NaBloPoMo:Thankful for Austin

Julie's note: It's another ProudMom! As I mentioned before, we are a group of moms who all shared an August 2003 due date. We remain close and I've had the pleasure of meeting both Kat and Christine. I've been in a circumstance where they tell you your child might not live and you should start thinking about funeral arrangements. It changes you for life. It can make you bitter, or better. Reading Christine's story, you'll see she chose better. I can't think of a better story to share on Thanksgiving day than this one. I think you'll agree.

The year 2008 started out to look like a very exciting year. Little did my husband and myself know just how exciting it was going to be.

The beginning of February to our surprise, we found out we were expecting our 6th child. Very shocked and excited we thought we'd breeze through the next nine months with out a worry in the world. At that time, little did we know God was going to test to see just how strong we were.

The first 3 months were like any other. Full of morning sickness with no time to feel sorry for myself. With being baby #6, I knew all the tricks on how to ease the sick feeling. I survived and was glad to see the sick feeling go away by 13 weeks.

On May 19th which put me at about 20 weeks I started to have some bleeding. I went to the ER and with an sonogram they revealed I had a subchorionic hematoma. They sent me home and said that things were fine and that the hematoma would go away on its own. A few weeks later I went back to my doc for a repeat of a sonogram to see if the bleed was gone. During that exam they revealed an increased fetal nuchal skin fold and evidence of fetal renal dilatation. When the doc went on to explain that our baby had some markers of Down Syndrome. We were shocked, scared and upset of this news, but knew this is what God wanted and were ready to accept the news the doctors were giving us. We said to each other, "It's okay. Our baby will still have a great life."

August 7, during another sonogram, we once again received some more not so good news. Our baby had pleural effusion and left side ascites. ( fluid in the lung cavaties.) They also found that the baby's heart shifted to the right by a significant amount of left pleural effusion, with a mild regurgitation. Along with that, I had a significant polyhydramnios. (too much fluid around the baby) I was admitted to the hospital to have a amniocentesis decompression. This is what I had done every week from August to September.

Sunday September 21 at 6:00am I woke up and rolled over to hear a pop and a huge gush. I woke up my husband and told him my water just broke. We got dressed and headed to the hospital. On a normal day it would have taken us 35 minutes, but that day only took us 20. We were nervous something was going to happen.

We got there and they put me in an exam room where they tested to see if it was really my water, and sure enough the test stripe turned very blue. Because of how much he was flipping they called the doc in to do a u/s to see if he was head down. Sure enough he was. So that was a big relief. The doc checked me and I was 2 to 3 cm.

At that point I wasn’t having any pain or contractions so they said they would wait and see if I’d start to contract on my own. They moved me from the exam room into the labor room. Got me all hooked up to the monitor and had the hardest time getting his heart beat. Not that there was anything wrong, but because he was moving like crazy.

By 11:00 am I still wasn’t having any contractions and I called the nurse to come in because something just wasn’t right. Not that I was worried, but because he was moving so much and his heart beat I couldn’t keep on the monitor. The nurse came in and tried to pick it up with no luck. She looked at me and said she thinks this little man has turned breech. She went to go find the doc. He came in and said that it wasn’t likely that the baby had turned but he would check. First he checked to see if I had changed any. I was now 5 to 6 cm. (with no pain) they got the u/s machine back in the room and sure enough he was now breech. There was a huge pocket of fluid below him along with my cord. He said that if my water gushed again that my cord would come out first and that wouldn’t be a good thing. So things got underway for a c-section.

Things were moving fast and lots of people coming in and out with meds and paper work. The doc from the NICU came in to talk with us. This is where it gets very emotional. She sat down and told us that she wasn’t going to sugar coat anything with us. Because he has Downs and has the fluid in his lungs, there was a 75% to 80% chance he wouldn’t make it. She wanted to know from us on how much time we wanted them to work on him before they called a time. I just lost it at that point. I couldn’t even breathe. My husband stepped in and told her that we would like them to do the best they could for him and work on him until they feel there is no hope. We were shocked on what she was telling us and the stress level went sky high along with my blood pressure. When she left we didn’t know what to do but cry. We talked and ended with talk about funeral arrangements.

About 10 minutes later they came and got me. Off to the OR I went. With in 20 minutes, they were pulling Austin out. At 1:03pm, 5 seconds after he was out, he was screaming his head off. Both my husband and I just lost it and cried when we heard that scream. The doc looked over at us and gave 2 thumbs up. Everything was going perfect. My husband went over to cut the cord and they brought my baby to me for a fast peek and kiss. And off to the NICU he went.

The doc later told us that if he was born ten years ago, he wouldn’t of made it. He still isn’t out of the woods yet. There is still a chance the fluid will build back up, but things are looking to the positive side. He is a fighter and I know he will pull himself out of this. The nurses say he’s the “Miracle Baby” in room “C”. He has them all wrapped around his finger.

We later found out that our baby boy has Hirschsprung disease along with the Downs. He will be haveing surgery Dec 8th 2008 to fix the problem. He will be in the hospital again for about a week, but we know that it's a problem that can be fixed.
This is Austin Fredrick’s birth story. It was a long road with a lot of bumps in it, and I’m sure there will be many more as with every kid, but we are ready and so very blessed we have a strong fighter to love and care for. I’m a mother of 6 now and have more love inside of me because of my Austin.