I was very fortunate to fall pregnant. I have poly-cystic ovarian syndrome and had lots of ovarian cysts. The first part of the pregnancy I had low progesterone levels and was quite ill all I could think was once I reached 16 weeks, all would be well for the rest of my life. I planned huge quantities of work to finish when I was 38 weeks pregnant. Unfortunately I had an irritable uterus, and ended up on bed-rest with a slowly thinning cervix at 25 weeks pregnancy. I was on meds to stop my uterus contracting which made me feel like I could run 10 miles, and made my baby appear to be juggling 3 footballs with her feet. I made it to 37 weeks, before I had a caesarian in Cape Town, South Africa on October 30 1998 by which time I had almost no amniotic fluid left.
During the C/S there was so little fluid around, Talya ended up with a small cut on her head, and required two goes with a forceps to get her out. She came out screaming, and went on screaming and screaming. She was placed in an incubator for a few hours, and they finally managed to get her to calm down with a very old-fashioned all latex pacifier dipped in sugar water. Typically for HN babies, she could hold her head up when she was one day old. This hospital had a strict policy of babies staying in the nursery and being brought to their mothers 4 hourly. At this stage Talya made her presence felt waking up at all the wrong times, not feeding as well as she should. Frustrated I discharged us when she was only 2 ˝ days old.
From the word go she was very alert and interested. At one stage she stayed awake for 8 hours when she was only a week old (and still quite jaundiced). I tried to get a strict routine (as I am normally a very organized person). At night I tried to condition her to fall asleep in a rocking crib by playing the same Mozart concerto each night. She used to scream and scream as she hit the crib, and I would have to hold her for ages till she seemingly fell asleep only to have her wake when she was placed in the crib. (So guess why she ended up in the family bed).
She had a slightly lousy suck reflex through all this and had frequent projectile vomiting and despite feeding almost every hour and poor weight gain. Together with colic, before she was a month old, I was absolutely exhausted. My mother and MIL and their 50 friends had loads and loads of advice for me.
I had to return to work when Talya was two months old (used all maternity leave pre-pregnancy) - luckily I acquired a wonderful African nanny to work for me. She would constantly carry Talya when she was there and swaddled her. She is the most patient person I have ever met without which I’m sure I would have run away. At that stage Talya’s colic was so bad, most of the time she didn’t have a voice and would cry with a hoarse pathetic croak. She would only go to her nanny or to me.
At that stage reflux and food allergy were suspected. I went on a dairy free diet (and vegetable free, wheat free etc), and Talya was put on Prepulsid (now taken off the market) and Zantac. Although she was still HN we could cope. She could sit holding herself up on her arms at age 4 months, 5 ˝ months she could sit and reach for things. She was crawling backwards by 5 months, forwards by 7 months, and cruising at much the same time. When not screaming she had a great sense of humour at age 4 months while on her nanny’s back, she reached over, threw a porcelain plate on the floor and shrieked when it broke into hundreds of pieces. She laughed whenever the dogs barked. She started understanding what we said, really early if we talked about her and laughed when she was 5 months old, she made protest noises.
When she was 9 months old we moved to the UK. The flight was a nightmare as I was on my own, and she screamed anytime a stranger came past. Unfortunately we were diverted, missed connections and took 27 hour to get to the UK. I recall bursting into tears and screaming and shouting at staff at Schippel airport in Amsterdam. The flight dried up my milk so we weaned Talya onto soya formula. This was soon followed by a huge fall-off in weight, constant ear infections, vomiting diarrhoea. We were also now dependent on a National health service where visits to specialists were refused. Talya started walking before she was a year old, could identify many animals, objects in books by pointing. However she was miserable, whining , clingy, bored and never slept.
We started nursery school and this also saved my sanity. Her first month there she had to be constantly held, by one particular staff member who even had to take Talya to the loo with her! At home things were much the same.
At age 16 months Talya ended up in hospital, weighing little more than 18 pounds due to gastro combined with soya allergy. Finally she ended up with specialist allergy care and life became much easier.
Now age 2, she is still HN. She still spends most of the night in our bed, certainly gets and demands special treatment at her nursery but she is an intelligent, bright, sociable child with a great sense of humour. She is incredibly stubborn and can throw champion tantrums were she even has her fellow toddlers jumping at nursery. She also is passionate about animals and completely unafraid of massive cows/horses/pigs etc but please don’t bring any strange men near her. She is very loving and affectionate although still not cuddly (she cannot sit without wriggling in my lap for more than 3 seconds). She is stubborn about routine i.e. things have to be done a certain way or else but not in a routine i.e. she will stay up till late at night which is why I hardly ever post on babycenter.
Just to say to other parents reflux and/or food allergy can make a HN baby seem completely unmanageable and if your baby is constantly gassy, crying, vomiting please insist on seeing a specialist pediatrician and life does improve a great deal once they are older.
