Member Story Beth

Everyone has a story to tell. Whether they are good or bad ones, they define who we are. The people that we tell these stories to can; learn from them, be inspired, motivated, and use them in their own journey through life. Keeping this in mind, we want you to share your stories with us in the hope that our members who read them take something, however small away with them. Each month we will be bringing you a member story. These stories are about important events or journeys that have taken place in their lives. To start things off, bubs about town members, Beth and Paul, tell us their story about the birth of their son Alfie.

 

Paul and I married in January 2006 and when I found out I was pregnant the following September I was over the moon but also apprehensive and scared. Something inside me knew it wouldn’t all be plain sailing.

A week after we found out about the pregnancy we received our visas to emigrate from the UK to Australia

Two weeks before leaving my blood tests showed that the baby had a high risk of Downs Syndrome and after much deliberating we decided we had to know one way or the other. Though to this day I’m still not sure how a positive result would have changed things. After an Amniocentesis was done we were told we had to wait 3-4 weeks for the results. We couldn’t bear the waiting so we paid extra to have the results done privately then we could get the results before we left the UK. We couldn’t bear the thought of being away from our friends and family at this crucial time. It was amazing news when the results were negative for chromosome abnormalities. So we packed up and headed Down Under as planned.

As we went about settling in to our new life I couldn’t get over how much I loved being pregnant. Every movement was amazing, everything was going so well.

On the 2nd Mary 2007 I was ten days overdue when it all began. A few trickles lead to a check up at the John Hunter Hospital. Little did I know – this was it and that I wouldn’t be coming home alone!

After twenty four hours of labour and two hours of pushing there was no way the baby was coming out on its own. The baby was a little twisted and not yet engaged..

On the 3rd May 2007, the obstetrician kept encouraging me towards a natural labour if it was possible but prepared me for a caesarean if things didn’t go to plan.

Throughout all this the baby’s heart rate was being monitored and all seemed good and eventually with the aid of forceps our baby was born. A beautiful baby boy!

But just as the nurse was about to hand him to me he was taken. Something wasn’t right. He wasn’t breathing. People were rushing in from every door all with their special jobs to do. The next thing we knew a mask went over his face and his heart was being massaged. It was the longest eight minutes of our lives. I just kept thinking this couldn’t be happening. He had to pull through but time was ticking and all we could do was pray. I also had to try and stay strong for my husband Paul who had lost a baby girl in a previous relationship – surely it couldn’t happen to him twice. Just as they were taking our boy out of the room he took a big breath. A big gasping breath for life. He was breathing but it had been eight minutes. There would be complications we knew, but at least he was breathing. From here on we had to take it one step at a time.

The staff took us from the theatre and into a cubical. No one could tell us much for a while and the wait was painful. We tried to stay positive but it was only natural to think about our future. Already in my mindI was returning to the UK. This would be too much to bear on our own.

As the evening progressed we started to learn of our little boy’s recovery and we were soon taken to the SCBU unit to see him. He had recovered nicely and was breathing well for himself.

It was early days but the signs were very promising. What a fighter and at 9lb 10oz he was certainly in the heavy weight division!

We named him Alfie Jack Ivey.

The next part of my story is taken from our blog used to communicate with our friends and family in the UK.

Alfie’s first week…………..

Friday 4th May 2007

We woke on Friday morning on the first floor with our baby on the 3rd, it just wasn’t meant to be like this, all the while we were surrounded by the sights and sounds of how things were meant to be. But at least we were able to see Alfie 24 hours a day.

He wasn’t easy to look at, there were wires coming out everywhere and he was ‘on ice’. He was fed via a drip through his belly button; a second tube in the same place was used to take regular blood samples. We were given the good news that the brain scan hadn’t shown anything of concern and his observer (he would be watched 24-7) hadn’t seen him have any fits or seizures, key factors in determining the effects of oxygen starvation.

Saturday 5th May 2007

After a long night expressing milk and visiting Alfie we eventually got up at 10.30am. At least something in our lives had stayed the same! Alfie was cold and hungry, it was great to see him wanting some warm milk so badly but he would have to stay on the drip until Sunday night. The cooling procedure was going well and would eventually prove to be beneficial. Cooling is used on adults undergoing brain operations as the coolness lowers the potential for damage, it’s a little like someone drowning in very cold water and being resuscitated without damage….the cold causes the body to hibernate switching off the bodies ability to shut down its natural instinct to attack damaged tissues. His condition had remained stable but then it was already as good as it could be. We were delighted when we were asked if the staff could give him a dummy to keep him quiet! We also took strength from the fact that he removed his own airway tube after being resuscitated.

We went up to see Alfie on his last evening on ice. He seemed very settled and his condition was stable. The condition stable thing became a worry over time, because he had progressed so quickly he was already as good as he was going to be. As concerned parents there was always the feeling and concern that he couldn’t get any better…only worse.

This started to play on our minds. Initially I was very much the positive strong one of us, and my husband found it hard to stay hopeful but we soon went through a role reversal over the coming days….when I started to feel that he might not pull through.

Sunday 6th May 2007

Saturday became Sunday after another sleepless night. It amazed us the dedication of the staff in the intensive care unit, we were always welcomed with a smile and a “hi, I’m looking after Alfie today”. There are over 140 amazing people working in there. They had already saved his life by getting to the operating theatre within seconds to resuscitate him; they were now there day and night helping him to recover.

Back up on the third floor Alfie was now pinking up nicely. With the ice now removed he was slowly warming up, just 3 degrees over eleven hours. He seemed so calm and wide awake with his eyes open. He looked deep into our eyes……what a magical moment!

Monday 7th May 1007

We dashed back up to see Alfie early. The lid of his incubator was down and he was pinker than ever, he seemed very calm and now free from the constant shivers of the previous three days.

We spent the rest of the day deciding what to dress him in as today was the first day we could dress and cuddle Alfie. It was hard choosing his first outfit, mainly due to the fact that most of what we had just wouldn’t fit him!

During the afternoon we were both able to cuddle Alfie taking care not to disturb any of his leads he was still wearing, they were to be removed later. I was able to feed him for the first time. He took his first few gulps of milk but still feeling quite full from all the fluids he was given he didn’t take much and so a tube was inserted up his nose to his stomach. It was hard to watch this as a syringe was filled and emptied into him.

Later that evening we returned to feed Alfie again (we were now doing the feeds every three or four hours!) he took a full feed and so the tube was able to be removed, it was also nice to see more and more of the wires removed at each visit. Our cuddles with Alfie became more frequent and less restrictive. To see his contented face and hear his snores from his bassinet was absolutely amazing!

We continued the feeds through the early hours of the morning, and throughout the morning. While still in Level three of intensive care we were stunned when we were told we were able to wheel him out of there….today! No level two….straight to our room for what is called ‘rooming in’. It was amazing and scary; at the same time we sat there in our room looking at this little miracle and turned to each other and said “What do we do?”

Now that he was out of the woods we promised then never to moan about the lack of sleep;, this was quickly put to the test during the night as we got two hours sleep. Finally he was “sin binned” for “arking up” and placed in the care of the excellent midwives while we grabbed some much needed sleep.

Wednesday 9th May 2007

Still reeling from our apparently normal sleep deprived parenting experience we took Alfie for his hearing test and it was no great surprise after the events of the pervious week that he failed. Wearing a set of groovy headphones he had some sound piped through, his response to which was measured on sensors on his back, neck and head. I watched nervously as little blocks appeared on a line like those that you see as an internet page loads. He did well on one ear while the other only reached 75% loaded! It was obviously a concern but he would later pass on both ears. It did raise the concern that with Alfie now fully recovered the potential damage caused by his lack of oxygen may not be visible. We would get more news on that as the week progressed.

Thursday 10th May 2007

After another disturbed night, Alfie proved that he has no excuses as far as hearing what mum and dad ask him to do after passing his hearing test! He had a long day with an MRI scan and further brain monitoring. The MRI scan was an amazing thing…he was placed inside the tunnel wearing his ear muffs as we sat anxiously wearing ours. As the door closed the machine whirred into action, the noise soon became deafening to the point that we held our muffs even closer. The whole thing took 10 minutes, Alfie slept throughout.

We had to leave him back in SCBU for four hours. During this time we felt completely lost; having had him around for two days we were surprised how much we missed him! More surprising was that without Alfie around I was in a lot of pain, apparently brought on by feelings of separation from my baby! The results from his scan were very positive. His MRI brain scan showed that all parts of the brain were active and that there had been no bleeding. A further test of his reflexes and joints suggested that he was in every way an ordinary baby….with an extraordinary story to tell.

We feel so lucky to have him, our little miracle….we also feel for those who were not or might not be so fortunate with their own lives and families affected. While we were there a couple who also had a baby in similar circumstances had been given two weeks with their little girl, the only difference between Alfie and her being four short minutes. We have also found out that the hospital give up resuscitation after ten minutes, Alfie got in with just 120 seconds to spare.

Friday 11th May 2007

Friday saw my husband dashing to get a car seat fitted while I went to a bathing talk before we met up to listen to a baby CPR talk. It then took me three trips through the hospital to the car with all the things we had asked people to bring in for us to make our stay more comfortable before carrying our most precious cargo... He seemed to enjoy his first trip in the car and then he was home….

We’d like to think that life will be a little less eventful from now on but are sure that this is the start of something really special.

The End…..and a beautiful beginning.

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