I found out I was pregnant on Christmas Eve of 2007! It was a big surprise since our girls were only 2 and 10 months. When I went for my ultrasound March 31,2008, we were told the baby had some fluid on his brain ( we didn’t know the baby was a boy yet). The perinatologist took us to his office right away to tell us the baby has severe hydrocephalus and some cardiac abnormalities. He said he had 10 times the amount of spinal fluid buildup that he should have. There was nothing we could do to stop it, he said we could either terminate the pregnancy or carry on with it. We chose right away to carry on, and at each OB visit, things seemed to get worse with both the baby and my blood pressure. I was hospitalized at 31 weeks due to high blood pressure and when they did another ultrasound there, they found the baby was not getting sufficient blood flow through the umbilical cord, so they decided to do a C-section the next day, right at 32 weeks pregnant. It was a scary and upsetting time for us and our family. My priest, Father Joe, gave me a special blessing the night before my C-section, and after that I felt at peace, it was an amazing feeling. On Wednesday, June 18th, James Patrick was born weighing in at 4-5 and was only 16 inches long. They let me see him for a minute, and then took him to the NICU, where he stayed for 2 months! We finally got to take him home on August 14th, the day after his due date, it was so wonderful! He has a shunt in his head to drain the fluid, and sees a cardiologist routinely to check on the hole in his heart. He is behind developmentally, but is starting to catch up now that he is close to being 2. He crawls very fast and loves getting into things, he is also starting to say some words. He has a great personality too! He started having seizures back in December and was hospitalized for a few days, so now he is on antiseizure medication twice daily. He has been such a blessing, we love him so much, and he has made such amazing progress! We were always given such a grim prognosis by several different doctors, but he has proved them wrong! God has been so good to us, thank you for our sweet baby James! I have a blog if you would like to follow his progress at AliceKubac.wordpress.com.
