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Raelyn's Story
"On September 4, 2010 at 10:08am, my husband, Nate and I welcomed our beautiful baby girl Raelyn into this world..."
We decided at the beginning of our pregnancy that I was going to deliver Raelyn at home. We found a wonderful doctor whom we loved and trusted. Traumatically at 16 weeks, we were informed that Dr. Duhart had passed away. We found another wonderful doctor but he wouldn't deliver at home so we decided to go to the hospital.
At 18 weeks we found out we were having a girl. We also were encouraged to abort, because her bowels were "bright", she had a small head, and the amniotic fluid was low. We decided against this choice as it was not an option. The next ultrasound showed everything was perfect. So we went along with a healthy pregnancy.
On my due date, September 3, at 11:30 pm my water broke, so we took our time and went to the hospital. After an uneventful, natural delivery Raelyn was born. She weighed 5 lbs 8 ounces and was 18 in long. She was beautiful! She began to nurse immediately. Everything was perfect until her blood sugar test came back very low, and then her platelet count was low too. Within 1 hour my emotions went from extreme joy to extreme agony.
By this time she was transfered to NICU where the doctors stated she had an enlarged liver and spleen. The next few days consisted of test upon test. Until one came back positive, cCMV. I was happy to know what was going on with my baby and had never heard of this before. We thought, "good, it's not anything serious, when can we go home". Dr. Choa sat us down an told us the seriousness of this virus. I immediately became enraged and sad because I had never heard of this before. Why didn't anyone tell me how to prevent this? Why didn't I know about this?
After failing a hearing screen and a head ultrasound showed 2 holes in her brain the hospital we were at decided they couldn't handle Raelyn so we were transfered to a different hospital 10 miles away. At 4 days old my baby girl got to go outside for the first time (well, in an incubator). We watched as our baby was loaded into an ambulance without her parents. We held each other and cried. At the new hospital Raelyn began getting Ganciclovir treatments and blood platelet transfusions (a total of 4). We were instructed she would stay in the hospital for 6 weeks on treatment. So I moved my stuff in! They couldn't force me to leave...right?
On October 20th at 9:45am, Raelyn's last treatment of Ganciclovir finished and we were released to take our 46 day old baby home for the first time. Once home Raelyn's therapists from First Steps began to come weekly. She was placed with hearing aids in January. She began to "show off". The day we start worrying that she is delayed she starts doing it the next day. She is so amazing. At 6 days old she began smiling. At 5 weeks she began following us around the hospital room with her eyes. At 9 weeks she began to roll over. At 9 months she began clapping. At 11 months she began to crawl. 13 months, cruising around furniture. At 14 months she is saying more than 12 words. She is pulling up and cruising everywhere. She tries feeding herself with a spoon. She is developmentally a little delayed. She has wonderful speech, she is ahead of the game, which is amazing for a hearing impaired child.
We are so proud of her. She learns something new and teaches us something new each day. Her birthday and "anniversary" (coming home) just passed. We look at her in amazement. Some doctors told us not to expect to much from her. She would probably be deaf by now, she would most likely have CP and may never walk. She showed them, didn't she! We have strong faith in the man above and our beautiful baby girl. She is a blessing. If I had to give one piece of advise to a new "CMV mommy" it would be, "Never give up hope and don't take no for an answer!"
Thanks for reading our story!
- Shared by her mother, Jeanette