Elaina’s Story

So it was Sunday the 11th March 2018. I was at a friend’s house congratulating them on moving into their first house together. I felt off. It was a hot day and i was 27+4 pregnant. My hands were swollen and i couldn’t open them properly. That night i didn’t sleep i just felt sick and swollen. I kept having to get up to go to the bathroom but i never looked in the mirror. The next morning i got up, like i did every other morning before work, after 2 hours of sleep, I was exhausted. I went into the bathroom to have a shower and get ready and i looked in the mirror for the first time since Sunday and my face was so swollen, I could barely see and breathe. I woke my partner up and we rushed straight to my drs surgery and she referred me straight to the hospital. I rang my obstetrician on the way and he told me to meet him in birthing unit. As soon as he saw me, he couldn’t believe it was me. It was only because he recognized my partner he let me in.

My sister is a midwife and NICU nurse. As soon as she was told where i was she came straight to the hospital (she works at that hospital). I had done a urine test which returned a reading of high protein levels. Bloods returned indicating low vitamin D levels. I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia. Every day my sister came and visited me in her lunch and dinner breaks, read my charts and was overall stressing about me (in the meantime, she was 17 weeks pregnant herself). I was given a steroid injection for 3 days and antibiotics, blood pressure medication, pain relief and God knows what else. I lost count of everything.

By Friday, 16th March 2018, I was so sick I was begging nurses to do something I was in so much pain. There was a lot of people in my room and my blood pressure was fluctuating. I couldn’t eat, pain meds weren’t helping anymore. I was so delirious I didn’t know what was going on. My body had enough. I was throwing up water and all ingested medication. That afternoon, I was taken to birthing unit and induced into a natural labour and had a magnesium sulfate infusion done over 12 hours.

Saturday the 17th March 2018, I was so sick from the Friday night that I wasn’t even taking in water. I just couldn’t swallow anymore. I was rushed into theatre and my princess, Elaina Amy Sampson was born at 28 weeks and 3 days, weighing 1113 grams and 37cm long and 27cm head circumference.

Right from the start, she was such a strong girl, she just went straight onto cpap and was always pretty active. Elaina was growing and thriving.

Then, on Easter long weekend at 18 days old, Elaina had a pulmonary hemorrhage. This is something that is common in prems but only in the first week of birth. She was ventilated for 4 days and was put on a morphine drip. Elaina did not stop moving and had her eyes open the whole time. We all found this as a sign, meaning she would recover quickly. She did! We weren’t long back on cpap and then on the home stretch just 2 weeks later. The drs thought she would come home on oxygen and tube feeds, but Elaina had other plans.

Wednesday 16th May 2018, Elaina came home on no oxygen and full suck feeds. I felt like my baby was a boss and did an epic mic drop. She had gone from strength to strength and proven everyone, including me wrong. I was a real mum and not running to and from the hospital.

We have been home nearly 2 months and it is the most rewarding and happiest time of my life. She is such a beautiful baby. We are so proud of her she is so strong.

Please for anything in pregnancy, if you feel off just go straight into hospital.

From Corinne and Steven, mum and dad to Elaina

xxxx