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Non-Fiction
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| New Life | |
| By jean.day | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 05 April 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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This is for the lazy writer's exercise. Susannah is actually going to be a year old soon, and is doing very well, but I started writing this when she was tiny, and have added to it each week since. Dear Susannah This is your grandmother Jean writing to you. Your full name is Susannah Jean Woychik and you were partly named for me and partly for your other grandmother who was also called Jean. The Woychik part comes from your great great grandparents who lived in America, but were born in Poland. Your moma likes the idea of keeping family history alive. You are really a miracle baby. When your moma went for a scan when she was 4 months pregnant, there was so little amniotic fluid that all the picture showed was black. They couldn’t visualise you, so didn’t know if you were developing properly or not. The doctor didn’t think you had much of a chance of being born alive. But lots of people prayed for you, and despite what the newspapers say, it must have worked, because at your next scan, the amniotic fluid was up to normal and the doctors were absolutely amazed. You were born early - 7 weeks early and quite a surprise to your parents who thought they would have a bit more time to get ready. But your moma had a problem called pre-eclampsia and the placenta which fed you while you were growing inside her wasn't working very well, so the doctors thought it was best to get you out. You were born by a Caesarian operation, which means that like Caesar you were “untimely ripped from your mother’s womb”. It was all very quick - just minutes and you were born. But because you were early and so small, you were only allowed to say a quick hello to your parents and then you were whisked off to the newborn nursery area for early babies and put into an incubator - which is sort of like a warm box with oxygen in it to help you breathe. You had good lung capacity and everything else seemed pretty good, so after a few days, you were allowed to go to your moma's room and have her to take care of you and get to know you. You then developed a problem called jaundice which made you very sleepy and you sort of turned yellow, or even orange if I want to be honest. Because of this you had to lie naked in a special box with lights for many hours at a time, and you didn't like that, and cried all the time. Later on, your moma could use a blanket with a light in it so you didn't have to be in the much hated crib so much. Your routine was very much the same each day. You got fed by a tube that went down your nose into your stomach because your instinct for sucking had not yet developed. After a few weeks you were able to do some breast feeding, but you were so weak that you couldn’t get much so you needed the tube feedings to top you up. Your cry was very soft, rather like a little kitten. Your daddy got to hold you quite often too, and he and your moma took off their shirts sometimes while they held you so you could have your skin next to theirs. That is called "kangaroo care." You have a rather noticeable birthmark. It is a large lump which looks like a piece of raw meat just behind your ear. It is full of blood and is soft, and I was worried that it would burst if we weren’t very careful. The doctors say it will gradually disappear, and just leave a dark coloured strawberry mark. I expect you will want to wear your hair long to hide it when you get older. Now you have only a whisp of hair. Lots of doctors and nurses came to visit you and check you over. Several times each day you had blood taken from your poor little feet, but eventually the hospital thought you were well enough to go home. You weighed 4 lbs 4 ounces when you were born - which is good for a baby who is so early. But you lost a lot of weight during those weeks when you were in the hospital, so you had only just got back to about that same weight when you got home. When I held you, you were so light, and your little legs and arms seemed so thin, like skin wrapped around small sticks. By this time, you sounded more like a normal baby when you cried, although one time I thought you were a bird. You slept in a Moses basket, and your moma breast fed you. You liked to eat really often, like every hour, and cried quite a lot between feeds, so your moma and daddy don't get much sleep. I got to hold you while you slept - which was great fun. I could watch you having dreams about milk. When your parents bought a special bottle, I sometimes got to feed you too. You are now 7 weeks old - and if you had gone full term, you would have been born this week. But even though in some ways you are still like a newborn baby, in other ways you have developed. You can nearly smile - and you like music (your daddy had you listen to lots of Beethoven on Sunday) and you can suck your thumb and quite often your whole bunch of fingers. You can grasp a finger tightly. You can move your head quite well. But still your life is pretty much crying, feeding and sleeping. Your hair is sort of reddish, but I am hoping it will be curly when you get a bit older, like your daddy’s. It is very short now. Your eyes are still blue- but the colour won’t develop for a few months yet. You got your eyebrows only recently and your moma thought you had a problem on your face until she realised that that was what they were. Your eyes are very big and round. You now weight 5 lbs and 4 ounces - but you will be weighed again tomorrow, so it will be more than that. I hope you have put on a lot of weight as that would make your parents happy, and then you will be more content. They have a plan. They bought a hammock to make you think you are still in the womb, and to rock you to sleep. Let's hope it works. I’ll talk to you again soon. Love Grandma
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