Annabelle's Journey

For those of you just getting to know Annabelle, here is her story in a nutshell. Something happened to me during my pregnancy that made my water break too early, the doctors guess it happened somewhere between 11-15wks gestation. I was then diagnosed with severe oligohydramnios (I had no amniotic fluid left, less than 1cm) and we were given the sad news that our unborn baby may never live. We almost lost Annabelle when I went into labor at 19wks but our prayers were answered as contractions stopped and I didn't dilate past 1.5cm. I had severe bleeding during the pregnancy and at 25wks something awful happened. The bleeding got worse and Annabelle's heart rate dropped, we had an emergency c-section. While delivering Annabelle the doctors found that my placenta had begun to pull away from the wall of my uterus, if I wasn't being closely monitored that day they would have lost us both. Annabelle was born at a tiny 1lb 6oz she dropped weight after birth and her lowest weight was 1lb 2oz. She was on life support for the first few months and then on the cpap and finally on oxygen. She got off of her oxygen in december! She also has a small hole in her heart that her doctors are monitoring. So far we have been through several procedures. Since Annabelle had no fluid in the womb her body was badly twisted. She had her legs and feet casted to fix them last year. She also issues/difficulty eating and has had to surgeries so far to insert g-tube devices. She now eats completely by g-tube but we are working with a therapist to get her eating by mouth. Annabelle also had ROP after birth, which is a scary disease that messes with her eyes. Her ROP is now gone and we are thankful! She sees a physical and occupational therapist once a week. Annabelle is almost 14mos old her corrected age is 10mos old, she doesn't crawl, she wont do tummy time, she doesn't pull her self up on things and she just learned to sit. She also was born with Congenital left hip dislocation with a possible crushed hip socket. Her hip surgery this thursday 4/26/12 should help her be able to move more like a normal baby. In this blog I will post her updates after surgery and to tell how she is doing. Thank you all for following along!