Time passes so fast...

WOW...
I cant believe its been since Oct '06 since I last posted. The past 6 months have really flown by. After the holidays, our 21 year old daughter Dawn came to visit. She was able to stay with us for just over a month. She was here while I was in the hospital having our littlest daughter in Feb '07, Mary Rosetta.
We call her MaryRose. She is named after 2 of her great grandmothers, Mary Magdeline Cevela (Chris' grandmother) and Clara Rosetta Valentinte (my grandmother). She is such a beautiful little angel. I had her by C-section, my 5th section. The doctors wanted to deliver her at 36 wks. I begged for an extra week.
The two youngest boys had to stay in the hospital after I was discharged. If anyone has had to leave the hospital without your baby, you can understand what I mean. I believe its one of the hardest things, walking out of the hospital without your baby. When I had my third child, they had to transport him to a hospital an hour away. I was put in a room away from the maternity wing (they didn't know if he would survive the night). I felt like ... did I really have a baby... what just happened here...
then my next son was born 8 years later, we were all hopeful that everything would be alright. He too ended up on a ventilator and in the NICU for about a week. They were both big babies for being 36 and 37 week babies. So, when we were surprised with little MaryRose's impending arrival, I started asking the doctors if everything looks good and is going well will you consider letting me go to 37 weeks. I was hoping that an extra week would give her more time and maybe just maybe she wouldn't have to be/stay in the NICU. The reason the doctors didnt want me to carry her past 36 wks was due to my having had a uterine window during my 3rd pregnancy and again during my 4th. They were pretty sure that I had developed another one during the pregnancy with MaryRose.
Well, while we were at the hospital where I delivered, she came and went from the room to the special care unit. They felt that her symptoms were periodic enough that we could go home. We were all so excited, she didnt have to stay. I had her on Feb. 26th (Monday), went home on Mar. 2nd (Friday). All that week while we were in the hospital I just felt something wasn't quite right and made sure that the doctors and nurses knew all the family history. However, they felt that she could go home. I put my feelings aside and listen to their experience. Besides, I really wanted her to be able to come home too... I just felt uneasy.
As the weekend progressed, she wasn't acting right. She seemed to have trouble nursing. (I had nursed my other babies, 1st one nursed til he was 15mo old. I was 6mo preg. with my 2nd baby. She nursed til she was almost 2 yrs. My 3rd baby only nursed for @4mo. He had more medical issues we didn't realize at that point; that made it difficult for him to nurse. My 4th baby only nursed for a few months and not well. According to the specialists, his heart condition made it tiring for him to nurse. I had milk, just couldn't pump well. I havent EVER been real successful with the whole pumping thing.
Anyway...By Sunday afternoon MaryRose hadn't had a messy diaper since she left the hospital on Friday and her wet diapers were almost nothing. I was getting real concerned. I had pumped while in the hospital (didnt go real well). I know people that have, and are able to pump like a milk cow (I don't mean anything ugly by that). I have always been amazed by it. They can get an entire bottle and thats after they have just nursed. I'm just not one of those people but I tried. On Monday, Mar. 5th, I called the Ped. office explaining to the nurse what was going on with MaryRose. She spoke with the doctor and told me there was nothing they could do at the office. We needed to take MaryRose to the emergency room. So, that's where we headed. We were there all day (boy, was that an experience) I'll post about that some time. By that evening, it was decided that she was going to be admitted, just for observation. We were so blessed that one of the nurses decided to go with us to the room because on the way she (MaryRose) had major problems again. We stopped in the hallway, the nurse worked on her and we rushed back to the ER. As we rounded the corner, was she was yelling at people to get in the room. After they worked with MaryRose the doctor decided that she had to go to ICU. She was there for a week. They ran lots of tests and it was rather intense at times. The PICU doctor that we saw first wouldn't really listen to our family history, which we thought was important considering that the 2 children just older than her were in the NICU after being born. He said," I chose to go to medical school. You chose to have children." We couldn't believe he said that to us. I tried to explain to him that 2 of the boys have horrible reflux, one had surgery and his response to us was... "Everyone refluxes." (felt like he was blowin us off). They ran so many tests on her and she had lots of tubes and IV's. When they did the spinal tap she was so tired she fell asleep. Finally, GI came in the room. I asked the lady what office she was from. When she told me, I asked if she knew Dr. Patel. She said she did, why? I told her that he saw 2 of our boys and if she told him their names he would know who I am. It was about 30 min's later, he walked in our room. He ran some tests and said, I don't know what it is with your kids but she has GI problems too. Jackson's GI problems are malformation as well as having reflux. MaryRose's problem is that her esophagus isn't working properly. It doesn't push "food" into her stomach and cant keep it there. So, her esophagus is washed almost constantly with acid. As soon as he found out what was going on and got her stable, we went home (with monitors).
It was a scary time.
When I really thought about it, I realized that if we hadn't taken her that Monday she would have died that night. I know that sounds dramatic but she didn't go from breathing to not breathing.
She would be breathing and...
then...
just...
slow....
down......
til she stopped...

When you lay a baby down to go to sleep you don't watch them constantly, making sure that they are breathing...
You go get other things done, check on the other kids, get something to eat, take a nap or just veg for a few.
There would have been no way for us to have known that she had stopped breathing.

It's scary to think about....



(I didn't realize that I hadn't posted this at the time it was written and now its June 08, boy time has really flown....) MaryRose is 15mo old now, Pretty Little Girl... :D She has such personality and the faces she makes.... too cute.. :D