Our son, Alexander was born at 28weeks. He weighed 1000g. We knew fairly early in my pregnancy (due to a pre-existing condition I had) that our son would be early, but my obstetrician thought I would make it to about 35 weeks. Unfortunately, at 25 weeks, my membrane ruptured and I was hospitalized. At 28 weeks I guess Alexander had decided that he had had enough of his cramped and, now, no longer watery environment. I went into labour and by C-section he arrived on June 14 at 5:45 pm.

He was a very sick baby at first. It took more than an hour to get him stabilized. Later, while I was resting comfortably in a demerol induced sleep, my husband received a 2 am call that he should get back to the hospital, fast. Alexander's vital signs were not looking good. Thankfully, by the time my poor husband arrived back at the NICU, Alexander had stabilized and the neonatalogist and nurses were pretty sure that he would make it through the next 48 hours.

48 hours became 96 hours, then a week, then, twelve days. It looked like our very small son was going to make it. But at the 21st day mark, almost as if on cue (our neonatalogist had warned us about infections and how they seem to show up about 3 weeks after birth) Alexander got a very serious infection. He was re-intubated and placed on very powerful antibiotics to fight the infection that his practically non-existent immune system couldn't. We were on pins and needles for the next 20 hours while we waited for the antibiotics to kick in. Finally, after a very stressful day and a sleepless night, (spent in the parent's lounge of the Rich Little Special Care Unit) Alexander's colour went back to a soft pink, opposed to the pale gray he had become with the infection.

We faced two other infections, plus feeding problems and a couple of hernias (which are not uncommon in male preemies) but by mid-September, Alexander was ready to come home. He weighed just 5lbs. The day we left the NICU was very emotional. We were saying goodbye to nurses and staff that had been like family for over three months. They knew more about our baby, in many ways, than we did. He was confused initially, I think, by the quietness of our house; no alarms going off, no bright lights. But we soon developed a routine with our small son, or rather, he developed a routine for us! We joyfully watched him as he progressed, albeit somewhat slower than babies of his birth age, (always take into account Corrected Age) but by 28 months, he was right at the 50 percentile for height and weight. He had caught up!

Today, Alexander is completely normal, and happy to go to school.

We will always be grateful to the extremely dedicated and caring staff at the Rich Little Special Care Nursery at the Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus.

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