Along Came Ruby

Ruby Elizabeth- Marie was born January 12, 2007. I couldn't find a baby picture of her own my face book account, so I just took one of my favorites of her. Ruby has been an adventure from the start! I had never intended to have children until after graduating college, but that didn't happen. I had always planned that my pregnancy would be complication free, that didn't happen. I had always planned to spontaneously go into labor and not need any medications, but that didn't happen. I had always planned to have a happy and healthy baby grow into a happy and health person, this has happened but only after a life threatening event at almost 5 months old.

My pregnancy with Ruby was going wonderfully, I was gaining weight normally, she never liked when the midwives would check her heartbeat with the doppler. However my my 38 week appointment they noticed that my belly hadn't grown in the last couple of weeks. I was sent for an ultrasound, which found that not only was my fluid low, but that I had been leaking fluid since around 32 weeks and Ruby had completely stopped growing at 35 weeks. I was put on bedrest for a wee and sent for another ultrasound at 39 weeks. My midwives were hoping for an increase in fluid, however this didn't happen, at the last u/s (ultrasound), my little Ruby had only one tiny pocket of fluid with her. I was rushed to the hospital, and monitored for 24 hours before being induced with pitocin. My labor was quick and painful, so I elected to have an epidural. Ruby was born at 3:17pm weighing 5 pounds 5 oz and was 18 3/4 inches long. After she was born she was placed in an incubator because she wasn't doing a great job maintaining her body heat, and I apparently do not respond well to anesthesia because my blood pressure dropped and I was vomiting every where. The nurse said "I will give you this fenigan and it will take the nausea away", LOL, I passed out for 6 hours!

We brought our tiny Ruby home, not feeling ready to take care of a baby. However we weren't home for very long, at 5 weeks old she was admitted into the hospital because she had caught a cold. It was while she was able the hospital that she began spitting up her feedings, alot. The doctor and nurses were not concerned stating that it was due to the mucus from her cold. We were discharged after two nights, however after returning home an the cold going away Ruby continued to throw up her feedings. Our lives had become a continuation of making bottles, cleaning up vomit cycle. But there was something different about her vomiting that didn't sit right with us. Ruby was projectile vomiting after every feeding, we would wake up in the morning and find that she was covered in vomit, and I remember this in particular, I walked into her room while Glenn was changing her and she vomited out OVER the side of her changing table. We met with the dr's and told them our concerns, and were simply told that "she is just a small girl" and "your over feeding her", so at 4.5 months we were feeding her only 2 oz every 2 hours that she was still throwing up. Finally after moving to Augusta, she had a really bad day, she was very lethargic, and I remember telling my sister "her skin is so dry I keep putting lotion on her but it isn't doing anything", I called a new Dr's office, they stated that couldn't see her until our insurance switched her in June (it was May 23). I became very upset and told them that she was loosing weight (she had been weighed at her previous dr's and then at WIC and had lost weight), the new Dr. saw us right away. At 4.5 months my little Ruby weighed 9.0 pounds, she was still wearing newborn diapers and clothes, something was wrong. She was admitted into the hospital that night and transported to Maine Medical Center the next morning for testing. Based on her age, and that she was a girl the on call surgeon stated that he thought she had " severe acid reflux but we are going to do a barium swallow anyway". The barium swallow was done on May 24, and should that Ruby had pyloricstenosis (a closing of the stomach muscle that wasn't allowing food into her body), we were able to see the barium go into her stomach and come right back out. Ruby had surgery on May 25th 2007, we were told that if we had waited another couple of days she would had died. My little baby had been starving for months, now I was worried about how this was going to affect her development. Luckily she gained weight quickly following surgery, and developed quickly as well talking at 9 months, walking at 11 months, simple sentences at 14 months and she hasn't slowed down since. We always tell her that she is the reason we had more babies. We say "Ruby you are so awesome and smart and we love you so much that we wanted to have more babies".