It was a dinner date that I was having with my high school bff and we were enjoying an adult beverage. I had one PERFECT margarita and I felt like I had been demolished by a Mac truck. Something inside of me sparked up and I wondered...could I really be pregnant? I had only been off of birth control for one month, the month of July. During the month of July I had a 3 week battle with poison ivy...and I lost. I was at the doctor three different times and I had taken a steroid shot and pills. He had asked me if there was any way I could be pregnant. My reply...um, no! Little did I know, we conceived Little Miss, Jellybean, Baby Girl Stegg, Loomis (all nicknames given to her before her arrival by family and friends) on or around July 22. I left the dinner date with Sammie Jo and went to CVS. I purchased a pack of three pregnancy tests. I went home, talked with Dan and took the test the next morning, August 7th, 2010.
We all know how that test turned out! I had a great pregnancy, I flirted with having gestational diabetes but never went all the way! I was able to see Sophie several times through the ultrasounds. I even had my dad come to one with me. What a great memory we share together! Towards the end I had extra fluid and I was induced 1.5 weeks early. In reality, it isn't early at all!
I was in labor, from start to finish, for 10 hours with only 21 minutes of pushing. Sophie Marie Stegg was born at 6:21 PM on March 31st, 2010. The first thing I asked if she was really a girl. One could say I was a little skeptical!
I tried breastfeeding Sophie and she wouldn't eat. The nurses all said that was normal. They took her to the nursery so I could sleep that night and the next morning my favorite nurse, Nurse Linda, came in and told me Sophie's sugar dropped a little so they had to give her some formula from a medicine dropper. The pediatrician on call stopped in and noticed that Sophie had a heart murmur. He said that it is something pretty common and not to be alarmed. So, I wasn't. Nurse Linda came in and took Sophie again to check her blood sugar and while they had her she wanted to do an Xray because her belly was a little big. Sophie had not yet passed her first BM either.
I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting on the couch that converted in to a bed just starting to use the breast pump. Nurse Linda walked in and said that she had bad news. She said that everything was going to get scary at first but then it would be ok, that Sophie would be ok. Linda proceed to tell me that Sophie had an intestinal blockage and that Toledo Children's Hospital was already on their way. Sophie wasn't even 24 hours old and she was looking at her first surgery.
I called Dan, he was picking Shane up from school, and told him that Sophie was being transferred and was going to need surgery. Dan and Shane came up to the hospital right away and we were able to have some time with her before she left. Sophie was whisked away. Dan and I were able to find a sitter for Shane and our dogs and we were off to Toledo. Thank God for Amy Jo! She arrived at the hospital before we did and she had all of the information we needed in order to go directly to Sophie. Sophie was in the NICU and already had her IV and machines hooked up to her before we arrived in the room.
Toledo Children's Hospital was able to slow things down for us so that we could comprehend what was happening. The surgical staff wasn't convinced that Sophie had a blockage but they knew something was wrong. Sophie was given a barium enema and from what I hear, she took the biggest...dare I say poop, that the nurse had ever seen come of our someone so small. Sophie started pooping on her own after that so we thought we were on the mend.
After 6 days and many tests later, we were allowed to take Sophie home to wait for the results of the rectal biopsy. When we were home Sophie was still going on her own but it was a struggle for her. The results came in and Sophie was diagnosed with Hirschsprung's Disease. HD is when the ganglionic cells don't grow all the way down your colon and your colon can't retract to push the stool out. The only fix for this was surgery. Since Sophie was going on her own we decided to wait and give her time to grow. As the days went on, Sophie started having more and more trouble going poop. She would scream just to pass the stool. When Sophie was only 6 weeks old we scheduled her surgery for June 10th, 2011.
June 9th I took Sophie to the hospital to check her in and to start the process of cleaning her out for surgery. It was awful. Instead of remembering Denton and Quinton on their birthday I was holding Sophie preparing myself to lose another child. June 10th came and Sophie surgery lasted just under 3 hours. Sophie came through the surgery well but Sophie started to go into congestive heart failure. Congestive Heart Failure is completely different in babies than adults. Babies don't die, they just have their lungs start to fill up with fluid and needs medication. Sophie was started on Lasix as well as Sprionolactone. High doses to boot!
Sophie struggled for a while after the surgery and without going in to detail there were a lot of things we had to do daily with Sophie in order to have her fully recover from the surgery. It was awful and we felt like we were abusing our child.
Sophie was finally doing well with her HD issues (besides a week stay in the hospital around the 4th of July for being backed up with gas) but her heart needed attention.
Sophie was also born with several heart defects. Sophie has PDA, ASD, Pulmonary Stenosis and 2 heart murmurs. On August 11th, 2011 Sophie underwent a valvuoplasty and PDA closure. It was supposed to take 4 hours. At the 4 hour mark the head assistant came out and told us the hole was too big and Dr. Butto didn't think he could do the procedure and that we were looking at Open Heart Surgery. At that moment I can't even begin to explain to you what I felt at that moment. Less than 10 minutes later she came back out and told us that Dr. Butto found a way to do the procedure. We were able to see Sophie 2 hours later. That was the longest 6 hours of my life. By the grace of God Dr. Butto was able to do this surgery. Prayers were being heard and answered.
So, Sophie had two surgeries before she was even 6 months old. I wish with all of my heart I could tell you that it ended there. But I can't! The truth of the matter is that Sophie has way more going on with her than any of us could ever begin to fathom. This post is extremely long so I will break for now. I don't want your eyes to start going crossed!
