Blog 63 - My Memories of Nick's Birth on his 9th Birthday.

Happy 9th birthday Nick!

Wow where have those 9 years gone?

Let me cast my mind back 10-11 years to where Nick began.

Nick was hard work to conceive. I had miscarried the baby after Melissa at 11 weeks, just after my dad had passed away. I was devastated. After not conceiving for a while, temperature charts found that my cycle was all out of whack and I needed to go on fertility tablets. My ovaries became enlarged so I had to stop taking them. For months, every morning before getting out of bed, I would take my temperature, and map it on my temperature chart. When the temperature started to rise it meant I was starting to ovulate and the 'trying for the baby' began..every 2 days, rain, hail or shine. We had to mark our tries on the chart. Joe was sick one month so we didn't try and the obstetrician went mad at us!

I have a memory of being in the hospital ward with Melissa when she had her frontal orbital advancement...I had the thermometer in my mouth when a nurse walked in. She asked me if I was sick. I had to explain to her what I was doing! I felt really embarrassed.

We did end up trying, for more than a year. Not really sure how long. It was a long time. A marathon. Joe remembers vividly me saying 'Let's go.....Are you done yet?' Not romantic at all...with disappointment each month when I got my period....but we were able to achieve our desire for a baby....Nick

When my period didn't arrive we excitedly did the pregnancy test and it was positive. Then the stressful time of waiting to see if he would survive to the 12 week mark, as I had lost two babies at 11 weeks. He did!

At the first scan we were told that Nick's nuchal translucency test showed that he may have Down syndrome. The blood test ruled this out.

We continued on with the pregnancy. I felt good. At the 20 week scan we were told he was a girl...this then changed to a boy at the next scan.

The pregnancy continued on well. I enjoyed the pregnancy. Scans showed a high likelihood of Crouzon Syndrome so we went into the birth knowing that and being ok with that.

I was booked in for a c-section but Nick had other ideas of when he wanted to make his entrance into the world.

The 22nd of February 2004 was a 42 degree day. We had gone home to my parents' house for the day as they had air conditioning. That night there was a massive thunderstorm about 7.30pm. I wanted to have a shower but couldn't so lay on the couch to wait out the storm.

About 11pm I had my shower. After coming out of the shower I sat on the bed and felt a sharp pain in my abdomen and there was a gush of water. Melissa had been a planned c-section so I had not experienced my waters breaking...I presumed that this was what was happening but was unsure. I called out to Joe and we both panicked - what would we do? We rang the hospital and they said to come in. I quickly packed a bag and we rang Mum. We had planned for Mum to come and babysit Melissa, but she didn't want to drive 30 minutes in the thunderstorm in the middle of the night....so we woke up Melissa and the three of us went to the hospital. Melissa was not quite 3 years old.

God was good for we drove through the storm without any dramas, and when we got to the hospital it stopped raining in time for us to get out of the car. I remember sitting on a pile of towels in the car, feeling very nervous. I was examined by the doctor and told that yes I was in labour and I needed to have the c-section immediately. I also was going to have the c-section performed by him, the on-call obstetrician, not my own.

There was no one to babysit Melissa, so Joe and Melissa waited in the waiting room whilst I was prepared for the emergency c-section.

The drop in air pressure that night caused many women to go into labour - I was not the only one.

When Nick was born I saw him and knew straight away that he had Crouzons - he had a fused ridge of bone down his forehead and his eyes were bulgy. I did not need to ask.

What was freaking me out was that there was no cry,. I was calling out the doctor, 'Is he alright?' and there was no answer. I continued to call out to the doctors.The adrenalin was pumping through my body and my heart was beating so fast! I didn't want to lose this baby!

Eventually the nurses reassured me that Nick was alright. I wouldn't believe them until they showed him to me as he still hadn't cried. Nick needed oxygen, a massage and he needed to be cleaned out... But Nick as we now know is a fighter and he was ok. His apgar score at 1 minute was 6 and at 5 minutes was 7. He was 2950g and 48.5cm long..

I saw Nick again in his humidicrib when I was in recovery. All was fine. Joe and I were ecstatic.

He looked like a baby monkey with dark hair all over him. We were told that the dark hair was due to him being 3 1/2 weekx early - he had not cooked long enough.

The hardest thing about Nick's delivery, was not having Joe there to tell me what was happening. I felt so alone.

My obstetrician had organised for an experienced paediatrician from the Royal Brisbane Hospital to be at my planned c-section so he could look after Nick. Unfortunately because Nick was born out-of-hours we had the on-call paediatrician. This paediatrician had only seen Crouzons in her uni books. She tried to tell Joe that Nick did not have Crouzons and that he did not have craniosynostosis. Joe laughed at her. The fused ridge of bone down the middle of Nick's forehead was so obvious (I think she was only looking at the typical suture that fuses with Crouzons, but my family does not follow the general diagnosis, and that suture was still open) and his bulgy eyes were so obvious! We obviously knew way more than she did! She wanted to send us to a particular hospital, but again Joe told her that we needed a referral to the Mater Hospital, to see Dr Lewandowski, who was Melissa's plastic surgeon. We were not impressed.

The paediatrician wanted us to keep coming to her so she could learn more about Crouzons....we did not see her again after his 6 week check up!

After a week in hospital we took Nick home.

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