She is beautiful! Born 9 lbs exactly and 20.9 inches long. She looks just like her big sister Avery and was born with almost as much hair as Avery was born with. Dark to light brown hair, big blueish grey eyes and toes that are long like fingers!!!
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for her and for us. Not only did God hear all of our prayers but He truly gave Aren and I the desires of our hearts in Hadley's birth. I was a nervous wreck and struggled emotionally more than I would have liked, as we approached the big day. I was afraid and was struggling letting go of my fears in both her birth and my surgery.
We were surrounded by kind, loving, professional and well trained medical staff. Dr. Knight, our OB, was phenomenal as usual! All of our concerns and questions were heard and the staff did their best to encourage us and meet our needs. The NICU staff were present to support if needed and the nurses who cared for me were some of the best nurses and women I've ever met.
Hadley entered the world kicking and screaming just like a little newborn should. We were unsure if we were going to get to hold her, nurse her and care for her after birth or if she would go straight to the NICU for observation. To our pure delight she was placed into my husbands arms in the OR, then laid into mine in recovery and stayed with me just about the entire three days we were in the hospital. Sutter's patient care is wonderful and they've recently changed their policy, where if the baby is healthy and stable, the baby stays with mom the entire time. No longer do they go to the nursery for care, tests, etc...
One of my fears for her was that she would not be able to breastfeed well due to her possible "cerebellum malformation" and it's role in coordination. I also suffered from too much amniotic fluid, a condition called polyhydramnios. And we wondered if I had the extra fluid because she was not able to perform the suck, swallow, breath, reflex well. Once again to our delight she is a little "barracuda"!!! and breastfeeding has really been a blessing. We are currently working on improving her latch and my supply, but she is doing wonderfully.
The doctors were all so pleased with how well she was doing while we were in-patient, that they didn't feel like some of the original consultations and procedures needed to occur at that time, and that some could wait until we were outpatient. In may ways we were grateful to not be emergent and need immediate care and consults. But we were also a little anxious in bringing her home with many unanswered questions.
One of the test they did choose to perform, was an ultrasound of her cerebellum. It gave us even greater hope and encouragement than any others up to that point. The radiologist did say that the imaging was difficult to get clearly, so we are still awaiting an MRI to give us a concrete diagnosis, but we were so pleased to be told that the results of the ultrasound appeared to show that the cerebellum on both lobes are fully formed and that the malformation that we have actually seen in-utero is a small, benign fluid-filled cyst, that is in between the two lobes and pushing against the one lobe that has appeared to be malformed all this time.
What does this cyst mean? We are still unsure. We are scheduled to meet with the neurologist tomorrow to discuss things more. However, the Neurologist's Assistant, Radiologist,and Pediatrician that we were assigned to while in-patient all said how encouraged they were by this change in diagnosis. Several even said that if given the choice of the two, the cyst was by far the lesser of the two "evils". We were told many encouraging things about this new finding and we felt very encouraged. We were also told she may have to undergo surgery at some point in the future to help place a shunt in that area, if it causes blockage of cerebral spinal fluid. But we have great hope and are praying it keeps shrinking and goes completely away. Of course we'd love it if she could be in complete "perfect" health, but we are praising God for this great improvement!!!
So here we are... at home, cuddling and loving our beautiful little newborn. Her big sister and brother are enamored, especially Avery. Aren and I are outnumbered for sure... and we are grateful!!! Thank you to everyone for your love, prayers and support, Thank you to many of you amazing women in my life who are keeping my fridge full, along with our tummy's! And thank you to our family who have been by our sides along the way, helping us in so many ways we cannot list and for showing us what loyalty and love truly is...
Please continue to pray for us and Hadley.
~Complete praises for all our Father has done!!!
~Pray for our Neurology appt. tomorrow 8/27/12 for clear findings, encouraging news and a healthy prognosis and for the strength and peace to cope with any results found.
~Pray that the cyst goes away and causes no problems, no developmental delays or health complications.
~Pray that the hemangioma on Hadley's cheek continues to fade and cause no health problems (she has a small red patch of skin on her left temple and cheek and eye- at one point it was in the shape of a heart!!! It has changed quite a bit since birth and we are praying for it to not cause any health complications for her.
~For an MRI to be performed if it will help her and for no anesthesia with it or if anesthesia...then no complications with anesthesia.
~Our Father's continued peace and hope in the waiting
~Good milk supply to build...happy, healthy feeding for Hadley and good/rapid weight gain for her (lost 10% of birth weight so we are pumping and supplementing...despite my desire not too, to help her regain the weight she needs then we will stop the supplementing).
Blessings and gratitude...
Heather
1 comment:
Hadley is absolutely beautiful! She is truly a miracle! I can't wait to hold her!!!
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