Franklin's story
Franklin was Born on Sunday 9Th February 2020 at 19.43pm weighing 4lb 13oz.
I went into hospital at midnight on Saturday 8th February due to reduced movement. Franklin was always a very active baby so I was worried. I did all the standard things advised for reduced movement from drinking ice cold water, eating something sweet, drinking a fizzy drink and lying on my side for 30 mins. I still wasn’t feeling much movement so I knew something wasn’t right. We set off to QA hospital and my mum came over to watch my other son Alfred and said to us to take my hospital bag. I thought it would just be a quick monitor and I would be home again so I didn’t take it with me. After hours of monitoring my midwife said I was having mild contractions and every time I contracted Franklin’s heart rate would dip. They called a doctor as they were worried about the fluid around him and after further monitoring they came to a joint decision to move me to the labour ward to continue the monitoring and start with steroid injections. I was only 34 weeks +5. It was at this point we realised we were more than likely to be having another baby that day. After what felt like hours and only one round of steroid injections Franklin was born . His chord was wrapped so tightly round his leg causing the reduced movement, but also causing the dips on the monitor - when I was contracting it was tightening around his poor leg. He was then placed on my chest. However, after some checks they noticed some grunting when breathing so the nurses and midwives decided to take him down to the NICU to try and stabilise his breathing and insert a NG tube as he wasn’t feeding very well on his own.
We were lucky enough to have only a short stay at QA Hospital as Franklin progressed well and after 8 days he was discharged. I feel like I was very naïve before having Franklin as my eldest son Alfred was born at 36 weeks so although technically premature it was straightforward and no immediate complications after birth. On the 4 day midwife check his jaundice levels were high and we had to go back to hospital to go under the lights for a couple of days. I knew about NICU as one of my best friends has twin girls who were born at 26 weeks. However, until you experience it you don’t actually understand what care and hard work actually goes on there. No one can ever prepare you for that moment when you walk in and see your tiny baby in an incubator with so many tubes and machines surrounding them . You do however have the comfort of knowing they are in the best possible hands and for that we are forever grateful to all the midwives, nurses and doctors.
Joining the Ickle Pickles team allows me to give back for the amazing care Franklin received.
