Torrie's Story

 Two hours old-

Written March 2012

Torrie was born at 30 weeks plus 5 days gestation on June 7^th, 2011 due to me having pre-eclampsia, she weighed 3 lbs 8 oz and was 16.9 inches long. She was born breathing but upon arrival into the world she aspirated and was intubated and given a feeding tube. Her lungs almost collapsed 5 times, so she had to have surfactant x5 which is given to prevent the lungs from collapsing, She was also placed in an incubator to maintain her body temperature and protect her from the outside world.  She was intubated for 5 days and then moved to a cpap machine, which she was on for three days, then she was moved to a cannula and eventually to room air. She was mainly born with respiratory distress but needed to take 12 days of anti- biotics and had to have a spinal tap at 48 hours old to see if she had meningitis . the antibiotics were for the aspiration which gave her a lung infection. She did really good with stepping down to room air and never had to go back on assistance with that. Torrie had issues maintaining her temp, she was let out into a crib for 24 hours and then was moved back to her incubator because she couldn’t keep herself warm, she also wouldn’t bottle feed. A week after the first attempt to get her into the crib they tried again successfully to have her maintain temp. she still would not feed, she was taking her feeding tube and was really lazy with the bottle. The night before she was to be released they told me she would probably stay a couple more days because she wouldn’t take the bottle, after the nurse said that she fed like a champ from the bottle and was able to come home on July 8^th 2011. She has been doing well ever since. Because she is a preemie, torrie gets a special shot in the winter to protect her from getting the RSV virus, unfortunately torrie did get the RSV virus this winter and has been intermittently on a nebulizer to keep her lungs open and easy to breath. She also has physical therapy several times a month. She is behind with her motor skills which is to be expected, but she is coming along very nicely.  While she was in the nicu I met march of dimes reps and people who told me about all the things they do to help, not only do they help the babies live, by the machines and equipment but they helped me live thru the nightmare of having my baby be hooked up to tubes and machines out of every part of her body- they made her father a father’s day present , they made us fourth of July cards, they gave her stuffed animals, etc it was just a good feeling knowing that they were encouraging life and not just “hoping for the best”

They say that preemies have great personalities, and I couldn’t agree more, every time I visited torrie they would tell me how feisty she was, and now at 9 months she still has a wild personality, even though she can’t communicate like other 9 month olds she still makes sure you know what she wants, she smiles and says “hi” to everyone who passes by.

There certainatly are other babies in the NICU that are less fortunate then torrie,but every baby is a miracle preemie or not so please help the cause to give all babies a chance at a long healthy life.

 now