Happy Birthday Grace

Well, my darling daughter turns 4 today - not until 10:56 though. I thought it was the perfect day to reflect on all we have been through with her.

We never thought we would have kids. I am my husband's second wife, and after his last son was born he had a vasectomy. When we got married we discussed some options and decided to have it reversed. We went to Florida to have it done by a great doctor. Unfortunately, when we got the results back it didn't look too promising, and the chances of us having children didn't look too good. Oh well, we thought. Nothing more we can do. Imagine our surprise when I was in the hospital for an upper endoscopy and they came in to tell us they couldn't perform the procedure because I was pregnant. Totally shocked!!! But so happy. So, we started planning for our little bundle. Right from the very beginning we knew that we were having a girl, and even though we had just leased a condo they let us break the lease so we could buy a house. We had A LOT to do to get ready for her.

About 5 months in I was put on bedrest because I was suffering from pre-eclampsia, a very serious and life threatening condition. Let me tell you, I know that it sounds like a dream to not be able to do anything, but it really stinks after that long. At 7 months and almost a week I was hospitalized. Things were not going good and I was borderline toxemic. They kept strict watch on me and I had to try and lay on my side all the time. Not a small task considering how I had gained 16 pounds in one week (14 of that was water). Finally they couldn't wait any longer without putting both the baby and myself at risk. They decided that even though I was six weeks early they would have to induce me. They did an amnio (not as scary as it sounds) to make sure that her lungs were developed. Everything looked good so at 6 am on the 4th they gave me a pill to start inducing labor. I went all day with mild contractions, but nothing earth shattering (oh, before I forget I had preterm labor over 5 times and had to have it stopped each time, now she didn't want to come, lol). The next morning they started the Pitosin and also broke my water. Let me tell you, if you have never been induced it is not a picnic. After a VERY long day of labor, the doctor finally told me (after 40 hours of labor) that they were taking her c-section because I was only dilated to 6 centimeters.

The c-section went fine, and surprisingly Grace Elizabeth weighed in at 6 lbs. 9 ozs. - not to bad for being 5 1/2 weeks early. Doctor said she would have been close to 12 lbs. if she would have been full term. Her breathing wasn't great, but she didn't need to be on a respirator. And, because she was so early she hadn't developed her sucking reflex yet so she didn't want to eat. Other than that the Pediatrician on call said she was doing fine. I wish he would have been right.

When her regular Pediatrician (who was on vacation) saw her he immediately noticed a heart murmur. He said that this was not uncommon in infants, but wanted to have an echocardiogram done just to make sure everything was ok. The hospital was new and didn't yet have pediatric echo equipment so my hubby had to take her to the local clinic. When the doctor beat him back to the room, I knew that something was wrong. He told me that she had some Congenital Heart Defects, and was sending us to Children's Hospital in Milwaukee. My head was spinning, and I had to be discharged (early due to the c-section) and down we went.

To make a long story short, our little peanut had open heart surgery when she was 4 days old to correct an Aortic Coarctation. If this would not have been caught, it would have killed her quickly because it was so severe. And without knowing what to look we may not have noticed until it was too late. She also has an ASD, VSD, Bicuspid Aortic Valve, and a PFO. She is doing well, but the thought never leaves me how lucky we are to have this little miracle in our lives.