Premature baby Orla born at 35 weeks 💗Our NICU Journey 💗

Baby Orla was born 5 weeks early at Tameside Hospital via emergency C-Section. She spent 14 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) due to a lack of oxygen and not being able to breathe properly. I was shocked as I'd had identical twins the year before born at 35 weeks weighing less than her and they didn't need any assistance or stay in hospital.

Orla spent a day on oxyflow but It didn't make a difference so she was on CPAP for a week. When we first went into NICU we were greeted with these loud beeps...this scared the life out of us. Everytime they went off I'd jump out of my skin. You will get used to it eventually, but it is very scary at first.

We were allowed to take her out of her incubator after 3 days for a cuddle. Going home after having a baby and not being able to take her home was horrible. I cried my eyes out as soon as I walked out of the door. We had 5 other children at home but all I could think about was being at hospital with my tiny baby. She weighed 6lb, but she lost quite a bit of weight in the 1st couple of weeks - she looked so tiny.

After a week Orla was allowed to be moved to a cot. We could finally dress her and have a proper cuddle. She still had a feeding tube so we had to be careful. We thought after her breathing assistance was removed that we would be allowed to go home. It turned out that feeding isn't always straight forward. It took a further 7 days to get her used to feeding.

We were allowed to go home after 14 days. It felt like forever. We're just glad she was allowed home in time for Christmas and that she was well. We panicked like mad over the tiniest things. We constantly looked at her chest to see if she was still breathing, or that she wasn't breathing too fast. It was a very stressful couple of weeks.

Having a baby in NICU is something you'll never forget. Tameside hospital were amazing. The NICU staff are amazing. They kept our little lady alive. Thank you NHS and your amazing staff 💗

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