NewsRadio Savannah and our sponsor The Dewitt Tilton Group introduces you to the Holmes-Towns family and their Ronald McDonald House Of The Coastal Empire experience:
Let me start by saying that this came as a complete shock to us, because this was a scheduled C-Section, and she was full term. I had a normal pregnancy; it was not until after she was born that we found out that she has a cleft palate. Our story begins on July 6, 2023, I had a scheduled C-section, so for me I’m thinking that this is going to be straightforward to have her and be out of the hospital in just a few days, but that is not what happened. As we were in the operating room patiently waiting for her to be taken out, I notice that when they get her out she has this weak little cry that I had never heard before but I couldn’t see her just yet and then when the doctor brought her over I noticed that he was basically holding her with one arm and I’m like what she's so small and when they told me she only weighs 5 pounds and 13 ounces. I was so shocked because they had told me she was going to be a big baby. I remember asking my husband if she looks blue to him and he said no she’s fine and not long after that they took her out. I was in recovery for a while getting staples put in, then once I was in recovery the nurse asked me if I wanted her to go get my other two girls for when they bring the baby into the room.
I told her yes because I was so anxious to see how my two-year-old was going to react to her new little sister. She went to get them; at this time I don’t think the nurse even knew there was something wrong. Well, the doctor comes in and he doesn’t have my baby. I immediately knew something was wrong. He goes on to tell me and my husband that he found that she has a cleft palate, and she also was having respiratory issues to where she needed oxygen. I completely broke down at this point because it was so unknown and all I wanted was to hold my baby. We were in the hospital for a few days at first and they didn’t know how to feed her and the issues she was having. They just didn’t have what they needed to give her the care she needed so they decided to send her to Memorial Health in Savannah. The NICU came and picked her up, they discharged me so I could leave and follow her. It is the absolute worst feeling not being able to be with your baby or hold her for days and days and for her to be in a vehicle without one of us was terrifying.
We left the hospital and started making our way to Savannah with me in slippers and PJs, but I don’t even care and for the next week I am in PJs because that is all I had with me. Well to make a long story a little shorter once we got to Savannah it felt like there was so much more going on with her that we even knew. They found that she has a tethered spinal cord, a clubbed foot, issues with her genetics, and my husband and I were so overwhelmed. For the first two nights we stayed at the hospital in the Respite room, and then the rest of the days after those were so stressful trying to afford day by day a hotel we had no idea how long we would be there or what we were going to do and furthermore how we were going to afford to stay there but there was no way that I was going to leave my baby period then right as we were in panic mode we got the call from the Ronald McDonald House that we could stay there and it was like a weight was lifted or at least one weight.
The hospital worked on getting her fed and did several tests to try and figure out the best way to feed her without her aspirating. She got to where she would drink the bottle well, but at times she wouldn’t so it ended up with us being there for a month. She had to have a g-tube put in so that she could still get the nutrients that she needed because she couldn’t drink enough of her bottle. Finally, after getting the g-tube we got to come home but that is where it got even more overwhelming because of all of the doctors’ appointments she even now continues to have. She has a doctor for everything, but I am so grateful to the nurses in the NICU, the Ronald McDonald House, and our Family and Friends, I don’t know what we would've done without all of y’all.
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