A Lot to be Hopeful For
My 2nd daughter, Luna, was born on November 17th, 2020. It was a hard labor, and she and Kelly had to go through an emergency c-section. Luna's umbilical cord was connected to the amniotic sack instead of the placenta, so when Kelly's water broke, it became disconnected from Luna. They both lost a lot of blood, and Luna sustained moderate brain damage. She's spent her first few weeks of life in a NICU, connected by wires to machines, and for a while, intubated and with oxygen going into her nose and lungs.
Gaia's birth was so relatively easy that I felt very confident that this one would go smoothly too. Kelly had to be induced, because a few days before her birth, there was low fetal activity inside of Kelly's womb. But it didn't seem that big of a deal at the time.
So when everything happened, I was in a state of numb shock. All at once, everything felt out of our control. Instead of helping Kelly through her labor, she was taken away into an operating room and I had to wait to hear from the surgeon before I even knew what the hell was going on.
Since then, it's been an intense few weeks. We had to wait a couple days for Kelly to recover enough from her c-section to leave UofL Hospital. But Luna was taken to Norton's Children's Hospital, because they have cooling blankets there that can help babies who've been through the kind of trauma Kelly has. So even though I could visit Luna, we had to wait until Kelly recovered enough before she was even able to see her.
And in the meantime, we didn't even know if Luna would live or die. Everything felt so tenuous. Eventually, we learned from her neurologist that she had sustained moderate brain damage. Thankfully, no part of her brain was particularly damaged, so we're hoping that with therapy and neuroplasticity, she ran recover from her injuries. But we won't know that for a very long time.
Fortunately, our friends and family have rallied around us. We've had a fundraiser organized by friends. People have brought over food. We've had things sent to us through a registration for things we'll need for Luna. My brother and his family have even flown from Albuquerque to be there for us as we go through all this.
So that's the silver lining. And according to the nurses in the NICU, Luna may be able to come soon at the rate she's been recovering. There's a lot to be hopeful for.