Maria knew something wasn’t right with her pregnancy before the pregnancy test showed positive.
I knew I wouldn’t go to full term
I had problems with my pregnancy with Leo almost from conception. I’d started feeling tired and breathless before I had a positive pregnancy test because my blood pressure went up almost immediately
. I had three admissions to hospital during my pregnancy because it was so high. I had several scans to check the baby’s growth, as high blood pressure can slow this down but Leo was developing normally.
The medication I was put on at 16 weeks didn’t work so we asked if I could be referred to a specialist. He was fantastic and sorted out the medication, which worked well until the PET kicked in properly.
At 20 weeks I started getting heartburn but didn’t realise that epigastric pain was heartburn so when they kept asking me if I had it I said no! At 29+2 weeks, we went to Mothercare to order the pushchair, car seat and cot because I knew by then that I wouldn’t go full term.
I wanted to get him out
The next day, I had to go to Bath for a routine appointment and didn’t leave until after Leo was born. My protein levels were high, as was my blood pressure. The midwife wouldn’t even let me walk up to the ward. When I was first admitted they told me that they could probably get me to 32 weeks but, by the end of the week, they said I needed to have the baby now.
Even though I was worried, I really wanted to get him out. When they decided that I needed to be delivered they tried to induce me but it didn’t work. After three hours Leo had turned breech so I had to have an emergency C-Section with a spinal block.
The staff were brilliant, especially my midwife. I didn’t really feel anything and the staff told me what was happening all along and what to expect.
The staff gave me Polaroids of my son
Leo was born at 3am and when I heard him cry I was really relieved. Then one of the doctors told us that we had a little boy and he had a cleft lip and palate: that was a shock as we had no idea. Leo was taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and his dad went with him to see him settled.
I didn’t get to see him until that evening at 6pm. After I was taken to the recovery ward, Andrew came back with a couple of Polaroids that the staff had taken for me, which was nice.
Leo was in NICU for nine weeks. They did say he might be there until his due date or beyond but he left a week earlier. He weighed 3lbs when he was born at 30 weeks. I stayed in hospital for a week after he was born as my blood pressure was still a problem.
Leaving the hospital was horrible. Because I’d had a C-Section, I couldn’t drive for six weeks so I had to rely on other people to take me in and bring me home.
Luckily I made friends with a woman who lived near me and her uncle took us both in.
Tricky feeding
Leo contracted MRSA at four weeks (but only on his skin), which was quite frightening, but apart from that and not gaining weight too well he progressed through NICU without any major blips.
He struggled to gain weight and I did ask if it was worth expressing any more as I was getting loads out but it didn’t seem to be doing him any good – especially when they fortified it! The week before we left they said they wouldn’t let us go if he didn’t gain enough weight that week: thankfully he did.
They also said they had detected a heart murmur and sometimes it can be an indication of other problems if babies have a cleft palate so they referred us to a heart specialist, who found nothing wrong when he did a full heart scan.
Leo had to be fed with special bottles because of his cleft – he couldn’t get a seal because of the gap and sucking is impossible with a cleft palate.
A hard start to parenthood
It was far from an easy start. I felt really sorry for my partner as Leo is his first child and it was not a good introduction to parenthood. The worst time was the two weeks after we came out of hospital as I was really struggling with expressing and feeding Leo.
He was so hungry that he was waking to be fed every couple of hours. In the early days, it took up to an hour to feed him and then I had to express.
By the end of the second week at home I was heading for a nervous breakdown. I even phoned Andrew in tears one day and told him to come home because I couldn’t cope.
Within 24 hours, our Health Visitor had contacted NICU, got Leo Nutriprem II on prescription and picked it up from Bath for me. She suggested alternating between the breast milk and the formula but after Leo had his first bottle he slept for six hours so I just ditched all my breast milk.
It was like having a new baby! He gained almost a pound in that first weekend so it was obvious that my breast milk hadn’t been providing him with what he needed.
He runs on Duracell batteries now!
Leo is nearly six and fine now: he runs on Duracell batteries! He did have a major setback when he had his first cleft repair operation at five months, where he had a major post-op bleed and almost died.
He spent a further week in Bristol Children’s Hospital on a ventilator and it was worse than his first nine weeks of life. We were worried about his second repair op (soft palate) which he was supposed to have at about nine months.
He eventually had it at 16 months at Great Ormond Street with no complications at all.
The experience didn’t put us off having any more children, although I was worried about having another child with a cleft and also getting PET again. We weren’t even trying when I got pregnant with Eloise so I guess fate took a hand in that!
The whole pregnancy with her was as I remembered it from with my first child, although my blood pressure went up at 28 weeks. Still, it didn’t make me feel unwell and was controlled by medication.
Maria is mum to Adam (24), Leo (5) and Eloise (4).
