Another punch in the gut

The shock of finding out “we” were pregnant was a shocker.  Ending up in preterm labor and giving birth to a 2 lb, 12 oz,  28 weeker, even more of a shock.   Where am I going with this…..most everything with the Bubba was,  has been a HUGE shock. 

He just couldn’t stop at being EARLY and LITTLE he had to throw us another Whammy!  (yeah I know, he had no control over this either, I’m taking creative license here)

The biggest shock, or punch in the gut, was April 28, 2009, when we found out Bubba had a grade 3 brain bleed (you can read it at The Punch in the Gut April 2009.)

While the babe was in the hospital he had regular scans on his head and spinal taps to drain the fluid that was backing up in his head.  The taps worked and we were so happy.  After the 44 days in the NICU, there were scans and neuro doc check ups every 4-6 weeks until November 18, 2009 when we got the “free and clear”.

And we thought we were in the that free and clear for good.

WRONG! 

We are still feeling that punch. 

As I mentioned in my last post, we noticed the walking funny thing.  We had his pediatric PT evaluation Thursday (for 2 hours).  She noticed several things that he was or was not doing that he should or should not be doing……I can deal with that.  Physical therapy is definitely in his immediate future.

But she also said that she thinks we should see a Neurologist.  And she said the letters CP.  SMACK. WHAM.  BANG.  Right in the kisser.

Now, here are a couple of things. 

1-she has to tell us any and everything that could possibly come into play. 

2-might not be CP could just be that he was a preterm baby who has some muscle tightness and we need PT to get his body working right.

3-even if it is, it’s VERY mild and he’s totally fine and we’ll get thru this.

But I’m a mom and you know how us moms are.

I’ve beaten myself up.

I should have seen the signs sooner. 

I should have reacted.  Faster.  (yeah, I know in one weeks time I’ve gotten all this done, don’t beat myself up, blah blah blah)

But he’s my baby and I’m with him all the time.  I don’t think I made excuses or turned a blink eye to what was/wasn’t happening. I think that I just (a ) didn’t know that (example) a baby shouldn’t be sitting like that and (b ) still wrote some of it off to the fact that he was 3 months early.

So, where are we now.

Tuesday I head down to the early intervention office to sign some papers and they will “issue” the order for the PT to start.  Friday we are going to see the Nurse Practioner of the Neuro-Surgeon that took care of him through out the brain bleed stuff.  Not that he needs a neuro-surgeon, but Bubba is already a patient there so it’s easier to get in, see what they think and if they want another MRI or what…..plus they can get us into a Neurologist faster.  Apparently it can take weeks to get in to see one. 

From there – we’ll figure out what the heck we need to do, or not do, or whatever.

Big breath, our little wild man is still keeping us hopping.

NOTES:

I can only speak to what I know about where I live but having  a preemie baby here in our county we were offered the county services of Early Childhood Intervention.  We were told by the gals in the hospital to “take the service” and let them dump us when it was done, which is sometime between the age of 2 or 3.  We were told that being part of the program would help us if we needed services – they could get things faster….boy was that true.  I am so glad we stayed a part of the program.  Our case worker has been fabulous.