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Reneesmai's Story
"I had a typical pregnancy up until about 28 weeks..."
I stopped feeling Reneesmai move and ended up being refered to my antenatal department every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I was sure something was wrong, and I was right. In the end, I was put on the baby monitor for between an hour to 3 hours everytime I went to the clinic. I had numerous scans, and was told everything was ok. At 32 weeks I went for a scan and it showed that Reneesmai had an enlarged stomach, so I was sent for a scan 2 weeks later. At this scan Reneesmai's stomach was mesuring at 36 weeks and her head was mesauring at 31 weeks. This is when they decided to have another 2 scans within the next two weeks. On the next scan Reneesmai's stomach was still measuring large, and her head hadn't changed. They said at the time that it wasn't anything serious, but to go back the following Monday for a scan.
On the Monday, I went into the clinic for a scan and it was this scan when they told me something was wrong and that Reneesmai needed to be induced. They said they had no beds until the Wednesday, and to ring at 7:30am. Luckily for me, Reneesmai decided to come on the Wednesday morning. At 3am, I was having contractions and went to the hospital. With my sisters by my side, I pushed little Reneesmai into the world. I had Reneesmai on the 6th of January 2010, at 5:08am, weighing 6lb 2oz. She seemed fine, but then her temperature dropped and she was a little jaundiced. They put her under heat lamps.
She was perfect in so many ways, yet just three days after her being born she was rushed into the hospital. She had servere reflux and was given tests. Back at home 3 weeks later we had an appointment with a neonatologist, so we went. At this appointment I was told Reneesmai had congenital cytomeglovirus and had to have more blood tests. In the following months she has a ultra sound on her brain, but no conclusive pictures were taken as the sonographer had said Reneesmai was cranky. Well ok, so then we have been having hearing tests and vision tests that are still on going.
Reneesmai then had a hearing test which she failed the first 2 times. On the 3rd time they got a result. Thankfully, at this point everything seemed fine and we came home. It was only after about 8 weeks (2-3 of these spent in a different hospital for reflux) that they decided to do extra tests to find out why her stomach started ballooning in the womb and why her head seemed to stop growing. We had blood taken from the both of us, and we both came back with extremely high levels of cytomegalovirus in our bloodstream. Reneeesmai's was higher than mine...
Reneesmai now has a flat line of sound in her ear and also limited vision in her eye. To me she is still perfect, as all children are to their parents. But before my daughter was diagnosed with this I had no idea what it was? I've had 1,000 questions running through my head, and no answers...
As far as I am aware I caught this virus through my ex partner, when I was pregnant. At 4 weeks I was tired constantly, had a sore throat in the evenings, and constant headaches. I just put all of these down to being pregnant...
This is when all the tests started, and we're still undergoing them...
- Shared by her mother, Nadine