Hello! :)

I've decided to start blogging, mainly about my precious baby girl, Caelyn. I'm new at this, and I havent written much since high school, so bare with me. This is my pregnancy/birth story.


I got pregnant in May of 2010, it was kind of a surprise, as we had been "not preventing" for about 9 months and nothing was happening. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. I had a textbook pregnancy, was very lucky I had a little bit of nausea, and was a little tired, but that's it. I felt great. I loved being pregnant. At 20 weeks, we found out we were expecting a girl. My husband, Darren, was a little disappointed, but soon got over that and became as excited as me. We immediately starting buying clothes and decorating her nursery.


At my 30 week growth ultrasound, the tech took a few pictures of Caelyn's face in 3D for us, confirmed she was still a girl, and then checked out her size and organs. We kept a casual conversation going, then the tech got quiet. She spent about 15 minutes just looking at Caelyn's heart. She didnt really say much, but Darren and I kept talking about Caelyn's little chubby cheeks.


After the ultrasound, I went in to the exam room to see the doctor. He walked in and didn't look as happy as he usually did. That's when he said "We found a hole in your baby's heart."


I broke down. I had no idea that holes in the heart are common, but in my pregnant, emotional state, I couldnt help it. He kept telling me it's very common, and it will probably close up before she is born and not to worry, but he wanted to send me to a MFM specialist just to double check. The next week, we went to Dr. Jones. They did an in-depth ultrasound of her heart, and that's when he told us he thinks Caelyn has a heart defect called tetralogy of Fallot. He went over the anatomy in his doctor lingo, but we didnt hear a word except for "survivability". Darren and I both held back tears. He wanted us to go to Dallas (3 hours away) to a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Kao.


So, the next week, we headed to Medical City Dallas Hospital. Dr. Kao confirmed the diagnoses of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), and explained everything clearly to us. She told us Caelyn had a mild case, and would probably wait 4-6 months for surgery. At this point, I was about 34 weeks pregnant. Dr. Kao wanted us to deliver at Medical City at 38-39 weeks. We toured the maternity ward and the NICU, made an appointment for 38 weeks 6 days to come and check for dilation.


On February 10, we packed our hospital bags and headed to Dallas. I was already 3 cm dilated, so they scheduled induction for the next day. We were a bundle of nerves, but excited to meet our baby girl.


The next morning, I was induced at around 8:30 am. I labored for 5 hours, then asked for my epidural. Everything had been progressing great up until this point. After my epidural, things slowed down, I even started closing up a bit. They told me Caelyn was "sunny side up" and wasnt coming down, and then she went into distress. Dr. Rogers (delivering OB) told me the best thing would be to do a ceserean section. I was devastated. I cried being wheeled into the OR. I was so scared.

I sucked it up, and was just thankful that my baby girl was going to be here soon. Darren came in and took pictures of her coming out, and I heard the sweetest sound in the world, her cry. They cleaned her up, let me kiss her, and took her to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I wouldnt see her again until the next day.

The rest of the day was horrible. I had convulsions for about 6 hours due to my hormones and the anesthesia. That night, every 3 hours, I would wake up and pump and Darren would go down to the NICU to deliver the milk, and he got to feed her and change her diaper. He took pictures to show me. I didnt feel much pain until the next morning when they told me I had to get up and walk to the bathroom. I had to do this before I could go see my baby. That was my motivation. It was the worst pain I have ever felt. But I did it. That was at about 6 am. I then had to wait for the anesthesiologist to come take my epidural out. She didnt come until noon. After that, Darren wheeled me down to the NICU in a wheelchair, since it still hurt so bad to walk. I finally got to hold my daughter! It was amazing. She was perfect. The NICU doctor said she was doing amazing. Caelyn was having some feeding problems, she kept aspirating the milk, so they put in a feeding tube down her nose until a therapist could come see her. They never found out why she was doing this, so we have to put a thickener in her milk so she doesnt choke. Caelyn spent 5 days in the NICU and then got to come home. I was released the day before she was, and we got to spend the night in the NICU family room with Caelyn.
February 16, we got to take her home. The next few days were a blur, but Caelyn is such a good baby. She rarely cries, and her heart is doing great. She goes to Dallas to see Dr. Kao once a month, and next visit we are going to schedule her surgery. I'm so ready to get past all of this and move on to live a normal life! I hate worrying about Caelyn, worrying if she will stop breathing, and worrying when she screams she turns blue.
I wouldnt trade any of this for the world, Caelyn is completely worth it.