Our story

SEPTEMBER 2003   

Abigaile was born September 2003.  Abigailes mom had a perfect pregnancy no complications. Abigiale decided though when she was going to be born and seemed to be bottom first and breach. The Dr. decided that it would be best for mommy and baby to have a c-section. 

  The family was going through a house renovation at the time and mom was doing some last minute chores and at 3 am one Sunday morning mom was not going to go to sleep. Abigaile thought it was her time to make her entrance. So off to take big sister to a friends house and off to the hospital with mom and dad and soon to be Abigaile.  We arrived at the hospital, got checked in as c-section wasn't schedule for a few more days. I walked and made no progress so Dr. said it was time for emergency c-section. A couple of hours later on Sunday morning we had our sweet girl Abigaile. The family who was watching Natascha brought new big sister to hospital. 

  It was one of the last visits that I had with the OBGyn that he told me that my labs showed group B Strep. it was too late in the pregnancy however to give me antibiotics for it and he felt it might cause harm to the baby. This was relayed to the women's hospital where Abigaile was born.  Abigaile was a beautiful baby and her scores were 8 and 9 respectfully the Pediatrician said. They did give her a blow by of oxygen to pink her up a bit. We had done all the pre-registering for vitamin k drops, the Hep B at birth we had a birth plan. 

  Things started getting a little strange at this point. They kept Abigaile quite some time giving her a bath, doing the eye drops, giving the Hep b shot. It was dad who decided to go and hunt her down to see if everything was okay. Dad finally found her , he said they were doing labs,etc and that the nurse would bring her in soon. It was still quite some time, I hadn't been able to nurse her or anything yet. I really wanted to see my baby already.  Then they finally brought the little beauty in to my room. The nurse said that they would bring her in so that I could try and feed her but that there seem to be a problem with her labs they noticed this when giving her the Hep B, and Vit K drops and giving her a bath. Her counts were elevated and it appeared she was born group B Strep positive. They had to put her on piggybacks and fluids of antibiotics, and tried several different antibiotics. It seemed none were working and she had a elevated temperature they were trying to get down as well. She also was a bit jaundice after a couple of days and no one seemed to have an answer for this one.  It was after many antibiotics and 3 days later we went home.  

NOVEMBER 2003

  We went for next week visit at Pediatricians office and everything seemed to be going well. She was growing and doing well. It appeared she was hitting developmental milestones. She was eating, sleeping, and doing all the things that infants do. She was even sleeping 4 hours and waking and 4 more hours and waking.  It was time for 2nd well-baby visit on November 2003.  It was also time for more vaccines.  I felt strange about giving her the vaccines but had been taught and told by every Pediatrician and even in school that vaccines are safe for everyone.  I had this sick feeling but said you know her sister had them and she was fine. We didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary with this visit she seemed to be growing and doing well. I remember her being a little fussy but nothing really stood out to me. I'm pretty observant with my children and definitely over-protective ask anyone who knows me they will tell you. 

FEBRUARY 2004

  It was February and where had all the time gone. It was time for the 6 month vaccine It was a little early but the Pediatrician went ahead and gave the vaccines anyways. I remember feeling odd that day and didn't want to give her the vaccines. It was to the point that I wanted to cancel the visit. I took her sister with me. We went in, got he green sheet, pink sheet and the whole rainbow of sheets of each of the vaccines given at that visit. I had to sign and date each one stating that I got them. I then got copies once the shots were given and went home. I still felt ill about this. I got home gave my little one a bath because that is what germ-phoebic ex nursing personnel do to alieviate getting sick.  Abigaile was crying and she literally cried all day. She was inconsolable. It was no matter what I did, feed her, rock her, change her, nothing worked I was told to give her infant Tylenol.  There was nothing that would work though.  She would seem to get better then cry a lot. Her eyes seemed to be crossing and rolling a lot. The pediatrician would say to bring her in, I did but when I would get to the Pediatricians office she was like a car being taken to the shop, she wouldn't do anything. I knew something was wrong, I knew I wasn't seeing these things happen its just why wouldn't they happen around anyone else. It was over a period of time that I watched my baby swell, her head, her arms, her legs, I thought at first she was growing but it was soon confirmed when her dad would come home after working long hours . She wasn't sleeping, she would eat but it was like she was trying to over-eat. It was the kind where there is something wrong with a baby usually they are sick or something and they just want to suckle all the time that is what she was doing.  Here are some of the pictures of Abigaile during this time. We watched our baby swell uncontrollably during this time as we tried to find help as to what happened and how we could fix it. We really had no help anywhere. 

APRIL 3, 2004 Our lives changed at this moment...

 We had a couple of friends over, playing music on the piano and guitar. We were doing a Bible study. Abigaile was in her bouncy seat and sitting on the couch.  We heard this choking noise and couldn't figure what it was. We looked over at Abigaile and she appeared to be choking. We looked at her pacifier but it was bitten off, there was nothing else she could have gotten. I called 911 as she was turned blue. I grabbed the bulb syringe from upstairs and started suctioning her. She was becoming no responsive. It was the longest night ever. Our friends stayed with Natascha that night as Abigaile and I took a ride in the ambulance and we went to the hospital. A watch overnight in the hospital. The attending Physician in ER was also the Dr. whom was the head of the clinic that our Pediatrician was at. They did labs, cat scan, and the verdict was infantile spasms or seizures.  In a couple of days we went home. They seemed to think the infantile spasm would go away but they didn't.  It was a nightmare to try and sleep I was so afraid to go to sleep I was afraid my Abigaile wouldn't wake up.  She would scream this high pitched scream everytime we would do anything, we didn't even have to do anything. We were turning on light switches and Abigaile would scream. I also noticed her getting this grayish color, the color was going out of her skin color. On April 7 , 8 Abigaile would have another episode while friends were over and we would call the ambulance again.  This time would result in a 54 minute seizure. The Dr. would come in, assess her, but didn't not medicate her to try to stop the seizure. We would learn later from the the nurse that he didn't think Abgiaile was going to make it. Damn him how could he not medicate her to stop the seizure? At the same time our oldest daughter would start running a 103* temperature. We got on our knees and prayed right there as we were so scared we would lose our Abigaile and then we decided to fight for her life. This time she was admitted for 3 days. She would have seizures every time they would give her a piggyback for her IV and anything they gave her. My mom and my uncle by marriage his brother who was a Pastor came to see us. There was NO other family who came to see Abigaile. The phone calls to see how Abigaile was were made by Allen or I. My aunt would come to see us once we got home. She couldn't stand to see our little one this way. We were told it was not normal for a baby this young to have seizures and we were being given a referral for Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock that we could drive there and meet with the head of Neurology to see what she felt about Abigaile and seizures. This was April 14- 17. The Dr saw Abigaile and was holding her, she wanted to measure her head size it was 54cm (the size of a normal 3 year olds head) except this baby was 7 months old. She took one look at her and admitted her to the Unit to monitor her. I'm glad to know we drove 3 1/2 hours, I think she should have been life- flighted. She would undergo a battery of tests, a spinal tap (that they requested I step out of the room they were not going to let me stay.) She had a MRI and a battery of metabolic tests and panels. They kept asking what was different in our little girls life, what did she have. The only thing she had was breast milk and we knew that wasn't it. The Neurologist and different members of the team would ask "Do you think its the vaccines?" to this day it still gives me chills and makes it easier. I didn't know what it was but I did know that I wanted it to stop. We ended up with a book dose of meds but know what was wrong. We had her Pediatrician to order PT, OT, and speech.  They were to call us once we went home. I didn't sleep, for days sometimes, I was exhausted. Allen would go to work and have little sleep.