I know. It’s been ages since I’ve written my
blog! It’s been an insane several months
and there’s a lot to catch you up on. I’ll
try to be brief… but who are we kidding!?
I’m a talker. So, here we go!
April:
Richard’s mom moved down to her new retirement home in Florida at the
tail end of the month. We were all
excited for her to start her new adventure and really sink her teeth into a
retirement kind of life! She enlisted some
help from her sister’s boyfriend to help her drive down when we got news from
my doctor that I could “go any time.” He
really didn’t want to travel and miss Sophie’s birth, if I did go early. That same weekend that my MIL moved, Richard
broke out the carpet cleaner and got busy cleaning the basement. Our new sofa had arrived a week or so prior
to her move and we were anxious to get it out!
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| New furniture! The epitome of comfort! |
May:
After several days of intensive cleaning, we were finally able to bring
out our new couch and set up the basement as the playroom mecca! We polished up Sophie’s room and got her
clothes all ready for her arrival. We
also had my dad’s help finishing up the half-wall we built between the kitchen
and living room upstairs. It’s function as
a baby gate is PERFECT and I’m sooooo glad we put it up. It’s temporary and will come out once the
girls are old enough to handle being in the kitchen without killing
themselves. Haha!
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| Sophie's room all finished |
As the days ticked by, faster than
lightening, my favorite doctor met with me to discuss induction. She felt that Sophie was able and ready to
join the world and suggested we be induced on May 13th. She would be working labor and delivery that
day. I jumped all over that, since I was
extremely uncomfortable and ready for this to happen. Plus, I was thrilled with her being the one
to deliver my baby.
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| Freedom to walk around! Yay! |
On the 13th, Richard and I
packed up our things and Mom and Dad came over to stay with Sam. Heather, who was just back from her trip to
Vegas would come relieve Mom and hang with Dad.
Mom and Diana would join Richard and I in L&D later that
morning. Dr. E. went over our induction
choices (an opportunity I didn’t get with Sam) and chose to try Cytotec. She thought that it might be a shorter labor
than Pitocin (which we’d used last time) and also said that it brought on a
more natural labor. I got my first dose
at 10am. To keep a long story short, it
was a VERY long day, but my memory of that day is fabulous! It was easily the better of my two birth
stories. Once I had my last dose of Cytotec,
I was able to get up and walk around. I
was even allowed to shower. My
contractions were far more bearable than those I had with Sam. And, when it came time to push, I pushed four
or five times and Sophie was out in less than five minutes! Crazy, right!
I did tear again and her placenta did not come cleanly away (which involved
some techniques I won’t discuss here, haha), but all in all it was a GREAT
experience.
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| SOPHIE!! 8lbs, 21" |
Sophie was born at 2:51am on May 14th. I got about two hours of sleep that
night. Maybe three hours the following
night. The rest of those first couple of
weeks are a total blur. Days blended
together. Sophie wasn’t sleeping well
through the night and once Richard went back to work, I was on my own during
the day. I wasn’t able to nap with
Sophie, because I still had Sam. And for
some reason, Sophie just wasn’t interested in sleeping during Sam’s nap
time. Go figure! Haha!
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| Wine barrel cake I made for Heather's birthday! |
June:
This was the hardest month. It
was very full and busy preparing for my best friend’s wedding and my sister’s
30th birthday! Great things,
yes; but, it kept me very busy. I had an
event every weekend. During the week,
during nap time, I worked on projects for each event. Thankfully, a dear friend of mine was able to
come hang out with the girls each Friday of the month! It was a HUGE help and kept me sane.
We also had Sophie’s first big
checkup. As my pediatrician lingered on
Sophie’s chest with the stethoscope, the little voices in my head started
saying, “He’s spending a lot of time on her chest… is there something wrong?” Apparently, there is a vein that bypasses the
lungs when the baby’s still attached to mom.
When the baby is born, this vein closes – quickly. Usually, it’s closed within the first 72
hours after birth.
Sophie’s did not.
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| Sophie, first week |
It’s called patent ductus arteriosus.
For those who don’t click on my link, it causes oxygen-poor blood to mix
with oxygen-rich blood, thus causing the heart to work harder than it otherwise
would need to and can increase blood pressure in the lungs. Sometimes this will still close on its own
over time, other times it needs to be fixed by other means – options range from drug therapy to surgery.
At the
time of this first appointment, he suggested waiting until her two month
checkup to check the status and we’d decide from there.
So
intermixed with all these functions, I was grappling with what this meant for
my child and my family. I had a lot of
guilt for not spending enough quality time with Sophie, too. I did – don’t get me wrong. I love on my babies every chance I get. And I absolutely wanted to be a part of all
the things that were going on, too!! I’m
sure you can imagine the mixed emotions.
After doing some research, I felt a lot better about where we were
at. Sophie’s gaining weight like a
champ, so I decided to let my worry go.
There was nothing I could do about it until July. What’s the phrase? “Let go and let God.” My religious views aside, this is exactly
what I did.
July:
Another very busy month! And it
brings us current. My dearest friend
Stacey got married on the 20th and we were very busy getting ready
for her special day. I had a great time
working with my fellow bridesmaids and getting to spend some quality time with
Stacey, too.
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| Heather, Mom, Stacey, me, and Diana - Stacey's wedding! |
On Tuesday, following her wedding, we
had Sophie’s two month checkup. As I
waited on tenterhooks in the lobby, I wondered if my little one had healed up
on her own or if we were looking at additional testing. Dr. S. had told us that if he still heard the
echo/murmur/vein, then he’d order an echocardiogram. This would provide us a more detailed picture
of what’s going on and let us know if it’s something to worry about (something
that needs fixed) or if it’s something that she can just live her life with
without any problems. I won’t lie. I totally held my breath as he checked her
chest. Again, he lingered. But this time he could be straining to hear
for a slight sound…. Right? Nope. Echo’s still there. Let’s get her an echocardiogram to see what we’re
dealing with. Okay.
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| Photo by Karen |
So, the plus side is that she’s still
gaining weight like a champ. There’s no
failure to thrive issues here. However,
she does still choke at least a few times a week. And since we moved her into her crib (we have
an AngelSafe monitor that alarms when she’s not breathing) the alarm has gone
off twice. She will periodically just
randomly stop breathing for a couple to several seconds before catching her
breath again. This used to be a BIG
problem when nursing, because she’d dose off while eating, stop breathing, and then
suck back air/milk at the same time. She
does get overheated and sweaty very easily.
She also breathes heavily when eating or exerting herself. So, I wasn’t surprised that this problem
still exists.
What I want to know is if it’s
something that we need to fix and when can we fix it and how can we fix it and
Damn it... will my baby be okay!?
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| Soapy today, as I write |
I know that she will. As I said it’s not really a super serious thing. But still, no parent wants to hear these
things. No parent wants to see their
little one not operating at 100%. To me,
this is serious. This is my child. My baby.
My brand new, sweet as a button, baby.
Well, the test has been ordered and we’re
going to report to the Heart and Vascular Center on Monday morning. The results are being sent to UVA for
analysis and our pediatrician will call us when the results arrive. I have no idea what to think or how to
feel. It just is what it is. All I can do is wait and see. In the meantime, I’m snuggling her as much as
I can.
I’ll update on Monday, with how the
test went. I also want to update about
Sam’s progress! The kid is growing like
a weed!! I really hope to carve out time
to get back into blogging regularly, as it’s such a great outlet for me. But at the very least, I promise to keep
everyone updated on my Soapy Bubbles and her upcoming tests.
And now, some more pictures! Since there's not a single one above of my darling Sam-a-lam! Can't have that, now, can we!? (They are in no particular order, since Blogger keeps shifting them about. Grrr...)
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| The happy grandparents! |
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| Sam's chomping on a peanut butter and jelly square. My big girl takes big bites now! |
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| Sam's first birthday |
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| Sam's cake smashing outfit |
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| "Oh yeah, I'm cool!" |
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| Sam meeting Sophie |
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| Play time!! |
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| Bubbles is home!! |
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| Proud Pop-Pop! |
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| The Very Hungry Caterpillar cake/cup cakes I made for Sam's first birthday. |
2 comments:
Sara,
Kamryn also had PDA when she was born (as well as two other heart issues: Ventricular Septal Defect, and her biggest issue, a "large" Atrial Septal Defect). We were initially told that the two smaller issues would likely correct themselves in time, and like you, were given the 'wait and see' approach before a follow-up echo to determine what course of action might be necessary. We were told that her larger issue would almost certainly require some sort of procedure/surgery to correct, given its size. Like you, I was scared out of my mind-- I don't have the words to describe it, but I'm sure you know just what I mean. Long story short, at Kamryn's 6-month visit to her pediatric cardiologist in Morgantown, an echocardiogram revealed that her two smaller issues had completely corrected themselves, and the most serious one, the ASD, had closed itself to such a small size that the doctor said it would likely close on its own by age 2, it would not cause any problems even if it did stick around at that size, and would NOT need surgery! I just wanted to share this with you to 1.) let you know that I can relate and sympathize with what you're going through with Sophie, and 2.) offer some additional hope that there's a good chance that everything will be fine on its own! I'll be hoping/praying for a good report for Sophie!
Autumn, that's so fabulous that her conditions cleared up on their own!! That's wonderful news! It's such a relief to hear from another mom who has gone through something similar. Thank you!! Because I do bounce between being terrified and reminding myself that it's not likely to be anything too serious. It's a horrible feeling and I never really know what to feel, how much to worry, or how far to push her or the doctors.
Thanks again, Autumn. I appreciate your sharing. :o)
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