Icy
10-27-2007, 10:53 AM
First why am I happy:
I'm so happy to say that my new son Hector was born on October 25th, two days ago!
My wife was scheduled for Nov 11th but she had labor pains in the October 25 morning. We thought they were the the standard pain you had a few days before giving birth, just the baby getting ready, so we went out for a walk and then to eat at my in-laws. When eating, my wife had more pain, getting stronger and stronger so she told me to go to the hospital as she felt the baby was coming. I thought no way this soon and with her looking this good, but as this is the second time my wife gives birth, she knows better how does it feel (and hurt), so we went to the hospital at 4PM.
When we reached the hospital, the doctors examined my wife and they told us that yes, she was about to give birth, not even time for the anesthesia. They got her into the labor room and allowed me to stay there, and 1 hour and 3 pushes later, Hector was born!! a healthy and heavy weighted boy!
It was amazing, it was my first giving birth experience as i was not allowed to stay inside the room with my first baby a year and a half ago as it required minor surgery and in that case, they kick the father out of the room (and I understand it). We both cried like our just born baby when he was out and we saw he was fine.
I'm really proud of my wife, the doctors are amazed at how she could control the pain to be that close to give birth and still eating with us like nothing, also she never shouted when giving birth without anesthesia, old style :)
Now why am I scared:
As probably most of you know, we had another baby, my daughter Celia, a year and a half ago, and she died after 7 days with us. After all this time, and tons of different tests made, different doctors and laboratories consulted, etc, we still don't know the cause of her early and sudden death. They though on two possibilities, or a really severe infection that was too fast to be detected and stopped or a genetic metabolic disease, as the symptoms are pretty similar in new born babies. All the genetic tests performed in our lost baby organs and cells for over a year were negative but... it doesn't mean that you can be 100% secure as genetic researching is still too new and inaccurate.
If our daughter died by a severe infection, that would be good news into the bad ones, as it's not something that another baby can inherit, but if it was a metabolic disease... it can happen again.
Metabolic diseases are rare genetic disorders that in resume, don't allow your body cells to produce energy from the food, causing all your organs to collapse and finally the death without solution, those disorders have no cure by now, and are too rare for the laboratories to consider it's study (it all is about money as you know).
Sadly over this year and a half, i have learned a lot about those illness, have talked (by email and online groups) with other parents that had similar problems, with tons of doctors, etc so I'm an expert and I have learned it's really difficult to detect those illness before it's too late, as there are tons of different gene mutations that could cause them and that is why unless they know exactly the gene that causes them, it's almost impossible to detect them. Also they are classified as rare illness (less than 1 in dozens of thousands of humans suffer them).
Most of metabolic diseases are genetically inherited with a 25% chance of babies to inherit them if the parents have the muted genes (that we don't know if it's our case or not, as all the tests performed were negative, but negative doesn't mean that you are 100% safe as i said before) and that is why we were scared of having another baby at first, but as it was never proved if it was the cause or not, and as even if it was really a genetic metabolic illness, the chances of having a healthy baby are more than the ones of having an ill one, we decided to take the risk again, as we really want to have a baby and every risk it's worth it.
Right now our baby looks healthy, but until a few days are past, and we can see if Hector is able to metabolize the food by himself, we won't know if he is ill or not. After he was born, he was put under observation as the doctors know our risks. They are performing some daily blood tests to see if he has any problem, and everything looks normal, but the new born babies have still part of the mother blood and enzymes in their body that help them to metabolize the food, so it's early to know if he is doing it all by himself or not.
Hector is going to be under observation until Monday or a few days more, in the mean time, my wife can enter in the new born health care room to feed him every 3 hours, and i can enter to see, touch and hug him twice per day for 30 minutes.
We just came home today as my wife is fine, but it was sad to leave the hospital without our baby, even when we knew in advance that it would be this way. They wait is really hard, it's like spinning the death roulette and waiting days for it to stop and to see where does the ball land. It also brings back a lot of painful memories from our baby lost, as she was into the same recent born high care room (that is said one of the best in Spain) in the last 3 days of her short life, we had the same schedule of feeds/visits etc, so it's impossible to not to remind it.
I stopped to be a believer some time ago for different reasons, but there is something inside of me that in the desperate wait, still wants to ask for prayers from the believers and and thoughts from the non believers, as every help and support is welcome.
We are leaving to the hospital now to feed him again, and will keep every 3 hours until they tell us that the baby observation period is over, on Monday or later, please keep us and our baby in your minds, I also hope that his little sister Celia is somewhere taking care of him.
I'll keep updating you as the effort to write this here, and specially in English, that requires more concentration from me, has helped me already like visiting a psychiatrist. I hope the last update will be that Hector is with us at home, heatly and like any other kid. Then i'll keep being a scared daddy as every daddy is forever, but it will be the same fears that every other parent has, and not the fear i have now.
I'm so happy to say that my new son Hector was born on October 25th, two days ago!
My wife was scheduled for Nov 11th but she had labor pains in the October 25 morning. We thought they were the the standard pain you had a few days before giving birth, just the baby getting ready, so we went out for a walk and then to eat at my in-laws. When eating, my wife had more pain, getting stronger and stronger so she told me to go to the hospital as she felt the baby was coming. I thought no way this soon and with her looking this good, but as this is the second time my wife gives birth, she knows better how does it feel (and hurt), so we went to the hospital at 4PM.
When we reached the hospital, the doctors examined my wife and they told us that yes, she was about to give birth, not even time for the anesthesia. They got her into the labor room and allowed me to stay there, and 1 hour and 3 pushes later, Hector was born!! a healthy and heavy weighted boy!
It was amazing, it was my first giving birth experience as i was not allowed to stay inside the room with my first baby a year and a half ago as it required minor surgery and in that case, they kick the father out of the room (and I understand it). We both cried like our just born baby when he was out and we saw he was fine.
I'm really proud of my wife, the doctors are amazed at how she could control the pain to be that close to give birth and still eating with us like nothing, also she never shouted when giving birth without anesthesia, old style :)
Now why am I scared:
As probably most of you know, we had another baby, my daughter Celia, a year and a half ago, and she died after 7 days with us. After all this time, and tons of different tests made, different doctors and laboratories consulted, etc, we still don't know the cause of her early and sudden death. They though on two possibilities, or a really severe infection that was too fast to be detected and stopped or a genetic metabolic disease, as the symptoms are pretty similar in new born babies. All the genetic tests performed in our lost baby organs and cells for over a year were negative but... it doesn't mean that you can be 100% secure as genetic researching is still too new and inaccurate.
If our daughter died by a severe infection, that would be good news into the bad ones, as it's not something that another baby can inherit, but if it was a metabolic disease... it can happen again.
Metabolic diseases are rare genetic disorders that in resume, don't allow your body cells to produce energy from the food, causing all your organs to collapse and finally the death without solution, those disorders have no cure by now, and are too rare for the laboratories to consider it's study (it all is about money as you know).
Sadly over this year and a half, i have learned a lot about those illness, have talked (by email and online groups) with other parents that had similar problems, with tons of doctors, etc so I'm an expert and I have learned it's really difficult to detect those illness before it's too late, as there are tons of different gene mutations that could cause them and that is why unless they know exactly the gene that causes them, it's almost impossible to detect them. Also they are classified as rare illness (less than 1 in dozens of thousands of humans suffer them).
Most of metabolic diseases are genetically inherited with a 25% chance of babies to inherit them if the parents have the muted genes (that we don't know if it's our case or not, as all the tests performed were negative, but negative doesn't mean that you are 100% safe as i said before) and that is why we were scared of having another baby at first, but as it was never proved if it was the cause or not, and as even if it was really a genetic metabolic illness, the chances of having a healthy baby are more than the ones of having an ill one, we decided to take the risk again, as we really want to have a baby and every risk it's worth it.
Right now our baby looks healthy, but until a few days are past, and we can see if Hector is able to metabolize the food by himself, we won't know if he is ill or not. After he was born, he was put under observation as the doctors know our risks. They are performing some daily blood tests to see if he has any problem, and everything looks normal, but the new born babies have still part of the mother blood and enzymes in their body that help them to metabolize the food, so it's early to know if he is doing it all by himself or not.
Hector is going to be under observation until Monday or a few days more, in the mean time, my wife can enter in the new born health care room to feed him every 3 hours, and i can enter to see, touch and hug him twice per day for 30 minutes.
We just came home today as my wife is fine, but it was sad to leave the hospital without our baby, even when we knew in advance that it would be this way. They wait is really hard, it's like spinning the death roulette and waiting days for it to stop and to see where does the ball land. It also brings back a lot of painful memories from our baby lost, as she was into the same recent born high care room (that is said one of the best in Spain) in the last 3 days of her short life, we had the same schedule of feeds/visits etc, so it's impossible to not to remind it.
I stopped to be a believer some time ago for different reasons, but there is something inside of me that in the desperate wait, still wants to ask for prayers from the believers and and thoughts from the non believers, as every help and support is welcome.
We are leaving to the hospital now to feed him again, and will keep every 3 hours until they tell us that the baby observation period is over, on Monday or later, please keep us and our baby in your minds, I also hope that his little sister Celia is somewhere taking care of him.
I'll keep updating you as the effort to write this here, and specially in English, that requires more concentration from me, has helped me already like visiting a psychiatrist. I hope the last update will be that Hector is with us at home, heatly and like any other kid. Then i'll keep being a scared daddy as every daddy is forever, but it will be the same fears that every other parent has, and not the fear i have now.