I was pregnant with my first child, after one of my appointments I was sent to the hospital to do a 24 hour protein test. The next morning nurses come running in they could not find my son’s heart beat and needless to say I had an emergency c-section and my son was 11 weeks early. He was doing really well the first week, we would be at the hospital everyday for hours, since I was on leave I would go up twice a day. I remember it like it was yesterday, I went up to the hospital that morning, they had told me he had an infection and was on antibiotics, I stayed a few hours then went home. When my husband came home from work we went up again. The first thing I noticed was his tummy was huge, it had not looked like it did when I left. I was lucky, we had nurses that listened. The next day the took him in for an exploratory surgey, they originally did not want to do it because he still had the infection. Fortunately they did because the doctors had to do the full surgey right then and there. They had told me when they picked up the first portion of his intestine it fell apart right in their hands. Mark was in the hospital for 5 months growing and recovering. Along with other issues he survied, I remember one of the doctors telling us as we were walking out of the NICU he was a miracle baby. Mark is now 9 years old and doing very well. We call his scar his belly’s smiley face and battle scar, I remind him I have a matching scart too. It was and probably will be the hardest thing we have ever had to go through, my heart goes out to all the parents that have or will go though this. My advice would be to give as much love as you can, hold your child as much as you can, parents have a healing touch to their children. Stay aware of anything that doesn’t look right and tell a nurse if you are worried about something. Belive it or not I think they rely on us to notice any differences in our babies.