Being a Mom of a Preemie Baby

Being pregnant my senior of high school at 18-years-old was a very scary time for me. I was never quite sure what to do or if what I was doing was the right thing or not. Trying to balance school and being pregnant at the same time was a full time job in itself. I decided to go to an online school where I could do my class work online to graduate either early or right after my daughter was born.

Going to doctor's appointments every month to every week, I never knew what was in store for me. I was only seven months pregnant when I started having contractions in the middle of the night. Off to the hospital I went to get checked out. They told me that I was having contractions and I was put on magnesium to stop the contraction. That did work, or so we thought.

I have a genetic disorder where I have a bicornate uterus, which means that there is a thin line of scar tissue that almost connects my uterus into two pieces. That was not giving her enough room to grow properly. She was also trying to come out feet first. The doctors decided that a c-section was the only way to go and wheeled me off for it.

I was not full term and with very little room in there for her to grow she was only 3 lbs 7 oz when she was born. Classified as a preemie, we could not go home right away. I had to stay for a couple of days but she had to stay until she was 5 pounds and could eat and breathe normally on her own. That was a five week process all on its own and with me still being in school, I had to stop going to the school and just do everything from my laptop sitting in the hospital waiting room.

I got to hold her and feed her and change her with supervision from the nurses there. She was the cutest but the smallest thing I had ever had my hands on. It was also very scary to not know what each day was going to hold.

When it was time to take her home I was so scared to do it on my own. But she was home in time for me to go to my graduation and her to be there for it too.

With her being so small she slept a lot more than full term babies do. She ate more and slept almost all the time.

It was not easy to be a single mom of such a small child but now she is 7-years-old and over four feet tall and growing.

She was a miracle child, to say the least.