I decided that it may be healthy for me to start blogging about my experiences that I am having with my daughter, Livie, who has been diagnosed with Craniosynostosis. This is something that I had never heard of before. From the moment I took her in my arms I knew there was something different about her. I knew that I had been in labor with her far too long and that having a c-section would have been a hell of a lot easier. She was stuck and having a very difficult time making her enterance into the world. I will never forget opening my eyes and seeing my doctor pratically on top of me trying to get her unlodged from my pelvis. Once they got her out the silence that fell over the room for the next 2 minutes were almost unbearable. She was not breathing. I looked at my husband to try to read his face as to what was happening. I will never forget seeing him standing there with his eyes closed mouthing his prayers to God. I knew at that moment that everything would be OK. I was not prepared for how difficult things would be.
After they were able to stablilize her and she was breathing on her own they noticed that there was something wrong with her arm, Shoulder Dystocia. The muscles in her neck and shoulder had been over stretched causing her arm to just dangle there almost has if it had been dislocated. From her top lip up was all bruised from being lodged against my pelvis for days and she was Hypoglycemic thanks to my Gestational Diabetes. This poor baby just born was already having to go through too much. We kept her arm close to her body to let the muscles heal on their own and she ended up having to lay on a bilirubin light to help with the jaundice caused by all the bruising on her head. Her sugar levels evened out but we stayed that one extra day to make sure that her arm was healing and her bilirubin levels were OK.
Once we got home we started getting used to having a new born in the house again. The girls, Addie, 3 and Bella, 1, really started to love their little sister. Bella was scared of her in the hospital and would scream when we wanted her to look at her or get close enough for a picture. I wasn't sure if she would every love her sister but, it didn't take long. We had a lot of doctor visits the first few weeks of her life. They were concerned about her arm and I was growing more concerned about her head. I had noticed after she was born that her head looked funny and squished. I assumed it was from the delivery process and soon it would round out and start to look normal. When she was 2 weeks old she had gained use of her arm and it was healing nicely. The range of motion wasn't 100% yet but, pretty close. The doctor was checking her over and I finally stopped him and said, " I know her arm is going to be fine but, lets talk about her head." From that moment my life would take a turn that I hadn't expected.
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