The sack she was living in inside me had torn away in some places and was bleeding. All the little blood vessels were exposed. The doctor tried very hard to keep me carrying her as long as possible. She was born in a military hospital at Holloman Air Force Base on the edge of the White Sands Missile Range. She was blessed because it was the regional hospital that cared for premature babies. The best of the best was there for her. She wasn't expected to live but she did.
When she was born, she came out crying loud and she cried a lot. Her Daddy, Eddie, could hear her crying out in the hallway. The doctor said, "Listen to that baby scream. Good for her, she'll make it." That crying got her lungs all filled up with air and made her stronger. She only drank a nipple full of milk at a time and that took forty-five minutes. Her weight at birth was three pounds and she went down to a pound and a half. Slowly her weight came back up to five pounds over four months.
During the last two months that she was in the hospital, the doctor discovered she had a hole in the heart and said she may have to have open heart surgery when she was about two to correct it. We were asked to take her to a heart specialist in El Paso, Texas the day she was discharged from the hospital to get their opinion on her heart. We took her straight to the specialist that day with her records. The three doctors said they didn't want to see the records first, they wanted to test her each by themselves and then they would look at the records. I was just suppose to keep her from crying. Try that with a baby you just got out of the hospital and have never held before, but we got through the exams.
Then the three doctors came out and said, "What is this baby suppose to have wrong? We didn't find anything wrong." Then they read the records and said the hole in her heart had healed up while she was in the hospital those 4 months. She did not have to have heart surgery and probably she would never have any trouble with her heart. Eddie and I were so happy. We could hardly believe our ears. We took her home and were so thankful.
One of the hardest things at home was she was never held those 4 months and there was no bonding to human hands. Back then they kept the babies in isolation and only put in their hands to feed her. Now the babies are held to be fed. Because of this, Sheila would not let us hold her for a year. She screamed and cried every time we tried to feed her. So we had to lay her on the sofa or bed and prop up her bottle on a pillow to feed her. Slowly she got over that and now is so loving and wants hugs all the time. She hasn't ever developed heart trouble. But does have very bad allergies to medications and pain pills.
In her first year, her most trouble was with getting pneumonia . We rushed her after hours to the base emergency room because she could hardly breathe. The doctor went into the pharmacy and mixed a drug that a premature baby could take and spoon fed it to her to help her breathe.
As the weeks went by she gained weight and did well, and we grew closer and closer every day. She didn't get her hair until she was 2 years old.
During her hospital stay, her skin was so thin and no fat. When she pressed her foot or hand against the glass, we could see her tiny bones just like a x-ray machine. She was so tiny that all but her legs and arms could fit in the palm of your hand.
Baby Sheila
Sheila Four Months
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