Tales from a NICU journal, week one.
5th July 2024
Our beautiful baby boy has finally arrived. He was born on the 3rd of July, weighing 5lb 5oz – a good weight, considering he came at 36 weeks. We haven’t settled on a name yet, but we’re so grateful he’s here.
Skin to skin with our boy. The red patch in my top is a ‘bonding square’. One is kept on me and one in his incubator (I swapped them over daily) so we can smell each other.
At 34 weeks, we learned he had a condition where his oesophagus wasn’t connected to his stomach. The weeks leading up to his birth were filled with anxiety as we waited to get through the delivery safely, knowing we’d only have a full diagnosis once he was born. My care was transferred to Manchester to be with a specialist team that handles this condition.
Thankfully, the birth went smoothly. My waters broke around 3am on Wednesday, and we rushed to Manchester hospital. He was born at 7:30pm. After he arrived, the diagnosis was confirmed, and he was admitted to the NICU in Manchester. Yesterday, he underwent surgery to repair his oesophagus. It went according to plan, and now he’s sedated and will be paralysed for five days to allow the repair to heal. There’s still a long road ahead, but we’re optimistic—everything seems to be going well so far.
One of the most precious moments was before his operation when we managed to have some skin-to-skin cuddles. I’m so grateful for that.
We were thankful that we could have some ‘normal’ time with him before he had his operation. The NICU team are great advocates of family integrated care (FI Care) so they had us changing nappies in no time!
Esme has been in Anglesey with Mum, Dad, Jack, and Martha all week. We were supposed to be on holiday with them, but after the diagnosis at 34 weeks, we decided to stay home. Knowing that Esme is being looked after and having fun on the beach has been a comfort, though we miss her and are trying to make plans for Ed to go see her. We’re just figuring out where I’ll stay tonight, whether on the postnatal ward or in one of the NICU bedrooms.
It’s been an incredibly emotional and challenging few days, but we’re supporting each other, and our hearts are so full of love for our little boy.
Our nurse made us a card when he went down for his surgery. These tiny details much such a huge difference and we will treasure it forever.
