Chapter 1 - The Pregnancy

My baby girl has been a mystery from the very beginning. Nothing has ever been "textbook" with her. When I was pregnant with her, I had severe "morning sickness", which occurred at any time of day, all day long, for about the first 4 months. I had no idea it was a little abnormal, until I had lost about 28lbs. My doctor assured me the baby was fine and taking every morsel of nutrition I could manage to keep down, leaving nothing for me. She finally felt sorry for me and wrote a prescription. I was finally able to keep food down when 2 weeks later, at 20 weeks, all of a sudden I was now measuring 3 weeks ahead of my due date!

From there began a series of tests to find out why the baby was so big, so suddenly. Every test came back with everything looking good, normal, healthy, yet no explanations. I was given the glucose test twice to make sure I didn't have gestational diabetes; both times came back negative. The doctor started to question the due date more and more.

After getting over the morning sickness, I only got to enjoy feeling pretty good for about 2 months. Then at 28 weeks, my blood pressure suddenly spiked, and I was declared to have PIH. (pregnancy induced hypertension) I was sent to bedrest until delivery. During that time, we went to the hospital about once a week for a (NST) non-stress-test to check on me, and an ultrasound to check on Cyann. As far as Cyann, she always looked normal, healthy, and pretty good size. The only major concern was her head size. The doctors were always concerned that her head was larger than it should've been for her gestational age. But all of the concerns were tested and ruled out. (i.e., hydrocephalus) We kept mentioning how the "big head size thing" could very well be hereditary, and would turn their attention to 'exhibit A'! (Scott's/Daddy's head) But during all of those ultrasounds, nothing was ever mentioned about her kidneys, liver, or any other symptoms of disease. There was one time about a week before she was born when one of the radiologists commented that my amniotic fluid seemed unusually high. I knew that it would be cause for concern if the fluid was low, but I didn't know if I should be concerned about a too high fluid level. And she commented that the baby must be peeing a lot. Which I thought was a good thing. I remember even saying how at least we know her kidneys work! (The irony) Within 3 days, I had another ultrasound done, and my fluid level was back in the normal range, and stayed that way.

Oh, something else--around 34 weeks, Cyann decided to turn breach! The chance of a C-section was always there, but now it was guaranteed. My due date was July 18, 2002, but my blood pressure really spiked at one of my NST's, and on July 1, 2002, Cyann was delivered at 3:09pm, butt-first to the world. For being nearly 3 weeks early, and from a mother with PIH, she was 21" long, and weighed 8lbs., 15oz. Usually, mothers with PIH have smaller, low birth weight babies. I don't think my doctor ever did figure her out.