#30DaysofBrave Day 1- Samantha

#30DaysofBrave Day 1.

Our first story of #NICUbravery is sent to us by Samantha. See below her words about her twins and the miracle workers that cared for them.

"After having two healthy, full term pregnancies we were not planning to have a NICU stay. We went to our family practitioner for an anatomy scan to verify we were clear to have our homebirth as we had with our second.

We found out we were having twins that day. The doctor mentioned not being able to find a membrane between our girls and referred us to Akron Children's Maternal and fetal Medicine.

From the time we found out we were having twins to them being born was 10 weeks. During that time we found out that our girls were mono/mono twins which required me to have twice weekly NST's and ultrasounds every other week and inpatient monitoring for what we hoped would be six weeks to get to 34 weeks gestation.

Just before I went inpatient at 28 weeks a congenital anomaly was found for one of my girls and we found out she would require surgery after birth. I was inpatient for 3 weeks with 3 times a day monitoring an 3 times a week ultrasounds.

Knowing both babies would require NICU time we changed hospitals for where we were delivering the week before i went inpatient. Due to covid I was blessed to have one doctor that was on rotation all but 2 days of my inpatient stay. She was amazing in the care she provided and when we delivered a week earlier than planned due to concerns for one our girls she was so reassuring and helped calm my uneasiness. She also came to the NICU and checked on our girls when they were about 2 weeks old.

Our girls were born at 31 weeks 1 day at 3 lbs 1 oz and 5 lbs 4 oz they both went to the NICU shortly after birth, but thankfully I was able to see them before they went. Our baby a, Hannah had surgery the day after she was born and in the following weeks had 3 additional procedures. She remained intubated until 5 days shy of a month old. Her first week of life was very scary and while we tried to be positive we weren't certain she would make it as she was really struggling and the doctors weren't sure what to do to help her. They placed a drain, not sure it would work, but it did and we started to see improvement. She also dealt with stage 3 ROP and struggled with eating and weight gain. She required a special bottle nipple and ultimately had a gtube placed for feeds. Our baby b, Hadley was so tiny but strong. She only required nasal cannula for 3 das. She did struggle with low hearts, especially with feeds.

They were in the NICU for 68 days (Hadley) and 89 days (Hannah).

There is so much I could say about our NICU stay, but really I want to express our gratitude for the amazing nurses that cared for our girls every day and the doctors that helped get them from birth to home."