My first preemie - Lillie

November is Prematurity Awareness Month so I have decided to join many bloggers and tell my story to promote awareness. It was in January 2004 that my hubby and I found out we were pregnant. We were both very excited and our families were too! It seemed like a normal pregnancy. Lots of morning sickness, peeing all the time, you know all the good stuff that comes along with having a baby inside you. We decided we didn't want to know the sex because we wanted to be surprised. I can remember people asking us so what are you having and my hubby would always reply " a baby". So we had our first ultrasound in May and after the tech had shown us the baby and started doing the measurements she got concerned. She told us that my cervix appeared to be shortened but not to worry she would send it to the doctor and have her take a look. Of course we didn't really know what that meant so we waited to hear from the doctor. When the doctor called she wanted me to go to a different doctor and have an intravaginal ultrasound done. So a few weeks later we did that and he said there was nothing to worry about. We took his word and were not concerned. My hubby's birthday is June 14th and so we took a trip to Six Flags with some friends to celebrate the weekend before. I was cautious and didn't do much of anything except walk around the park and people watch. Everything seemed normal and we returned home on Sunday the 13th. We had both taken the day off on Monday so we slept in and were just spending the day at home. I began to feel some cramping and didn't think much of it at first. After a few hours of it I called my sister for advice because she had children and had experience being pregnant. She told me to call my doctor so late that afternoon I called and they instructed me to go to the ER because it would be after hours when I arrived and I was probably just dehydrated and needed fluids. We arrived at the ER around 6:00 and they sent me to the L&D floor to get checked out. The nurse agreed that I was probably just dehydrated..that is until the exam when they realized I was dilated to a 4. I was informed that they didn't have the necessary equipment to care for my baby if I delivered there and I could not be transported after I dilated to 6 so they would be starting medications to help develop my baby's lungs and try to stop the contractions and were then sending me by ambulance to OU Medical Center. At this point I was terrified and had no idea what to expect. I was only 26 weeks along! I just kept thinking that they told me everything was fine and now it was not fine. The ambulance ride seemed to take forever. My hubby had to drive our car so he couldn't be with me. The paramedic that was with me kept telling me the medicine would work and they would be able to stop the labor but the contractions did not seem to let up. When I arrived at OU my hubby was waiting along with some of our family that he had called. They put me in a room and kept giving me more meds to stop the labor. It was not successful! When the doctor's realized the labor was not stopping they took me to a delivery room where there were doctors and nurses waiting. We had to sign forms giving them permission to treat our baby. At 11:00 I gave birth to our first miracle, Lillie. I didn't get to see her or hear her cry because they immediately went to work on her and took her away. I had to ask the doctor that delivered her if she was a boy or a girl. Lillie weighed 2 pounds and was 14 inches long. The next several hours seemed like years because all we could do was wait to see her. When you get pregnant you never dream you will give birth and not be able to see and hold your baby. But for those of us that have babies too soon that is all we know. It was after 2:00 am before we were able to set eyes on Lillie and even then we couldn't see her face because of all the machines. She was so tiny and fragile. You could see every bone in her body and her skin was so delicate. Just taking a breath was so much work for her. Even at this point we had no idea what we were in for over the next 59 days that Lillie would be in the NICU.