Undiagnosed IUGR

[Guest guest]

Howdy Folks!

here in Virginia. We had such a lovely time at convention. I

totally agree with Carmen about how you feel more like a family in

chicago than you do at home because so many of the children look

like your precious child and they don't stare at you when you adjust

shoe lifts and bolus feed your child at a bingo table.

I have comments regarding IUGR. Connor was my third child. I

gained the least amount of weight with him than I did the other two

boys. 17 lbs total. I craved citrus with his pregnancy. Thus,

naval oranges, pineapple and mandarin oranges from a can were my

food staple. In a pinch, I would guzzle a pineapple orange Slim

Fast for the taste (yes, it tasted good to me when I was pregnant)

and for the multivitamin boost. I didn't take pre-natal vitamins

because they made3 me sick but was on a regular multivitamin.

However, by a women's intuition, I knew something just wasn't quite

right with this pregnancy. Connor squirmed and wiggled like the

other two. I had the usual acid reflux with him, but I just knew

something wasn't right.

The doctor, of course, blew me off. All she wanted to hear was that

I was fine and that the delivery was going to go as expected since I

was an experienced mother. I had pre-term labor with Connor as I

did with the other's however, Connor delivered at full term. The

other's delivered at three weeks and ten days early.

The delivery room was a fiasco. Two days before delivery, The OB

said Connor was measuring to be a six pound baby. When he was born

he weighed only 4lbs 13 oz. The nurse forgot to tell the doctor

that I had meconium show thus there wasn't a NICU team present when

Connor was born. In all fairness to the hospital though they

scrambled one fast!!!! Because Connor was so small (undiagnosed

IUGR) the contractions, although only midline on the monitor,

expelled him. There was never a point where they said, " Alright

, start pushing. " The monitors, the doctor, no one was ready

for Connor. When the doctor came in to check my progression,

Connor's head had crowned and their was a huge pool of meconium.

When the doctor instructed me to move to the end of the bed, (I was

laboring sitting up due to back pain) Connor popped out. No one was

ready. The doctor jumped on the bed and started suctioning his

mouth to keep him from breathing in Meconium. A nurse hit the code

one button behind my head and a NICU team showed up fast. It was a

good five minutes before I heard my son cry. I guess they intubated

him for good measure. When his weight was called out (4 lbs 13 oz)

I said, " Oh My God, what did I do wrong! " The doctor turned to me

and asked " Did you take up smoking ? " (GRRRRRRR!)

THe placenta was thrown out immediately and the cord was noted as

having three vessels but was very small. Connor was rushed to the

NICU. The good news was that he got out quickly. He was able to

maintain his O2 stats and body temperature. Connor went to my

breast an hour after being born. Mind you 12 hours later he started

refluxing. Because he was small, the doctor's wanted me to

supplement formula until my breast milk came in. He kept it down

for one day. When my milk came in, he started throwing up the

formula. So, we exclusively breast fed him as long as we could.

As I have read the posts here I realize now, that Connor staying in

utero as long as he did wasn't all that bad. As many of you said,

taking the baby early doesn't necessarily resolve the problems as

the eating issues and blood sugar and growing don't improve

dramatically outside the womb.

So, my feelings (totally unscientific here, just a women's

intuition) is that a variety of complex mechanism's are in play

which cause RSS. Genetic and in utero conditions. We have very few

unifying factors to explain the occurence of RSS so in short, I

stopped beating myself up for drinking a Slim Fast rather than an

Ensure.

Nuff said.