Maya's 1st month
October - November 2011
Maya had a fairly eventful first month.
Maya spent a total of 30 days in hospital, initially at Bolton special care baby unit after she was born, followed by 29 days on Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Manchester Children's hospital.
Maya had 2 major operations. 4 hours of spinal surgery at 7 days old to remove the meningomyelocele on her lower back. Followed by 3 hours of surgery to insert a VP shunt at 22 days old to manage her Hydrocephalus.
We were fortunate enough to have been by Maya's side everyday. This would not have been possible without the love, help, support and kind words of all our family and friends who have helped us in many different ways especial when thing have got tough.
Maya has also been cared for by many nurses, specialist nurses, pediatricians and consultants and without their specialist knowledge and skills, support, advise and care Maya would not be the happy, thriving little girl we have with us today.
On the 11th November 2011, 30 days after Maya was born we finally got to go home.
The Best way to show Maya's First month and the progress she has made is through Pictures.... So make yourself a brew and get comfy as there are quite a few!
Maya spent a total of 30 days in hospital, initially at Bolton special care baby unit after she was born, followed by 29 days on Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Manchester Children's hospital.
Maya had 2 major operations. 4 hours of spinal surgery at 7 days old to remove the meningomyelocele on her lower back. Followed by 3 hours of surgery to insert a VP shunt at 22 days old to manage her Hydrocephalus.
We were fortunate enough to have been by Maya's side everyday. This would not have been possible without the love, help, support and kind words of all our family and friends who have helped us in many different ways especial when thing have got tough.
Maya has also been cared for by many nurses, specialist nurses, pediatricians and consultants and without their specialist knowledge and skills, support, advise and care Maya would not be the happy, thriving little girl we have with us today.
On the 11th November 2011, 30 days after Maya was born we finally got to go home.
The Best way to show Maya's First month and the progress she has made is through Pictures.... So make yourself a brew and get comfy as there are quite a few!
2 days old
3 days old
4 Days old
On the Fourth day Maya opened her eyes for the first time! We managed to capture the moment just before she fell back asleep.
5 Days old
On the fifth day Maya started to reach out to hold our finger and open her eyes several times for very short periods of time.
7 Days Old - The Big Day
On the 18th October 2011 Maya's big day had arrived, Maya under went 4 hours of spinal surgery to close and remove the large Meningomyelocele opening on her back. Our little girl did incredibly well and came round from the anesthetic without Oxygen. We were back by Maya's side within an hour of surgery to hold our baby girls hand when she woke up.
9 days old - 2 days post op back surgery
On day 9 Maya's bandages could be removed from her back and we got to see the surgeons work for the first time. We were so pleased with the job they had done and It was healing really well.
11 days old - Maya's First Cuddles with Daddy
4 days after Maya had, had her back surgery we got the all clear to be able to take her out of her incubator for her first cuddles. Unfortunately I was unwell and could not go into the hospital but her Daddy and Oma were there for her.
12 days old
13 days old - 1st cuddles with Mummy
2 days later I was finally well enough to go into the hospital and we got our first cuddles together. We sat and read 'Peter Rabbit' from Maya's box set from Cousin Ellie and Paul.
15 days old
8 days after surgery the surgeons were very pleased with Mayas recovery and moved her from the intensive care room to a high dependency room. Maya was given the all clear to wear clothes for the first time. The problem was to find clothes that fit her and had easy access to her back for observations and monitoring. Maya also no longer needed to lay solely on her front and could be positioned on her side.
At 15 days old We were also given the all clear to try breast feeding. Maya had been fed Expressed Breast Milk (EBM) through her nasal tube until this point. This was a happy and momentous day for us all!!
We were also told it was OK for visitors to hold Maya
16 days old
When Maya turned 16 days old her consultants were very pleased with how well Maya was doing so Maya was given the all clear to be moved into an open incubator.
17 days old
By day 17 Maya was doing really well. We were able to take her out of her incubator more often for cuddles. We established breast feeding and her nasal tube was removed.
18 days old
Maya continued to do well and was moved into the nursery room where we were able to spend lots of time cuddling, reading stories and listening to nursery rhymes.
19 days old
22 Days old - Maya gets her 1st VP shunt
Although Maya had recovered really well from her spinal surgery, the severity of her hydrocephalus increased. Maya's head circumference had increased dramatically and the consultants recommended inserting a VP shunt. Maya went to theatre for the second time for three hours and we were by her side when she came back into recovery. On returning from theatre Maya had to be tube fed once again because of the anesthetic and her shunt draining into her abdomen.
24 Days old - Maya's Due Date
25 days old
28 days old
Maya Recovered well from theatre and her shunt was working well. We were told to start preparing to take our baby girl home. On day 28 we got a brief introduction to being 'normal' parents! We stayed in the parent accommodation on NICU and had Maya in our room for the first time. The nurses moved a little cot bed into our room for her to sleep in and we were finally together as a family.
30 days old - Maya came Home!
The BIG day!! Maya was discharged from hospital and we could finally take our baby girl home. Thank you Oma for doing the honours and driving us all home! Also a big thank you to Nana, Pops and Aunty Heather who made our house a home!
The very Hungry Caterpillar
Maya has been Expressed Breast Milk fed from Birth and Breast fed when possible. We have faced many challenges during this first month but I believe breast milk is best where possible and I truly believe it has helped Maya stay strong. It has helped with our bond as Mother and Baby and with lots of help from Maya's Daddy we made it possible.
The only advise I can give expecting mums is to try expressing before you have your baby, you never know you might get something and in our case it meant that Maya's first feeds were breast milk when we couldn't be there and she was been cared for in those critical first few hours by health professionals.
And persevere, just keep going! Our life became all about milk. we had to time everything down to making sure she had enough milk expressed for when she needed it. We were unable to take her out of the incubator for the 1st 15days of her life so it was hard to establish a routine and breast feeding meant some very strange positions, but we got there in the end. :-)
The only advise I can give expecting mums is to try expressing before you have your baby, you never know you might get something and in our case it meant that Maya's first feeds were breast milk when we couldn't be there and she was been cared for in those critical first few hours by health professionals.
And persevere, just keep going! Our life became all about milk. we had to time everything down to making sure she had enough milk expressed for when she needed it. We were unable to take her out of the incubator for the 1st 15days of her life so it was hard to establish a routine and breast feeding meant some very strange positions, but we got there in the end. :-)
Additional Care
Although we were at Maya's side every day and night we could not have made it through the first month without the devotion of all the hard working staff at Royal Bolton hospital and Manchester Children's hospital in NICU and the maternity ward as well as the ambulance staff who transported us from Bolton to Manchester. We had exceptional care from everyone and we can not thank them all enough for what they have done for us. Their hard work, skills and passion for their jobs made a beautiful butterfly possible.