Wysdom's Birth Story

31For 21 Challenge: Day 24 (late again)

Well I need to go back to the delivery to give you an idea of what a fighter he is. During the pregnancy he faced many issues such as too much amniotic fluid, small size and faulty umbilical cords. I was stressed out a lot however Wysdom calmed me most of the time with his regular movements and flips. He was a very active baby. I also became a part of the down syndrome online group at Baby Center. This gave me tremendous support durring my pregnancy. The moms on this board talked to me daily and answered my questions and concerns and listened to my fears. My fears turned from being about a baby with down syndrdome to wondering if he would survive. Three weeks before my due date they decided to induce me. I was given two days notice that this was going to happen and the main reason was that Wysdom's growth had stunted and my umbilical cords were faulty and not supplying what they needed to be. For a couple of weeks his growth remained the same and he was a little one only weighing around the 4 pound mark. So we headed for the hospital.

With my daughter I had a midwife and planned to have a natural birth at home. Although the home birth was not a possibility with her, I had a birth plan and had wonderful prenatal care. When I unexpectedly became pregnant with Wysdom and before the diagnosis, I envisioned the same process that would include the most natural birth plan.

However I was in for a bit of an adventure. During the delivery my husband Julian, got food poisoning and he had to be absent for most of the delivery. The birth that I had anticipated had turned into a crazy ordeal of "let's try this procedure" and "we have never seen this happen before". For someone like me who wanted to use a midwife and have a natural birth...I ended up with the most technical event know to man.:) I had things done that I have never heard of before..."like cervical stretcher", "probe to be placed in fetal skull", "ultrasound during labour", 'can't find the fetus" and much more. Fortunately I was blessed with the gift of a Douala from my coworkers and she was able to give me support during the labour. After 12 hours it was clear that I was not going to be able to have the baby vaginally. Wysdom's heart rate would slow down every time my medication for the induction went up. I wasn't able to dilate over 5cm over a 12 hour period. It was the scariest event ever. I thought that we were going to loose him.

Finally I was wheeled away for an emergency c-section. Unfortunately an epidural couldn't freeze me properly for the procedure. All but an apple size patch of skin was frozen. For whatever reason this patch would not freeze even at the highest possible dose of drugs. Next came the spinal and next came faces of panic when I still felt one area. Finally, the apple size patch froze and the procedure began.

Even though Wysdom's heart rate was unstable through out the labour, he came out strong and screaming and feisty. Feisty is what they called him!!! And yes I got what I wanted more than anything else...to hold my baby. right away.. and what a beauty he was. I truly think knowing about his diagnosis while being pregnant had been a bleassing for me. When he was born, all I saw was a baby. I had no fear, no tears of sadness just plain old magical love. Love at first site. He was perfect and of sooo cute. All of the things that they focus on in the ultrasounds like nuchal fold, space between toes, curved fingers didn't appear to me and still don't.

He didn't need any oxygen and was breathing fine on his own. After we held him and took several pictures they took him the the NICU. He was in a little incubator for a couple of days. The only medical thing that was really needed was the intervention of the ng to help him with getting his nutrition. He had a great suck but would tucker out after a short period of time. Because of his AVSD they did not want to tire him out. As well he was only 4 pounds at 3 weeks shy of full term so they wanted him to gain weight.

Although he did great at the start we remained in the hospital for the next 2 months. Feeding became the major issue that kept us there. The hospital wanted his weight to go up and his feeding routine to be established. I breastfed him and then he was topped up with the ng for the first month. He was such a fighter and has a strong suck. However even with the strong suck we had some latch issues. After the first month we were transferred to a local hospital. This is where Wysdom picked up an oral aversion and stopped nursing and taking the bottle. This is also where he caught rsv. I guess you can say that our move to the second hospital was not the best choice for us. This is really where we saw Wysdom fight for his life for the first time. He was put on an IV while fighting rsv and was almost sent back to the first hospital for intubation. This Iv took four hours to get in. It was a nightmare. Luckily for us after a week or so the worst was over and he seemed to be able to deal with the rsv and started to recover quickly. After exactly 2 months we were finally discharged with Wysdom, his ng and a handful of medications for his heart. It didn't really matter to us....we were just so happy to be home and this is where we saw Wysdom start to thrive.