after experiencing multiple miscarriages.  We spent over a year dealing with fertility specialists and spent thousands of dollars for them to conclude that my husband and I would never be able to have a child together.  However, just a few short months later, we got a miracle, becoming pregnant with my son.  Right after I found out I was expecting, I began having complications and was told I was miscarrying.  We were devastated to think we might lose another child.  However, at an ultrasound a week later, we heard the best sound of our lives – a heartbeat!  With that great news also came great stress.  I found out I had a blood clot on the placenta and also cervix shortening at just 12 weeks.  I was put on bed rest and progesterone, which lasted on and off through the rest of the pregnancy.  Through my second trimester, I had many episodes of bleeding, contractions, and abnormal ultrasounds that made us fear for our son’s life.  At 18 weeks, I was admitted in the Labor & Delivery unit and told I would be delivering my son due to cervix shortening and pre-term labor.  After a few nights of medications to stop my contractions, along with steroid injections to help develop his lungs, I was stable enough to come home on strict bed rest orders.  Along with bed rest, I had to go into my doctor’s office as many as three times a week at times, and was sent to a specialist to be monitored twice a week.  Finally, the roller coaster of being in and out of doctor offices stopped when my OB admitted me to the Family Birthing Center on bed rest at 29 weeks for constant monitoring.  I had dangerously low amniotic fluid and sometimes went and days where I couldn’t feel my son move.  It was clear that the safest place for me to be was the hospital near the NICU.  I spent a few weeks in the hospital on bed rest.  Each day was a constant roller coaster of emotions and complications not knowing if I would have to deliver early.  During my time on bed rest, I had some wonderful nurses who would cheer me on for making it through each additional day.  One nurse specifically eased my stress while I was there.  I was having so many complications that my doctors daily tried to prepare me that my son would most likely be born prematurely and have to go to the NICU.  I really had no clue what to expect, as I had never set feet in the NICU.  One evening a nurse came in my hospital room and asked if taking my husband and me on a tour of the NICU would help ease our minds, giving us an idea of how the NICU operated.  It really gave us a peace of mind walking through and seeing such one-on-one care that the nurses gave each baby. 

Finally I had made it to 34 weeks and delivered my son via an emergency C-section due to high blood pressure and severe oligohydramnios (low amniotic fluid).  Minutes before my son was delivered, his heart rate dropped off the monitor and the nurse told me to prepare myself that my son may not come out alive.  Just a short while later my son was delivered screaming and kicking and didn’t even require oxygen!  He was sent to the NICU for observation and had to stay for a few weeks due to lethargic eating and severe jaundice.  We had wonderful care in the NICU.  It was a hard journey to go through, not being able to hold my son whenever I wanted to or being to take him home right away.  But, day by day, things seemed to get better.  Shepard was finally released from the NICU just to be readmitted to the PEDS two days later with seizures, kidney issues, and a severe heart murmur. 

We went through a lot through my son’s first four months of life, but we are happy to say he doesn’t have any complications that he had at birth.  Our doctors told us at the beginning that he may never walk or talk due to his early health problems, but I am proud to report he took his first steps at eight and a half months and there are not too many words he cannot say now at 15 months.  His is truly our miracle child!

-Amy Patan

New People, New Business, New Adventures

Hey Everyone! It has been a while since my last update! John and I have been very busy the last month. I've been very busy with my new business Precious Beginnings Photography. I started Precious Beginnings Photography as a way to give back to families who can't afford professional studio pictures. Also it is a non profit organization where I offer free photo session to families in the hospital with babies in the NICU. I will go in and take pictures of the babies and bring the parents back an album of their pictures and a CD of all their edited photos. You wouldn't believe how many families had a baby in the NICU who didn't even own a camera or even had family that owned a camera. Which to me is so sad! Pictures are the one things we can hopefully carry through our lifetime as a memory of our family, friends and SO much more. I cant imagine if John and I couldn't have had the ability to document Shepard's weeks in the NICU. Where he was SO tiny and so new! Those pictures to me are really special, they remind me of his miracle story and how far he has come!

We also started off the month with our first meeting with the NICU family advisory board which you may hear me refer to as "FAB". John and I went to the NICU and had a family meet and greet with some of the parents of babies in the NICU. It went great and we met some very nice people in the process. One common thread that we all have is we've all gone through a period of our lives with a baby in the NICU. Some for longer periods than others, but not having a baby going home with you from the hospital is hard whether its for two weeks or one month! A lot of the mothers had very close to the same stories of why they had their babies prematurely, actually each mother I met had their babies via emergency c-section due to preeclampsia. One lady gave birth two her baby at 23 weeks, one week past when most doctors determine them "viable".  He was born only weighing one pound four ounces! Now he has been in the NICU for over four months and is up to five pounds and in relatively good health. One thing that I heard so many times that evening is the word miracle! Each mother had their true story of their baby being an absolute miracle and even doctors recognizing that their stories are absolutely miraculous! It was encouraging to hear so many stories of God working in such tiny lives. It was really amazing! Not only just to me being a Christian but those miracle stories that so many non believers were hearing and saying that they didn't believe in God before but now see that God did work a miracle on their behalf.  Anyways it was nice to be able to share my story to a few mothers and give them a ray of hope that eventually their days in the NICU will become a memory and they wont be there forever- though it may seem that way for a time.

As I was leaving the meeting that night John and I talked with the "FAB" organizer about the picture services that I am offering to the NICU. He asked me if I would be interested in another aspect of photography in the NICU and maternity ward. For the past few weeks they have been without a photographer who takes bereavement photos of the babies who pass away or are "born sleeping". I told him I would definitely have to take time and think and pray about it. But after a few weeks I feel the same about it as when he asked me. I will try my hardest to do it. I was laying in bed that night and thinking how terrible it would be to in some cases go full term in a pregnancy and suddenly have to be rushed to the hospital give birth only to not have your baby live. It would be horrible- beyond words really. The gentlemen said that the hospital gives Polaroid pictures but that is it. Since the photographer doesn't come anymore most people leave the hospital with nothing but a blanket and that is it. Some families who are in this position don't even own cameras. I really cant imagine how awful that would be. So I feel like if I can be of help in the healing process of those families I would like to.

Anyways on a lighter note, this week I have three meetings at the hosptial. NICU training, family advisory board and on friday the family meet and greet in the NICU. Not to mention a few photo sessions in between! Also I have my photography website up! Check it out-   www.preciousbeginningsphotography.com  
Eventually I will get some NICU info up on my website for you all to check out my work there as it starts!

Have a greet week before Thanksgiving everyone! I hope we can all spend this week thinking about we are all most thankful for!

Got spare change? Fill a baby bottle to help support premature babies!

Do you, like most people, have some spare change laying around? In your car console or the bottom of your purse? If so, we're distributing baby bottles out to whomever is willing to fill up the bottles with change. Whenever it's full or you're finished collecting, we will collect them either by picking them up or sending them via UPS with a box and return label. Shipping will be paid for by us. Please email me or leave a comment and I will get you a baby bottle promptly. Thank you all!

March of Dimes " Fight for Preemies"

TIny Precious Feet

Precious tiny feet, how fast they will grow..

Shepards NICU corner

In the NICU Shepard was in Bunny 2. Each section had an animal and a number. Each area was enclosed by curtains, which are opened in this picture but for the majority of time were remained closed. Beyond the monitors and IVs we had one rocking chair and one folding chair we borrowed from the waiting room for john to sit on. Emanuel is in the process of adding on to the hospital and a nurse told be by I believe 2012 each baby admitted to the NICU will have their own room with a bed and bathroom for the parents. 

Our Story

Hello everyone! I wanted to give you all the "short story" on why I decided to start this blog. First of all, for those who know, you know I have a son named Shepard who was born almost six weeks premature. He stayed in the NICU at Legacy Emanuel for what seemed like a lifetime but really was only a few weeks. As soon as we brought him home he was doing great for just under a week until he took a turn and had to go back into the hospital for seizures and many other health issues. We spent months at Emanuel, I was put on bed rest in the maternity ward for the last month of my pregnancy. After months of bed rest due to low amniotic fluid Shepard decided it was time to come via an emergency C-Section on August 7th around 6:10 pm. As they were wheeling me into the operating room the nurse held my hand and said, "Honey now don't get too upset if he doesn't cry when he comes out. We lost his heart beat off the heart monitor and am not sure if he's still with us." After she told me that I closed my eyes and prayed out loud on that operating table. About five minutes later I heard the loudest healthiest cry I've ever heard! He was great! Little, but healthy! He didn't need any oxygen or anything! He was sent straight to the NICU for observation since he was born under 36 weeks. Once in the NICU he was kept for being a very lazy eater. Days later he needed IVs and feeding tubes. In our time in the NICU, my husband and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of really wonderful people. People with unbelievable stories of their little miracles! Some stories didn't end up so happy but once we left we had a major stamp left with us wanting to give back or in someway help out in the NICU. I recently signed up to volunteer in the NICU along with the Family Advisory Board (FAB). They go around visit with the parents, offer support, snacks, drinks, and organize NICU graduate gatherings and more. I remember them coming and talking with me when Shepard was in the NICU and I was having a really hard time emotionally. The gal came and just put her hand on my shoulder and just visited with me and got my mind off all my worries. I want to be able to do that for someone else in that situation.. Its such a hard time emotionally when you have just given birth to your baby and cannot hold them or have to hold them with a million wires attached to them. Beyond that not being able to take your baby home when your being discharged is heartbreaking. I remember my husband and I pulling away from the hospital holding his blanket crying our eyes out. It truly was the hardest thing we've about ever gone through. So this week we're heading to the volunteer center and getting geared up for the year ahead with plans of giving back, meeting new people and sharing Gods love along the way! Pray that we can do what is on our heart to do! Amy