Monday, January 7, 2008

Birth Story Part 2

Rylie had just been born. They gave her to me, I looked at her and the first thing I said was, Oh wow, she looks just like Karlie. I wasn't even holding her for 15 seconds until they took her from me and put her on the scale to weigh her and clean her up. Vince said to me-she is so cute, she keeps sticking out her tongue. I thought ,that's cute. Then the doctor picked her up and said, she's beautiful, but I wanted to show you that some of her toes are webbed.. My heart sank. How in the world did that happen. But I figured that was something that could be fixed. Then the doctor said, she is having a little bit of trouble breathing and they were going to take her to the nursery. And that quick they took her away. Vince stayed with me for a while and then went to the nursery to check on Rylie. She was in a warmer and the nurses said she was doing fine. He told them he was going to go home for a little while and get some rest while I slept. He asked the nurses, if he should stay. He didn't want to leave if everything wasn't Ok, but the nurses kept assuring himthat Rylie was fine. So he went home. Meanwhile I could not sleep. I asked a nurse to take me to see my baby. When I arrived in the nursery, I was able to hold her. I was telling all the nurse how she looked just like Karlie. I enjoyed holding her for a while then went back to my room. I really needed to sleep, I had been up for 24 hours or more.





It was 9:00 in the morning and I was half asleep. Rylie's pediatrician walked into the room and sat down.(I recently read somewhere that when a doctor sits down that is not a good sign). Here is how our conversation went.(keep in mind I am all by myself).





Me: How is her breathing? Is it because of the epidural? Is she Ok?





Doc: Her breathing is fine. blah blah blah(can't remember now)





Me: What about her toes? Will is this effect her walking(I'm already worried about her walking)





Doc: We will have to wait and see. She could have surgery to separate them. It all depends on the bones, listen I think your daughter has Down syndrome. We are doing a blood test to make sure.





Me(jumping out of the bed, immediately pacing the floor):WHAT?????I just saw her. She looks fine.





Doc: blah, blah, blah, Muscle tone, blah, blah, blah, features, blah, blah, blah chromosomes............





Then the doctor quickly explained that it was nothing I did and then he just left.





I immediately called Vince, but he was sleeping. I kept calling and calling until he finally answered the phone. I screamed something like, they think she has Down syndrome , get here NOW!!!!





I don't think the way the pediatrician told me this news was right, especially since I was all by myself, but I sure didn't deliver the news to my husband that well, but can you blame me?





Then I called my mom, and gave her the news the same way.





I just started crying and continued crying for almost two weeks.





The next day, Rylie was transferred to the children's hospital.





To be continued................................................





1 comment:

Emily said...

Wow... Your story sounds nearly identical to mine. The pediatrician woke me up early in the morning and told me, alone in the dark. Then I had to call my husband and tell him ON THE PHONE. It was awful as you know. I don't know if there is ever a great way to find out that your child has DS but there has GOT to a better way than that!

OK, off to read the rest of Rylie's story...


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