Our Baby Girl January 27, 2008
My husband and I had been married just over two years and were thrilled to be expecting our first child (or at least I was until his shock wore off).
We knew right away that we wanted to use a midwife.
We did our research and interviews and settled on June Lamphier, CPM.
We got our regular prenatal care and heard the heartbeat at 10 weeks.
Everything was progressing beautifully.
I had the perfect pregnancy, I never had any nausea or complications.
I sailed through the first trimester.
When I was around 21 weeks we had scheduled an ultrasound at Austin Community College since they had a free ultrasound program that you could sign up for.
Well, the day of our appointment for the ultrasound ACC called us and said that their pipes had burst and flooded the basement where the ultrasounds were done.
They asked if we could reschedule and that they were doing late term ultrasounds around 30 weeks.
I really didn’t feel the need to have an ultrasound since everything had gone so well up until this point and we didn’t intend on finding out the sex of the baby.
My husband however really felt like we should at least have one ultrasound to check out the baby and make sure all the “fingers and toes” were there.
So I scheduled the appointment for thirty weeks (the average pregnancy is 41 weeks).
We went in and they began the ultrasound.
I laid there for about 45 minutes with no one talking to me or saying very much.
I got more angry with every minute. I kept thinking, “don’t you know it isn’t good for me to be laying on my back for this long”.
I could not believe the poor bedside manner that they had. (now hindsight is 20/20 and I realize that they were probably in shock; however I still think they could have done better)
After 45 minutes, they let us know that they were not seeing something that they thought they should and that they would like us to go see our doctor.
We told them that we had a midwife and that they would need to contact her.
June called us right away and said that she would meet us at Dr. David Berry’s (perinatologist).
We had to wait for a few hours for our appointment, but I didn’t feel any urgency.
In my mind I really thought that the people at ACC just didn’t know what they were doing and that when we went to see the perinatologist that he would send us on our way.
I could not have imagined how wrong I was.
We went in and signed in.
While we were waiting June arrived and waited with us.
We all went in to the room to have the ultrasound done.
Within 30 seconds the technician told us that yes the clinic at ACC was correct and that our baby did have a problem.
I just began sobbing.
I could not believe that our perfect little baby had a problem.
We then wanted to know what sex the baby was. When they told us she was a girl I was so happy.
After the ultrasound, they escorted us to the doctors office to discuss the situation.
He informed us that she had a very severe form of Hydrocephalus.
He told us that she would very likely not live at all and that if she did she would most likely not be able to see, hear, talk or walk.
He listed all of our options; Out of State Abortion, since they don’t do abortions that late in pregnancy in Texas; Cephalocentesis: Using a hollow needle to puncture the skull to allow drainage during delivery (this would be because her head was so large that a vaginal delivery would not have been possible otherwise); scheduled cesarean.
We were devastated and felt like we were in some kind of dream.
Over the next 7 weeks we had an ultrasound and sometimes more every week.
During those weeks they were measuring her head growth and the amount of fluid in her head.
When we would have the ultrasounds, all you could see was a giant black hole where her brain should have been and a very small paper thin line of brain tissue around the front of her head.
When we reached 37 weeks, they decided that it was time to schedule a ceserean because of her head size.
We went in the weekend after Thanksgiving on November 24, 2001.
Everything went just as planned. We were referred to another obstetrician, Dr. Diane Brinkman, because Dr. Berry was not going to be able to do the cesarean.
Dr. Brinkman was wonderful and treated us as if she had known us forever.
She took into consideration that I would like to try for a vaginal birth if we decided to have other children later in life and did the c-section the best way she could to make that possible. (she did an abdominal incision vertically and a uterine incision horizontally, which gave her the most room to delivery our little girl).
Kennady was born and gave a big yell as soon as she came out.
I was overwhelmed just to hear her cry. It was more than music to my ears, it was a sign of HoPE.
We didn’t know if she would be able to do anything.
Robin went with her to the NICU and met a flock of family peering in the window.
We spent the next 48 hours recovering and scheduling Kennady’s surgery for her V.P. Shunt.
After her surgery the Neurosurgeon, Dr. Ron Wilson, came to discuss the MRI with us.
The prognosis was worse than we had thought.
The hydrocephalus that they thought she had was only a symptom of what was going on .
Kennady had Alobar Holoprosencephaly and the hydrocephalus was a symptom of her brain being severely malformed.
Most children with this condition live around 6 months.
The primary cause of death for these children are pneumonia and seizures.
We spent the next six weeks in the NICU before going home with our beautiful little girl.
Kennady has lots of special needs, but she is the sweetest most innocent little angel you will ever meet.
Kennady has Diabetes Insipdus, V.P. Shunt, G-Button and is in a wheelchair. She will never (barring a miracle from God, which we are totally open to) be able to walk.
She is beginning to communicate with a communication switch in school.
She is now, as of November 24, 2007, 6 years old and doing wonderfully.
