Mandi & Ash's Story
My name is Mandi. My husband Ash and I have been married for more than 13 years. We are the proud parents to Ella, age 11, Carson, 16 months, and my bonus daughter, Layne, age 17. This is the story of our NICU journey with our micropreemie. We thought we were prepared for the possibility of another preemie, as our 11 year old was born at 35 weeks due to my severe preeclampsia. Luckily, that NICU stay was only 1 week, sweet Ella was just a little jaundice, and couldn’t quite get the hang of eating. With my history, my OB’s goal was to get me to 34 weeks, mine was 36. I was being hopeful!! I really didn’t want to be discharged and leave my baby again. Nothing could’ve prepared me for what we heard at my appointment. My 23 weeks ultrasound showed that our baby was small for gestational age. My OB sent us to MFP, as I was showing signs of preeclampsia, swelling, high BP, rapid weight gain.
My appointment with the perinatologist was at 24&2. This ultrasound showed poor blood flow from placenta to baby, also back flowing. Dr. Contreras said the words I’ll never forget, you’re going to have this baby this week.
I was admitted immediately.
The head neonatologist visited that evening. He completely scared me with all the statistics, at 24 weeks; our guy had a 50% chance of surviving.
Dr. Pyle’s positive attitude helped us both tremendously. I was then scheduled for a C-section the next day @ 4:30pm. On Tuesday, June 9th 2015 at 4:48pm Carson Paul let me know he was here with two tiny little squeaks. That was my sign that my boy was going to beat the odds.
Going to see him in the NICU for the first time was the biggest mix of emotions I’ve ever experienced. I couldn’t wait to meet this precious boy, but I was absolutely terrified. This wasn’t how we were supposed to meet for the first time. He was so tiny, 1lb and 11.5 inches long. I have a medical background, but seeing my baby attached to a ventilator and so many tubes and wires was almost overwhelming. I instantly noticed how much he resembled my husband; the likeness was amazing even behind all that equipment. Carson had his ups and downs during our journey with a PDA, some issues retaining fluid, a few blood sugar problems, but overall, nothing exceptionally major. On day 100, they set us free and we brought that incredible miracle baby home.
Today he is 16 months (12 adjusted), and you’d never know he was a preemie. He’s still a little small, but is meeting and surpassing all of his milestones! We will be forever grateful to our NICU family at TWH for the amazing support they gave us and our baby!
