A MUM’S pregnancy seemed to be going smoothly when she had her 22 week scan.
But Paloma Aguilar, 34, was shocked when her water broke just hours later, putting her and her unborn son’s life in peril.
Paloma Aguilar’s 22 week scan indicated everything was normal, but her water broke that same evening and she rushed to hospitalCaters
Just two days later, Paloma delivered little Eli James, who was so small his arm was the size of his mum’s fingerCaters
Doctors told Paloma and her husband Eliesar (pictured) that Eli was ‘not viable’ as the tot battled for his lifeCaters
Paloma, who is originally from Mexico and has three older children, recounted the dizzying chain of events that transpired in March 22.
“We had an ultrasound one Friday when I was 22 weeks and one day pregnant, and everything appeared normal.
“Then my water broke that Friday evening, at midnight, and early Saturday morning, I went to the hospital.
“When I arrived, they told me that I was 3 centimetres dilated and that the baby was not viable.”
The best advice medics could give Paloma, who refused to give up on her son, was to attempt to delay her birth.
But the mum already had an infection that was putting both their lives in danger.
She explained: “I developed Chorioamnionitis [an infection of the placenta].
“They brought in a team of specialists, and it was ultimately agreed upon that I should stay in the hospital as long as possible on bed rest.
“But they made it very clear, because I already had an infection, that if that infection progressed, they would stop monitoring the baby. At that point, they would just be about saving me.”
While Paloma did try and delay her birth, her tiny son seemed determined to make his entrance into the world sooner rather than later.
Little Eli James did so that Sunday at 11:30pm, less than two days after his mum’s water broke, weighing just 1lb 3oz.
Prior to this, medics told Paloma that had Eli been born at 23 or 24 weeks gestation, he would have had a much better chance.
By then, the situation had deteriorated to the point where Eli had been disconnected from the monitors, as Paloma’s infection had progressed, as feared, into bacteremia – when bacteria gets into a person’s blood stream – resulting in a fever.
“They said that even if they were to give me steroids for Eli’s lungs, it wouldn’t really do much,” she added. “So at that point, they did disconnect Eli from the monitors.
“But thankfully, when Eli was born, he was trying to breathe on his own.
“I did get an ultrasound before this. The doctor stepped aside and said, ‘He’s practising breathing in there, you can see it, and that’s very rare for his gestation.’”
The plan was to give Paloma a C-section so that Eli was put under as little stress as possible, but his eventual birth was so fast that this didn’t even happen.
Paloma revealed: “It was actually quite painful even though he was small, because it happened so fast.
“Even though I was told not to push, when the team were outside, I kept saying, ‘I feel a lot of pressure – I feel a lot of pressure.’
“So I didn’t have anything to help me with the pain. He just came out on the bed when the nurse was barely coming in to see me.
“They showed him to me briefly before taking him away.”
What followed was an incredibly difficult time for Paloma and her husband Eliesar, 45, as Eli began the fight for his life.
Eli was so small that his arm was the size of Paloma’s finger, and she could see right through his body, which was so tiny that medics attempted to use the smallest needle in the country to treat him.
She explained: “When I saw him, it was scary.
“But I always have faith. I had faith that if he made it this far, that he was strong.
“Even getting a PICC line [used to administer medication and nutrition] in him was scary. The doctor told me that they had brought in the smallest needle in the country, which was as thin as a piece of hair, and even that was too big to fit through his veins.”
Paloma said that Eli’s incredible fight for his life lasted several months, and while he was ‘mostly stable’, one evening, medics once again feared for his life.
“There was one point where he like got really sick, and they called us at three in the morning to the hospital because he wasn’t doing well,” Paloma revealed.
“There was always ups and downs, but for the most part, he was he was stable.”
One of the keys to Eli’s survival was breast milk – so much so that Paloma’s husband had to sign a consent form to use someone else’s had she failed to produce her own supply.
Thankfully, Paloma was able to give Eli the nutrition he needed herself, but she had the added bonus of being given Prolacta – a human milk based fortifier that comes from donors.
She said: “As I was pumping, they were still adding Prolacta, so that he could receive additional nutrients.
“This was a blessing to us because some hospitals don’t offer it – I know that when they just have cow-based fortifiers, unfortunately, some of those babies have a different outcome.
“To us, it was just a huge blessing to have received that, and I wholeheartedly feel it made the difference in Eli’s journey.”
Little Eli is now just over a year old.
The stay-at-home mum based in Las Vegas, Nevada, said: “He’s starting to walk right now, and he’s saying his first words – Dadda was the first. Everyone has been surprised with his progress.
“While he’s a little smaller than most one-year-olds, he is catching up quite fast.”
Paloma said the only sign of Eli’s difficult start in life are small scars on his body, but apart from that, he is a completely healthy baby – despite medics’ warning the parents that if he survived, he could have disabilities.
Paloma said she advises any other parents who find themselves in a similar situation to take it one day at a time.
“Take it one day at a time,” she said,” and “be proactive with the doctors and nurses. Because we’re so grateful to the team we had for explaining the importance of nutrition and being present.”
Little Eli went through ups and down in hospital but made it through, to his parents’ joyCaters
Now one, the tot is thriving and has began to speak his first wordsCaters
His first word was ‘Dada’ and his mum Paloma says he is catching up fast to other one-year-oldsCaters Read More