Birth/NICU story


Having had Ollie at 27 weeks was one hell of a wild roller coaster ride.  We got the keys to the house, went down to Mississauga to pick some stuff up to be able to work on the house.  The first evening that we were there I started to really not feel well, I was having really bad gas like pains.  It got to the point that the only position that I was comfortable in was curled up on the bathroom floor.  We took a drive over to the hospital to see what the hell was going on.  I have a great skill in showing up to hospitals right before shift changes so I always get the pissy half assing nurses who just want to leave.  After some blood work and baby monitoring they admitted me to my own room with my very own nurse.  My blood pressure was off the charts so they medicated me to try and bring it down.
After some time they decided it was best to transfer me to another hospital as they were not equipped for such a young baby.  I got to ride in an ambulance with the lights and sirens going.  When we got to the other hospital I was put in a tiny room while many people were doing things to me, I had someone trying to get blood samples, blood pressure reading, ultrasound and also the whole this stuff could happen to the baby when we take him out and the you might be paralyzed or die from the epidural speech.  Not long after I was wheeled into the operating room, poked in the back and as I like to put it "gutted like a fish".  When they pulled Ollie out you heard a little grunt from him.  Louis followed and got a few pictures while I was being re-assembled.  I didn't get to see Ollie for over 24hrs and finally got to hold him over a week after.
After three days in hospital I was discharged, I visited the hospital everyday, sometimes more than once.  I would sit there with my hand in the incubator, either on his back or holding his little hand.  During this time I was living at my moms house, I was so happy that this was possible and that I was not stuck alone in a hotel or at the Ronal McDonald house.  Louis had to go back to Gatineau for work and was able to come down to visit on the weekends. This happened for about 5 weeks until we asked the question as to what the requirements for him to be transferred where.  The nurses called the hospital in Ottawa and got the information for us.  CHEO was willing to come get him the next day, they flew down by helicopter but were called away for a sick baby who needed to be moved.  CHEO tried again the day after and came by plane, there was a mix up with the ambulance so they showed up late but they were able to get Ollie packed and ready for his first ever flight.
When he arrived at CHEO he had his own room, something completely different from the hospital in Toronto.  We spent 1.5 weeks at CHEO, we got to experience Ollie's first bath at that hospital.  He was then moved by ambulance to the hospital in Gatineau, this is the place where we started bottle feeding him and after a few times of good feeds they decided to release him.
He was so little, we had to add stuffing to make sure that he was snuggly fit into his car seat for the ride home.

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