6 months postpartum

For those of you that are interested Junior is doing wonderfully, he is such a happy healthy baby! He has found that he can roll anywhere he wants to go and has recently started making regular (aka constant) attempts at crawling but can’t quite get his torso in the air. Part of me is glad he isn’t overly mobile yet but I know that will change soon.

Specific to CP

In the last couple of months my body has made great improvement. None of my joints have given out recently and can carry my large son around the house with confidence. That being said though, I do experience intense pain by the end of the day throughout my legs—I consider this a significant improvement, though.

I don’t think that there is much more to update you on, I’m very pleased with my physical progress. I have started going on walks again a couple times a week with my husband and the baby, I am not able to go as far as I did while I was in early pregnancy but I think that is simply because I was less spastic then. (A very nice perk to pregnancy)

The first few months after giving birth things were so hard that I felt some doubt that I would every fully recover physically but now I have great hope that given some more time things will become easier again. I am really looking forward to the future.

3 months postpartum

It sure has been a busy 3 months! It’s been difficult to find time to write, I had intended on writing earlier but life can move by so quickly. I’m doing really well and so is Junior, he is such a big strong boy I am amazed everyday at his development. A week ago today he rolled over for the first time tummy- to-back to the right and two days later he did it to the left. I’m so proud of him. I could go on and on about milestones but I’ll stop.

Specific to CP

Since so much has changed in the last 3 months I’ll try to break it down:

1-2 weeks postpartum

This was  the  most challenging period for me, getting up and down on my own was very difficult for me and carrying the baby more than a few steps scared me because I was so unstable. Luckily, Junior was born while my husband was having winter holiday  from work (he is a teacher) so he was there to support me for the first few days and then the next week my mother took time off of work to support me.

3-7 weeks postpartum

Suddenly in week 3 my hips started popping in and out of socket all the time. When I laid down, when I rolled over in bed, when I stood up and with every step I took; at the same time my ankles started to give out. This was/ is very frustrating and painful. On a bright note though I started coming up with some great adaptations for taking care of Junior independently (I may share some in an upcoming blog) and my stiches from delivery finally healed up making me at least a little more comfortable.

8 weeks-now

I’ve taken great strides to becoming more independent during this last period. I took Junior to his 2 month pediatrician appointment, my first outing with him alone. It was a bit tricky because there was a massive snow storm the night before and there was lots of ice everywhere. To initially get to my car with Junior, my brother-in-law walked me out to my car and thank goodness he did or I would have fallen on the ice. To get him into the Doctor’s I was able to snap his car seat into a stroller. The support of the sturdy stroller kept me from slipping through the parking lot and I was able get junior ever where he needed to go without fear of dropping him.

 In the last two weeks Junior has been sleeping for longer period of time at night and I’ve started to establish a schedule for him. It is in no way perfect but I am getting more rest now at night and have more freedom during the day due to regular naptimes. With some of this new found freedom I am exercising and that is reducing my hip and ankle problems.

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Being a mother is wonderful, I love it! It is however very troublesome to me to have these mobility issues. Today I tripped for the first time while holding my son. I was able to keep him safe and fairly unjostled by holding him up, securing his neck and digging my elbows into a counter-top on my way down. Although he wasn't badly hurt and was laughing and playing with me less than 5 minutes later it still terrified me.  I know my babies will get hurt (yes I plan on getting pregnant again) but I would hope and pray that no major injury occurs until their bodies are better able to tolerate it. I'm so grateful that I was able to protect my son today despite my physical weaknesses. 

He's Here!

Our little angle came into the world Dec 29, exactly 9 months after receiving full medical approval for pregnancy. He was 6 pounds 10 ounces, perfectly healthy, and incredibly handsome!

Specific to CP

There were no cerebral palsy related complications or “other disability” related complications with labor and delivery, at all.

Adherence to Birth Plan/ Labor Story

                                    

If you remember from my earlier posts I was fairly open ended with my birth plan and had only come to two major determinations, that I would not take Pitocin and that I would have an epidural to reduce spasticity in my lower body. I felt that both of these choices would serve to reduce distress on my baby. What actually happened was fairly interesting.

If you read my last post, you  learned that my OB suggested an induction to help resolve my severe pain and mobility issues. That really got the cogs turning in our heads and “induced” several serious conversations between us. Ultimately we decided that we would try it.

Surprisingly and to my great relief the Pitocin had no apparent negative effect on my labor, however interestingly enough, the epidural did. My blood pressure dropped, my contractions became weak and the baby’s vital signs dropped soon after its insertion. After a few hours of stalled progress with my labor and the nurse constantly repositioning my body to see if it would improve the baby’s heart rate, I had them turn off my epidural. In very little time the baby’s and my vital signs improved and my contractions returned with intensity.

The nurse was fairly surprised at how little time it took to progress from the “3” I had continuously been since entering the hospital to a “10” and she left to call the doctor. Also, at this point I requested my epidural back on to reduce both my potential spasticity and pain at delivery.  When the nurse returned she had me get into position and to try a few “practice pushes” a few pushes later the baby’s head crowned, she told me not to push and ran to call the doctor again. I didn’t time it but after the doctor arrived I’m sure he was out in less than 20 minutes. My beautiful son was in my arms and I was a mother.

The One Complication

Because my little man came out so quickly, some of my internal vaginal blood vessels were torn and I lost a lot of blood. I was completely oblivious to this though (thanks to my epidural) until I noticed that my doctor was stitching me up. I was so elated about becoming a mother her explanation about what had happened didn’t phase me at all, and other pleasant conversation topics followed.

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At this time, it is hard to pinpoint any long term effects of pregnancy on my CP, only time will tell. I can tell you though that I feel fairly back to normal as far as my CP is concerned. Within 2 or 3 days of delivery my mobility was back to normal and the weight related leg and joint pain were gone.

Now that this journey is over and I can look back on all our experience, I’m so glad that my husband and I made the choices that we did. That we moved forward cautiously and carefully but always continued to move forward. It has been a year of miracles for us, and we are so happy.