Shaleen's Story

Shaleen was born on August 27, 1985. She was not due until November of 1985. However, at 29 weeks gestation, a full 11 weeks early, she insisted upon being born. As such, she was a very premature baby. She weighed 2 pounds, 7 ounces. She was 15 inches long, which is 3 inches taller than a Barbie doll. She was my own tiny fairy child. Shaleen was in the hospital for two full months after she was born. She began her life in the NICU at Mercy Hospital Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Shaleen was only on a respirator until she was nine days old, which is unusual for premature babies. She did not have hyaline membrane disease or many of the other ailments common to premature infants. At three weeks of age, she did get a respiratory infection that the doctors and nurses were sure she would not survive. She came through that with flying colors, though, and survived the whole two-month ordeal in the hospital.

At the beginning, she had so many tubes and wires coming out of her, I did not think they would even allow me to hold her. They did, though; and I held her as much as I could. They had done an umbilical cutdown on her, which has left a small cross-shaped scar under her belly button. This was to run a intravenous line for her, because all of her other veins were too small to gain IV access. When they first began to feed her, they fed her through a nasogastric tube, which allowed them to put breast milk and formula directly into her stomach. This was done because she was not strong enough to suck on a bottle yet. She had to develop a little more before she even had that reflex. She did have hair, fingernails, toenails, etc. She was just very tiny.

As she grew, she had a very strong survival instinct. The doctors decided that her lungs and body had developed far beyond the normal for what her gestational age was because of the fact that I had problems during my pregnancy with her. The placenta was very low in the uterus, not quite placenta previa, but very low. Normally, they are above the baby, attached to the top of the uterus. If the placenta is over the cervix, at the very bottom, that is called placenta previa. Mine was attached low and kept pulling away slightly, causing bleeding. Apparently, this was enough to force her lungs to mature early, which is why she escaped hyaline membrane disease.

Shaleen had spells of bradycardia (slow heart beat) and tachycardia (fast heart beat). She also was tested for apnea, as her older brother had been on an apnea monitor until he was over a year old. Shaleen also came home on a monitor. She was on that until she was over six months old. She only weighed 4 pounds, 7 ounces when they sent her home from the hospital. I had already had experience with the monitor, however; so they decided not to wait until she hit that 4.5 to 5 pound mark. I did have to take a refresher course in infant CPR and demonstrate that I knew what I was doing. I also took my babysitter in to the hospital where she received free CPR training also.

They followed Shaleen through the AEA (Area Education Agency) with testing about once a month, as part of a study the hospital was doing on premature infants. This service was all free to us. They also sent a home health nurse to keep track of her weight, height, and feeding. The AEA followed Shaleen for about 2 years. They also made arrangements for her to go to a special daycare for about six months so that they could do more testing on her in this setting, also as a part of their study.

I guess they finished with all that in 1988. Now, Shaleen is 15 years old. She has had her appendix removed. She has had to have her tonsils and adenoids taken out, but her tonsils grew back. When she was 6 months old, she had chickenpox; and they placed in her in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for 2 days. Other than that, she has been pretty healthy and fairly happy. She still has pointed little ears. She is only about 5 feet, 1 inch tall. Best of all, she is still my very own little fairy child!

This last picture was taken the day Shaleen got to come home from the hospital. As you can see, she fits into the preemie doll outfit a little better, but it was still too long for her!

Shaleen is now 18.  If you would like to see how she looks now, just visit our Kids Page. There is a picture of her there. I was very frightened when Shaleen was first born, and I didn't know ANYBODY with a premature baby except me. 

My niece was born about a year later, and she was also premature. Elizabeth weighed 2 pounds even when she was born, and she was 13 inches tall. Elizabeth is now 14, and she is healthy, happy, and doing fine also. My brother and sister-in-law were also lost, but they at least had me to talk to as I had been through it already. Mary and I spent hours talking. Each tiny little change or success is monumental to a parent and family of a preemie, even if other people do not find it so interesting.

Please, help yourself to the links below including links for Parents of Preemies, a page about premature infants, etc. Please don't hesitate to e-mail us either. Good luck with your own little fairies. God will bless you, that's for sure!