Seth is asleep, so now is a good time to give you the story from the hospital.
I went in as planned on 9th Feb, 37+1 weeks. The doctor was pleased that the size of the baby was good and healthy and there was no reason to think that there could be any problem.
The section went fine. Seth was delivered (and he even took down the sheet so that we could see him coming out. He was 7lbs exactly in labour ward and 6lbs 14ozs in neonatal)
I got a wee kiss and he was taken to be cleaned up and weighed etc. He apgar score was good but he was dusky. When they put him in some oxygen he pinked up, but then went duskys straight away again. So when he was 5mins old he went into the incubator.
By now it was obvious that there was something a little more complicated than they first thought.
At the start they said to us that he had a 'wet lung'.
They took Seth to the neonatal unit and we were told he would be there for probably 12/24hrs.
However the next time we got to see him we were told it would probably be 5/7 days.
On the Thursday night he was on CPAP to keep his lungs inflated with 60% oxygen and his respiration was sitting about 145 (i think the normal is between 30-50). His wee chest was sticking out like a pigeons and they told us he was having to work very hard with his breathing. We couldn't touch him as it unsettled him too much.
During the Thursday night, he appeared to be getting better. Hi oxygen requirement had gone down to 25-30% and we thought that he was getting better. Then all of a sudden his oxygen need went up to 98% and they had to needle his chest. Things were very scarey and they really did think that he would have to go on a ventilator because he was having to work so hard he was going to get tired. They thought that he would have to get surfactant.
Again on Friday they had to needle his chest 2 more times and then they decided to put in a drain. His oxygen need was sitting aroung 60% for the next few days.
On the Saturday/Sunday he was still very poorly. But, on the Monday we started to see a wee change in him. His respiration was still high but the oxygen need was about 30-40%.
On the Tuesday we were allowed to put our hands into the incubator and touch him.
On Wednesday I got to change his nappy. His oxygen need was sitting about 25%. They started to introduce some of my expressed milk to his tummy. Later that night I got to feed him myself and got my first cuddle. the incubator was still giving him about 25% oxygen.
By Thursday lunch time they said he was weel enough to come up to me and they said that his respiration would settle down the more he was with me.
On Sunday we got home!
During this time my consultant got a glucose initolerance test done, but this came back negative. He said that Seth was a term baby but his lungs were about 5 weeks behind. (like you suggested cristina) it is something they would see in a gestational diabetes mother. But, im fine.
ANy ideas on why this happened to seth... and what about other pregnancies?
Sorry this is very long and rambly.
jangus