This is the 5th year Team Billy has walked in the Lowell March for Babies. They have one of the largest teams in Lowell and always have a great presence at the walk.
William made his grand and very unexpected entrance into the world at 30 weeks gestation, which also just happened to be his big brothers first day of kindergarten. So there I stood, in a crowded classroom surrounded by excited parents and terrified 5 year olds, but all of that couldn’t possibly distract me from what I was hoping was all in my imagination. I just kept saying to myself, these can’t possibly be contractions that I’m feeling; I’m not due for another 10 weeks. Eight weeks before, at 22 weeks, was the day our whole world seemed to collapse around us. We went in for a routine ultrasound and were so excited to see our baby on the monitor and marvel at how much he had grown; but instead of joy and excitement, we left the doctor’s office feeling devastated, overwhelmed and terrified. We found out that day that our sweet baby had an abnormality in both of his kidneys, and may not even survive the rest of the pregnancy, let alone labor and delivery. Can you possibly imagine what it feels like to hear those words? After that point I went for ultrasounds every 2 weeks just to assure that the baby’s kidneys were still functioning and producing amniotic fluid. Every day we just waited for something to go wrong, and wondering what’s next, it was mental and emotional torture.
On September 3rd, which just so happened to be Labor Day, I started having back pain but just thought it was a symptom of my growing belly. The next morning, off we went to start kindergarten, and again, what should have been a joyous occasion, took a turn for the worst. My husband and I took our son to his 1st day of kindergarten and then headed to see the doctor. I remember waiting for the elevator doors to open and thinking back to my ultrasound 2 days before when they told me that the baby weighed about 2lbs 9oz. That thought sent shivers up my spine and I remember standing there in tears telling my husband, “I can’t have this baby today, it’s too small”.
Everything started to move so quickly after that, before being rushed to Boston in an ambulance, I was given IV antibiotics, a surfactant shot for the baby’s lungs, and medication to stop the contractions, however the baby had a different plan. He decided that September 4th was going to be his birthday. Just a few short hours after I arrived in Boston, my William was born. He weighed in at 3lbs even & measured just 14.5 inches long, it’s remarkable that all of that took place before his big brother had even finished his first day of kindergarten.
About 6 hours after my son was born I was finally taken down to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to meet him. William spent the next 24 hours of his life on a ventilator and one more day on oxygen therapy and miraculously by the 3rd day he was breathing on his own at just 2lbs & 13oz. Then a few days later it was time for me to be discharged from the hospital which was very difficult, it’s so hard on a Mom to leave the hospital without her baby. We couldn’t stand the thought of him being so far away from us so we’d travel from Lowell to Boston every day to visit him, but since babies in the NICU can only be held for no more than 30 minutes a day, we’d spend more time in the car than we could actually spend being close to our fragile baby. The sounds of the NICU are sounds that will stay in my mind forever, can you imagine sitting there knowing that every time those monitors sounded it meant that your baby has either stooped breathing for a second or that their heart rate has dropped too low. It felt like a nightmare and I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone.
On day 8, William was finally stable enough to be transferred to Lowell General Hospital’s special care nursery where he spent the next 42 very, very long days. Those 7 weeks felt like an eternity and all I wanted was to have my baby home with us where he belonged. Each day he would take another step in his journey to finally coming home, which weren’t always steps forward but we made the best of it.
Then just as we finally let our guard down and were scheduled to have William home in just a few days, we found out that he had double hernias and he needed surgery to have them repaired. So off he went, back to Boston, where he had surgery on October 19th. He finally came home 3 days later, 21 days before he was even supposed to be born. We still don’t know why Billy was born so early & we probably never will, but thankfully, today he is a healthy, thriving 4 year old preschooler and soccer player.
Billy, Age 4
He will be seen by a pediatric kidney doctor for the rest of his life because of the cysts that he has in his kidneys; however the outlook for his future is very positive. Our family is forever indebted to the March of Dimes for having created Surfactant therapy and for pioneering the first NICU and the specialized care that they provide to the most sick and tiny babies, they are the reason that we are so lucky to be able to hold our son in our arms today. 
The Delannoy Family
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