Newest Family Member

Lil’est Jinx was born July 14, 2012 at 6lbs 10oz and 19in long. She is my second grandchild. Lil Miss has had some difficulty with this pregnancy too and the birth wasn’t any easier than Lil Man’s birth. She developed preeclampsia again and Lil’est had to come via emergency c-section. It was the same with Lil Man 4 years ago. My daughter does not have an easy time having babies.

Anyway, Lil’est suddenly started seizing while she was with Lil Miss. She stopped breathing and turned purple. Luckily, Lil Miss was cuddling her when it started. They came and whisked baby away to NICU. Obviously they did testing, scanning and monitoring too. Lil Miss was a mess when she called to tell me. She was scared shitless. I don’t blame her. She remembers when her brother died. She’s one of the unlucky mothers that knows all does not always end well. So, we talked for a long time and I calmed her down. I was scared myself and freaking out, but I kept that to myself. I couldn’t go up right away because, well, it’s 100 miles away.

When I was up to see her and Lil’est the day before, everything seemed fine, except Lil Miss was still way out of it because of the magnesium they gave her to prevent seizures (due to the high blood pressure). I thought that was odd. She had an awkward gray coloring too that I didn’t really care for. So, I told her maybe Lil’est was just having a bad reaction to the magnesium. Maybe they gave Lil Miss too much. When she had Lil Man at another hospital but under the exact same conditions she was out of it for a few hours after having him, but not as bad as she was this time.

After a while, docs told her that Lil’est wasn’t having anymore episodes (they decided they may not be seizures after all– though she was seizing, her eyes were wandering and her breathing stopped). She had a few episode in the NICU, but the anti-seizure meds stopped the “episodes”. A spinal tap showed no signs of infection or any abnormalities in her spinal fluid and tests indicated that brain function is normal. The pediatrician concluded that it must really have been a bad reaction to the magnesium¹.

Then, to make it even more fun, the 24 hour scan they were doing didn’t transmit to the main hospital’s campus. So, they are leaving her on them until tomorrow. Also, there seems to be some sort of issue with her breathing and they want to monitor that for another day or so. Lil Miss and her husband aren’t sure what’s going on as far as her condition. Why are they concerned about her breathing? Why, if she wasn’t seizing, do they have to continue to monitor for seizure activity? And why can’t her mother hold her? It’s frustrating.

But she is very beautiful. She’s got a huge amount of very straight, very black hair. She looks a lot like her brother when he was born, but also looks a lot like her dad. I can’t wait until she gets out of NICU so we can all cuddle and spoil her.