Turns out the braxton hicks I thought I was having were actually contractions as a result of a urinary tract infection that had no symptoms. On 31st July at 5:17pm (queensland, australia time) I gave birth to a tiny baby girl. I was 24 weeks pregnant. She is still alive and well. We named her Hayley Patricia and she was born 766gms and 32 cms long. Hayley has been doing quite well considering. She spent her first 12 days surprising the doctors with acting like a fullterm baby that just needed CPAP (nose prongs with just air going through) and temperature control. On day 12 Hayley came down with meningitis E Coli (which our second daughter died from 8 years ago), but she miraculously recovered from this within 48 hours. Praise God!Hayley is now on full milk feeds (via gastric tube), and slowly growing bigger.
Please pray Hayley stays well and is able to come home quickly.
Thanks,
Kristy

praying and praising God with you and your family

Oh my goodness, what a shock to you and your family. (((HUGS))) Praising God that she is alive and doing well and praying for your family. And congratulations on a beautiful baby girl!

Praying for your little girl!

Oh no! I am glad she is thriving so well so fast, she will be in my prayers! Congratulations on your little girl.

Praying she'll get bigger stronger and keep surprising the dr's and everyone else!

Praying for Hayley!

Praying for Hayley!

Congratulations and i will pray for Hayley that she grows stronger every day xx

Praying Kristy.

We're praying here for your little gal~

Praying for your sweet little princess.

Praying for Hayley and her family!

Praying that her strenght mulitplies each day!

Congrats on your new baby girl praying that she goes from strenght to strenght.

Congratulations on the new edition to your family. I will be praying for increased strength for your new blessing.

Sara

Oh my goodness! So tiny![praying]

Wow! Congratulations! Praying for your family and Hayley!

Wow! I'm so glad you are both doing ok. I'll be praying that Hayley keeps growing and doing well.

Praise God she's alive and well [crossheld] Parying God lays his hands on the staff whom is working w/ hayley at all times. CONGRATS

Thanks ladies!
Hayley is still doing really well, I believe it's all the prayer. I'm hoping to have a cuddle today for my birthday!
I'll try and put a photo of Hayley on this forum soon.

Sure will pray for Hayley, so glad to hear she is doing well. [praying]

Glad to hear she is still doing well! Lifting you up in prayer.

wow, praise God! Glad to hear she is doing well! Will continue to pray for you baby girl!

I'm so glad Hayley is doing well! We mentioned her at our church prayer time, so everyone there is praying too.

Thankyou for your prayers. Hayley is doing reasonably well all things considering. I believe she's doing well because of all the prayers. It's amazing how many people have told me that they have been getting closer to God through Hayley's situation. Praise God![crossheld]

Hayley is finally putting on weight and is starting to go ahead. She needs prayer for her breathing to improve. Also she has been diagnosed with Hydracaphalus (the water in her brain isn't draining like it should, causing pressure on her brain). Please pray for miraculous healing for that.

Thankyou again for your prayers.

I would love to post a photo, but my computer won't let me do it on this site for some reason??!!

Kristy

Kristy, it sounds like God is really helping you and that your little girl is a real trooper. We would love to see a photo one of these days. [hug]

Congrats on your new princess. Saying prayers for her.

Just now seeing this. Praying for your baby! (((hugs)))

Glad that your little fighter is still doing good, I will be praying that the fluid on her brain drains.

Huge hugs hunny

saying a prayer for her and you. I hope she will be going home soon!

Praying for Hayley, esp about the hydrocephalus and lung strength. Praying for mommy and daddy, too!

Praise God[claploud]
Hayley's lungs are strengthening! She just had 2 hours off the CPAP today! They will take her off every 12 hours now, slowly weaning her off until she needs no help with breathing at all! The lactation consultant says if all goes well, I can try breastfeeding her in a week or two! Hayley is 6 weeks old today (30+6 gestation weeks old).
Thankyou so much for your prayers! It is definately what's helping Hayley go so well.
:-D

Still haven't worked out how to put a picture of Hayley on my posts. But I have downloaded two onto my album page. If you want a look at what Hayley looks like with the CPAP off, go there.
Blessings

PTL!!!!! I am SOOOO happy for you. I can't wait to read that Hayley has bf for the first time!!! She sure sounds like she's a fighter! She is BEAUTIFUL! So tiny and cute!

BTW, for the pics, you have to put it in something like photobucket.com and copy and paste the IMG code into the message.

Praise God, Gal! :) What wonderful news!! And to think you could be breastfeeding her soon! Wowzers! That's awesome~

And yeah, photobucket is very easy to use and I think many of the gals (me included) use it to post pictures on here~ We'd love to see you all! :)

New prayer point for Hayley please:
As a result of the hydracephalus, there is too much pressure on Hayley's brain and it's unfortunately worsening rather than improving. The doctors are operating on Hayley this Monday to insert a Rickshaw Reservoir. This is inserting a tube that goes from the brain where the water is, to a place under her scalp where the water can then be absorbed. It will be short term untill the brain corrects/ heals itself and then the tube would be removed. Please pray the operation will go smoothly and she recovers quickly. There is a small chance she could get brain damage from this operation, but if they don't do it then she has a much larger chance of getting brain damage. Please pray she has no problems through the operation.
Thankyou :(

Kristy

Oh Kristy, God is with you! We'll lift her up!

Kristy, saying prayers for your daughter.

catching up on this thread. how heartbreaking. Praying that God will place His hand on your little one.
hold fast to the hem of His garment friend.

Thanks ladies.
I've put another photo in my album in this forum. It's of Hayley yesterday. She has just started opening her eyes really wide and checking things out.

I'll be praying for Hayley, as well as you and your family. [praying]

Thanks ladies.

My hubby has tried putting a picture of Hayley on this post for me.Let's see if it works.

awww she is so beautifull

Praying for Hayley! She is so precious.

Continued prayers on the surgery and your daughter's healing.

She is so precious. What a cutie.

Thankyou for your prayers everyone. Hayley's operation went well and she is recovering quickly. The doctors think she will be back to normal within 24-48 hours and then should go ahead with her breathing, weight, and feeding alot quicker. The doctors are 95% certain Hayley will need a shunt in a couple months. Please pray God heals her brain before then so that she doesn't need that.
Thankyou and God bless,
Kristy

wow she's look's so much bigger. i didn't see the post about her op soz , but so glad everything went well , will defo pray about the shunt thing.how are you and the rest of the fam doing?

Hayley had to have an op putting a temporary shunt in her head for the hydracephalus which wasn't clearing up. They did a Rickham reservior, which basically means they made a space between her scalp and her skull where the fluid can pool instead of putting pressure on her brain. She had to be ventolated for the op, so was moved back to ICN1. She was extubated yesterday, but is still up and down with her SATS. The drs are happy with how she's doing, although they said she's taking a little longer than normal to recover. The good thing is that the op was a success and her ventricles are almost back to normal.
Just waiting now for Hayley to recover and get back to ICN2 (less intensive care).
Thanks for your prayers.
God bless,

goodness
I can't begin to imagine all you've been through
praying little Hayley stays strong :)

Still praying for you guys, gal~ ::hugs::

thanks for updating us so well, I know I appriciate it. Keeping your daughter in my prayers.

Well after a few bumps and hurdles, Hayley is on a smoother road this week. Keep up those prayers please! They are making all the difference.

Hayley currently weighs 1440gms - double her birth weight, which is wonderful. She is nice and chubby now. She is on full expressed breast milk feeds and completely line free - which means less risk of infection. Her best friend at the moment is her dummy. She now wakes up hungry about 15 minutes before her feed times and turns her head with her mouth wide open looking for the breast. I get to start trying to breastfeed her this Friday (exciting!) and in the meantime we put a little breastmilk on her dummy to suck while getting her feed through the tube that goes down her throat into her belly.

Hayley hasn't had any apneas, bradys, or tachys for the last few days which is great news, and she very rarely d-sats either (when there isn't enough oxygen in the blood it causes saturation levels to decrease, causing an alarm to go off). The doctors are impressed with her breathing and today had her off CPAP for 5 hours, which she had not a single problem with. Tomorrow they will try 6 hours on, 6 hours off CPAP. If Hayley tolerates that well for 24-48 hours then she will go to 8 hours off CPAP, 4 hours on. When she tolerates that, then they take her off CPAP full time. So we are starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

At this point in time Hayley's biggest danger is infection, and will be for the next 2 years. Please pray for supernatural protection against infection for her please. If she stays infection- free then she could be home within the next 5 or so weeks.

Hayley is now 33 weeks gestation. For the first few years of her life she will have an 'actual' age, and a 'corrected' age. Her corrected age basically is what age she would be if she were born full term - she will make milestones (walking etc) by her corrected age. I went to a baby shop on the weekend to buy some things for Hayley. When the shop assistant asked how old my baby is (must have thought my baby was being babysat or something), I told her she is minus 2 months. This quite confused the lady, but I have to create some fun in my life at the moment ;)

Thankyou so much to those who have been praying for me to stay well. I've been amazed at how many people have coughed and spluttered around me (I'm very aware of anyone who may be sick, I don't want to catch it), and I haven't had a single cough or cold in the almost 9 weeks I've been here.
Please also keep my other children in your prayers. They are the ones who are suffering the most at the moment being away from home and mum and dad so much. They are finding it very hard to cope. I can't wait until this is all over. It's a very trying time. At the same time I feel incredoubly blessed that I live in a time where extremely prem babies can actually survive.

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers.
I've attached a photo I took of Hayley today having time off CPAP.

Love Kristy

awww so happy to hear that she is doing so well , will continue to pray for god's strength and protection against infection and also for your other kiddies who are struggling , that they will have peace and know how much you guy's love and cherish them.

what wonderful news! will continue to pray for your daughter. She is definatly a fighter. So glad the end of this is finally in sight, what a blessing.

So glad her condition is improving!!!!! I hope she can come off the cpap soon, praying she stays infection free and that she takes to nursing well.

Hayley came off CPAP forever last week and is doing wonderfully well. She has been moved from Intensive Care to Special Care which is another step closer to home.
They are planning on putting her in an open cot tomorrow, then all she needs to do is learn to breastfeed to go home. Yipee!
Praise God.
Thankyou for your prayers. Please pray she continues to stay infection free (as that is a high risk for extreme prems for their first two years of life), and learns to feed quickly so she can be home where she belongs.
Thankyou.
[loveyou] all!

yay PTL so happy for you ,that's wonderful news [clapping] and will keep praying gods protection over her .

Still praying! We've been praying for Hayley almost every night.

What great news!!!! So happy for you guys, I am sure that day she walks through your doors at home will be so so sweat. Praying

Hayley breastfed properly for the first time yesterday! Thanks for your prayers, I believe it's God's doing that she is starting to feed already.
When she started suckling properly the nurse couldn't believe it and called the dr and the NUM over to check out the little 34 week gestation baby breastfeeding properly already! They all agreed then that it looks like Hayley should be coming home earlier than they first thought, praise God!
Hayley became exhausted quite quickly because she's still very small. Please pray she gets stronger really quickly. All she needs to do to come home is to have regular full feeds without getting exhausted.
Thanks,
Kristy
P.S. I will put some more recent photos in my photo album - still don't know how to post them in these messages without hubby's help.

That is SO huge! I am choked up with thanksgiving! Praise God for her little life and praise God she is doing so well and nursing!

I have been watching and reading thread daily and so happy for you guys that your little fighter is going from strenght to strenght.

That's fantastic gal!!! I'm so happy to hear this~ :) We'll continue to pray~


To post pictures: Go to photobucket.com create an account (free), upload your pictures from your hard drive, then pick the [img] code, copy and past in your reply messages~ :) Easy! :) Can't wait to look at the pictures~

Oh I am so happy to hear this! I pray her strength continues to build.

Has anyone heard from Kristy? Still praying for the family.

[claploud]
Sorry I haven't posted a while, the past couple weeks have been really busy with establishing breastfeeding. Praise God we got to bring Hayley home on Thursday (2 days ago). The drs said they don't normally let babies home when so small (only 1.84 kgs/ 3lb 9oz at the moment). but they had no other reason to keep Hayley in hospital. The next few months will be pretty full on with trips to Toowoomba (2 1/2 hrs from my house) and Brisbane (3 hrs from me) for numerous appointments.
The two biggest prayer points for Hayley at the moment are for her eyes to be ok (the drs said her sight is borderline at the moment), and her brain to be completely healed. Hayley has to have an MRI in three weeks to check if there is any E Coli still living in her brain, also she is having an operation when she reaches 3 kgs weight to either remove the shunt in her brain permenantly or to replace it with another lifetime shunt. We are praying she won't need the lifetime shunt.
Thankyou so much for all your prayers, I really believe things have only gone this well because of our wonderful God![claploud]
I will post a latest photo of Hayley in the next couple days.
Thanks again.[loveyou]

What a joy and blessing! Congrats on the early homecoming. Continuing to pray for health and healing

PRAISE GOD! I'm so glad she's home, what a huge milestone that is! Will continue to pray for her body's healing! Thank you so much for sharing!

Oh wow! I am choked up at your wonderful news! Yes, there is a long road ahead, but with our Lord, you are going to do so well mama!! Praise the Lord for your little girls life!!!
Blessings,
Amber

what wonderful news!!! Congrats! Will continue to pray. I can't even imagine such a small baby! My son was 5lbs 4oz and I thought that was tiny!

Oh that is so wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad she is home with you now. Praying for her continued healing and growth.

aww that is fantastic news [clapping]

Praise God Hayley is home! Continued prayers for you princess [girlprincess]

I'm so glad for you guys! I'll keep praying that everything keeps going well!

That is wonderful. I can not believe she is home already and breast feeding. Will pray for your family!