by Christy King
I am the mother of a premature baby….I took my vitamins and went to all my doctor appointments. I did not eat certain foods or drink and still had a baby born at 23 weeks.
Premature birth can happen to anyone, at any time in their life. It can happen to you, your child, your grandchild, your best friend; it does not discriminate in who it chooses or why. When you are the parent of a premature baby your whole world will stop.
You will cry yourself to sleep at night and pray your baby lives another second, another minute, another hour, another day. You will ask God – if He so chooses – to take you instead of your tiny child. You will fall to your knees every time your tiny baby stops breathing.
You will be told your baby won’t survive and you will be given every reason in the world why you should disconnect the wires, tubes and machines that are keeping your baby alive. And you will be told you’re cruel for letting your baby live.
You will stop sleeping and every time your phone rings your heart will drop to the floor because you fear the worse. If you’re blessed enough to make it home with your baby-sadly, some don’t!-you will know way too many medical terms that no parent should ever have to know.
You will know how to work oxygen machines, give infant CPR, how to stick a feeding tube down their nose into their stomach. You will learn sleeping doesn’t exist because alarms go off all night from the monitor sent home with your child that tells you when he stops breathing or his heart rate drops. You will get thrown up on several times a day but, you will give thanks to God that your baby is here to throw up on you!
My daughter, Ella Mae Grace was born at 23 weeks, weighed 1lb, 4oz and was 10 1/2 long . Now she is 12 years old, 4’6″ tall and weighs a whopping 98lbs! She is a perfectly healthy and active girl. No one would ever guess she started so small.
***NOVEMBER 17 is National Prematurity Awareness day and the entire month of November is Prematurity Awareness Month!***
Please wear purple to bring awareness to this issue so someone you love doesn’t go home from the hospital empty handed!
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