A Mothers View: Brittany

HI Everyone,

Most if not all don’t know me. My name is Brittany.  I’m 25 years old and a mom to three beautiful kiddos. My oldest, Chloe, is going to be 7 in a few months, my middle son, Nathan, is going to be 5 this month and my youngest, my LM baby, is almost seven months old.

My pregnancy with Lucas was a rough one from the twenty week mark. I learned he wasn’t really growing, being two weeks behind and then four weeks. They diagnosed me with IUGR, intrauterine growth restriction, and said I was high risk.  I went to ultrasounds weekly, doctor appointments weekly and non-stress tests (NSTs) weekly. I felt like I lived at the hospital. That went on for the last twenty weeks and it’s was stressful and scary. I went from expecting a seven or eight pound baby to being told he would barely weigh five. I was induced the day before my due date. Twenty-three hours in labor, my six pound fourteen ounce baby boy was born. Lucas had to have a NICU consult. He very jittery after he was born. Thankfully, he didn’t have to spend time in the NICU.  He did have jaundice and was coombs positive. He ended up under the billi lights and the billi blanket the night before we were going home.

Lucas was a clicker. When he sucked all you could hear was him clicking. Never heard it before and the nurse and lactation consultants all said it to be normal. NORMAL, is there such a thing as normal? Just a six letter word makes all the difference when it is used to describe your child. Lucas would stop breathing while eating and again, it was said to be normal. He was my first that I was nursing, so who am I to say what is normal, right?! Lucas continued to “click” and gasp for air as he was feeding, whether be nursing or bottle and I didn’t know better and thought it was normal.

Over the next few weeks, I will share our highs and lows throughout the past few months. How our goals for Lucas have changed and how I myself have changed my whole outlook as a parent. No one ever said life was easy, but they sure didn’t tell you how hard it’d be with an LM baby.

Until next time, breathe easy!

Brittany