Elsie's story-part 1

When I read other stories of families who have children with Cerebral Palsy, their story usually begins with a baby born premature.

Or major complications.

That is not our story.

My pregnancy with Elsie was great.

No major issues.

I went into labor with Elsie at about 3:00 a.m.

We went to the hospital because I started bleeding.

When we got there, they stuck us in a room, and we didn't see anyone for a long time.

At least it seems liked that.

I was in pain, and worried sick about my bleeding.

Finally they came in to check me and I was a 7.

At that point they got serious...and rolled me into the delivery room...and got me in a gown.

I was checked again and I was almost to a 10.

But we had no doctor.

I was given an intrathecal, a fast acting epidural that also goes away fast.

Great for fast deliveries.

Then I had to HOLD ELSIE IN until the doctor showed up.

Finally, I was able to push, and out she came.

She was born at 5:39 a.m.....so it was all pretty quick.

I was shocked to see a blond little girl!

There were no big problems.

We took her home a couple days later.

Things started out rough because eating was pretty hard for her.

She would only eat for 5 min. at a time.

And she cried ALL THE TIME!!!!!

And that is not an exaggeration.

She cried all.the.time.

Poor girl.

Of course everything makes sense now.

But at the time, I had no idea what do do for this baby.

We would swaddle her....VERY tightly.

Then Brent and I would take turns holding her close and tight to our body and bounce our bums on my exercise ball.

If she was held tight, and majorly bounced...she seemed to be fine.

I can't even tell you how exhausting this was.

It finally got to the point that I stopped trying to nurse her.

She just wasn't gaining weight.

So we went to the bottle, and she would still only eat for maybe 5 min.

I know now that her poor mouth muscles were too tired to suck.

But back then, I didn't know what to do.

I started making the hole in the nipple bigger so more milk would come out in the short amount of time.

And since she had trouble with sucking....it would just poor down her throat.

Finally at about 4 months....we saw a beautiful SUNSHINE through the storm.

Elsie became the happiest baby on earth, with the absolute BEST smile!

Oh man...and those eyes.

She was a dream baby.
And she always had that little tounge hanging out....she still does that.

Everyone loved her, she would catch peoples eyes everywhere we went.

I could not believe this was the same baby!

I finally fell in love with her.

Not that I didn't love her, but I felt like I never had that bond with her, cause all she did was cry.

And I just couldn't fix it.

It was such a hard time.

I don't know what changed....except that maybe she was finally getting enough food.

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...to be continued