The birth of our amazing and beautiful Bridget Grace. My pregnancy was stressful, to say the least. I had very high hopes for a completely natural pregnancy and a home birth, but all of the doctors and midwives that I spoke to wouldn't allow it. Throughout the course of my pregnancy I had to give myself weekly injections of progesterone (P17) in my butt; which were meant to reduce the likelihood of another premature birth. Because I was already considered High Risk, I was being monitored more closely than most pregnant women. I had an appointment every other week for the first half of my pregnancy to be sure that things were on track, and at 27 weeks, the doctor diagnosed Bridget with Intrauterine Growth Retardation. This is a condition where the placenta fails to provide proper nutrition to the baby and she fails to grow at a normal rate for the gestational age. Bridget had asymmetrical IUGR, which meant that her head was a normal size for her age, but her abdomen and femur were measuring several weeks behind. For the next 11 weeks, I was seen twice a week by a perinatalogist, had an ultrasound twice a week and also a lengthy non-stress test twice a week. My whole world seemed to revolve around doctor appointments... and I am a person who typically avoids going to the doctor until it is absolutely positively necessary. It was a very difficult time but in the end, everything turned out just fine. At 37 weeks, they said her abdominal measurements had fallen under the 3rd percentile and that it was time to induce me; she would thrive much better outside of me at this point than inside. The day I hit 38 weeks, October 6th, they sent me into Labor and Delivery to start the process. About 24 hours later, my small but mighty angel was in my arms and healthy as could be. She came home with me 2 days later weighing 5lbs 10oz. She was absolutely perfect and remains so today.
In the middle of all this chaos, we were given an unbelievable gift. My mom.
Mom came and lived at our house from the end of August 2010 until just after Christmas. It was the best 4 month long gift that I could have ever asked for. She was Caelan's best friend and playmate while I spent SO many hours at the doctor's office, she was once again the other half of my birthing team, she helped in more ways than we can count when the baby came, she covered my maternity leave at Montessori, she was our laundry elf and she is still sorely missed. We will cherish our memories of Nana staying at our house forever.
Caelan turned 2 years old on June 1st and is so. much. fun. He is the happiest, sweetest, kindest little boy that I could ever hope for. He is as gorgeous as ever and getting bigger every day. In late October, he was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech and is now undergoing speech therapy twice a week. I have known since he was 4 months old that Caelan had a language and oral motor problem and I am so relieved that he is receiving the help he needs now. He is very smart; scored above average in most all areas of development when they evaluated him; but a neurological disconnect between brain and mouth causes him to have great difficulty in forming words. He is making tremendous progress now and melts our hearts each day with what he says.
We have settled nicely into life as a family of 4. Life is sweet and we don't let a single day go by without recognizing all of our incredible blessings. For the health of my children, for our happiness, for our home, our jobs and for our family, I cannot begin to express my gratitude.
That is all I can manage for tonight, but I am going to do my best to fall back into a routine of writing more regularly again. With Bridget nearly 5 months old now, we have a very consistent schedule. While I still have very little spare time, I'm sure I can carve some out here and there.
Here are some recent pictures, to close with.
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