The Royal Women’s Hospital – NICU

This Friday the 18th of February marks our twins first birthday, it also marks one year of the start of our NICU journey.

 

While we are able to celebrate Oscar in style for his birthday this weekend, we only had our beautiful Harry with us for 6 days, and it is for this reason that we are looking to donate to the NICU at the Royal Womens in his memory for his birthday.

 

Keeping babies alive at this size is expensive business, items can range from $2500 for apnea monitors (monitors which track the baby’s heart rate and blood oxygen levels) all the way up to $53,000 for incubators/radiant warmers. Items can be in short supply, depending on how many babies are in the NICU at that time, so any additional resources would be welcomed.

 

For those of you who are not aware of our story:

 

While working from home on the 18th February, I went into spontaneous labour. When we arrived at the hospital, it was found that I was already 3cm dilated and that at 23 weeks exactly we had to make a decision whether to try and save our babies through the NICU, there was a 50/50 chance of survival at this age. Deciding that we wanted to give them a chance, I was given steroids (for lung development) and medication to slow or stop the labour before being transferred to the Women’s.

 

Within 4 hours it was found that the labour had not stopped or slowed and I was 10cm so we had to make a decision on whether to have the babies naturally (there was an option to have one baby and try and keep the other baby in for longer) or C-section. We decided with the latter as both babies were breech and given them a equal shot.

 

Oscar was born first at 576g and Harry was born second a minute later at 494g.

 

Both babies were put on a ventilator and initially they did quite well as there usually is a “honeymoon period” in which my hormones are still circulating, it was after this time that Harry crashed. The doctors were able to stabilize him, however he was quite sick from then on. It is quite common for babies to have brain bleeds, and a grade 1 & 2 presents no problems, stage 3 & 4 are serious. Oscar had a grade 2 bleed, however Harry had a grade 4 bleed. They also were unable to keep his blood pressure up, and so Harry passed 6 days later on the 24th February.

 

Oscar had 100 days in the hospital before he came home at 37 weeks gestation, full of ups and downs, feeling like it was one step forward, two steps back. From breathing help on ventilation to CPAP, high flow and then breathing on his own. He had hernia surgery and eye surgery. He has done so well considering, crawling everywhere and doing well!

 

We wouldn’t have Oscar with us if it wasn’t for the Womens NICU, and all the support we received from the doctors, nurses and social workers helped us get through the toughest time of our lives.

 

We truly believe that Harry has given Oscar his strength, and this donation will be in memory of Harry for his first birthday.