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Rachel Balck: March of Dimes Family Coordinator for Greenville Health System NICU

Tiffany Antici: Hi, I'm Tiffany! Here is a little bit about my son Cooper!

Cooper was born on February 4, 2011. He was 39 weeks at the time of delivery, weighing 8 lbs 2 oz and measuring 21 inches long. After birth, he began experiencing respiratory issues. Cooper was diagnosed with laryngomalacia, paralysis of the right hemidiaphragm, and severe reflux. At 3 weeks, doctors performed a Diaphragm Plication and Cooper received a PEG tube. After 36 days in the NICU, Cooper was able to come home. At 8 months, Cooper’s diaphragm regained function. He is now a healthy 2 year old little boy. Since eating is still difficult for Cooper, he still has his feeding tube, but is improving everyday.

Jennifer Ramsey: Hi everyone! I just want to introduce myself and share a little of our story. I am Jennifer and I am a mom to 2 preemies (well actually 3 ;) ), who were both at GHS. To start I have to go back 6 years. My husband and I were expecting twins, Rachel and Aiden. We had tried for years with lots of ups and downs to get these precious babies here. My pregnancy seemed to be going well until one night it all went wrong. I developed HELLP syndrome and was admitted to GHS. For 4 days my doctors held off my symptoms with steroids and I was given steroids to boost the lung function of the babies. The day I came off the steroids my HELLP returned in full force. My doctor said the babies had to be delivered right away, no questions asked. So on the night of January 4, 2007, my sweet babies entered the world at 26wks gestation. Both weighed about 1lb 11oz and were about 12in long.

We went through the honeymoon phase for the next 2 day, the babies seemed stable. Then the other shoe dropped... Aiden's suffered a bowel perforation and his tiny little system couldn't handle the stress. Sadly we lost our sweet boy on January 6th. And about the same time Rachel suffered a sever brain bleed. For those of you familiar with bleeds, she had a grade 4 on the right side and a grade 3 on the right. A grade 4 is as bad as it gets :( There were several days that we didn't know if she would make it. But slowly she started to improve. She was on a vent for 3 weeks, even doing some time on the oscillator (a vent that vibrates the carbon dioxide out of the lungs).
Rachel would go on to spend 76 days in the NICU. Lots of ups and downs, a true roller coaster ride. But today, she is a thriving 6yr old, she goes regular kindergarten and is the biggest social butterfly I have ever met in my life. I blame her NICU nurses for this!! ;) Rachel does have mild CP, she walks with a walker or a cane. She is working very hard to become an independent walker. And we have just entered into the world of seizures, unfortunately. But I am sure she won't let that slow her down one little bit!
Fast forward 3 years...We decided to try to have another child. We had figured out what caused the HELLP and took measures to prevent it from happening again. But once again, things were going very well and because I was being followed so closely by Maternal Fetal Medicine a Doppler ultrasound indicated that my son's placenta had stopped working properly and was restricting blood flow to the baby. All I could think was "not again, his story will be different" They admitted me to high risk at 26wks. I sat in that bed for almost 8 weeks! Some days his placenta was working ok enough to get by and some days it wasn't. But I held out until 33wks!! Rhett entered the world on September 15, 2010. He was 3lbs 2oz. Rhett had undetected intrauterine growth restriction and was very small for his gestational age. He did well breathing on his own at first, but did require 2 days of CPAP. His NICU stay was just about as uneventful as a NICU stay can get. A true Feeder Grower. Thank goodness!!! He spent 33 days in the NICU and came home on his own ;)
This page has been a passion of mine to get started! I want to reach out to as many NICU families as possible and help everyone find the support that they need. Thank you for reading our story and we hope you will like our page and become a part of our community!