Expecting Mothers, please read, this could save you alot of heartache. ***Shelly***

In the past week or so I have noticed quite a few woman here on USM are either expecting a baby or are thinking about having one. First off I'd like to say Congratulations to all. Second, I would like you to read my story and try to remeber the information I am going to give you. Chances are you'll never need it, but if I had, had this information before my second daughter was born I could have saved myself alot of tears.

I went into labor with my second daughter and after one day of labor pains I made my way to the hospital. They told me I wasn't dialated enough and sent me home. Three days later, contractions 7 minutes apart this whole time my contractions finally made their way to four minutes apart. I went to the hospital again and after twelve hours of waiting and a half hour of pushing the doctor decided she wasn't coming any further. He used a little vacummn type thing to help pull her out. Once she was out we could see why it took so long. She weighed nine pounds, which was quite a shock since I had lost weight during my pregnancy rather than gain. They were expecting her to be rather small. After our first day in the hospital, the pediatrician came in to tell me her blood sugar was low, but not to worry, sometimes some babies took longer to regulate than others. So believing what doctors tell me I wasn't worried. I figured they knew better than I. They eventually put her on an IV drip to get her blood sugar up but it still wasn't going up. Again they told me not to worry. The next day the pediatrician came in and told me they were sending her in an ambulance to a more advanced hospital. I couldn't believe it. Here I was packing up to take my baby home and they're telling me she isn't coming home. I was hysterical I couldn't stop crying. I plopped my stiched up butt into my car and my husband and I drove to this other hospital and we beat the ambulance. Now the doctors at this new hospital tell me that her salt levels are very high also. They have no Idea what is wrong. She spend a week in an incubator surrounded by babies, some of which weigh less than three pounds. It was very depressing and still the doctors say they don't know what's wrong. They finally come to me and tell me they figured out why her salt was high. She had been on an IV drip so long the saline raised her levels but they still don't know what could cause her blood sugar to be so low. I spend the whole week sitting by her incubator, in a hard chair, crying my eyes out. I'm not allowed to pick her up since she is hooked up to so many wires and monitoring devices. Since this wasn't the hospital I gave birth in I don't have a room so I have to go home every night, which is an hour away. I am there as soon as they open everymorning and the last to leave everynight. I watch these poor tiny three pound babies all around me with no parents stopping by the whole week. Finally they tell me her blood sugar is a little better and she can go home in the morning. Every night I have gone home to an empty cradle and cried, but this night I am happy because I know she will be home tommorrow. I show up bright and early ready to take her home. The nurse comes in as I'm dressing her and tells me, she's sorry but her blood sugar dropped again during the night so she can't leave. Needless to say I shot the messanger. I go home again crying. Finally I come the next day and they tell me her sugar stayed up so she can go home. I take her home and a week later I take her to the pediatrician for her two week checkup. The doctor wants her blood checked so we go through three hours of pricking her heel, squeezing blood, over and over again. The tests come back and the doctor calls, her blood sugar is dangerously low again. If it gets much lower she could be in danger of having a seizure and perhaps brain damage. The doctor sends me that day to an Endocrynologist. He takes one look at the information and tells me that my daughter has a very rare disease, NESIDIOBLASTOSIS, hyperinsulinism, low blood sugar. Basically her pancreas secretes to much insulin. He gives her medication and I have to monitor her blood every time she eats. He tells me this is a very rare disease and he has never seen it in a baby so this is even more rare. But he knew what it was and fixing the problem was as simple as that. My daughter has outgrown this with dietary regulations and no longer needs the medication.

My hopes in posting this is, that if you have this information, and you have a child and see these signs, you might be more prepared than the doctors. Very few doctors knew what to look for since this is so rare, but if there had been someone who had any idea I would have been able to take my baby home on time and she never would have spent her first week in an incubator hooked up to wires. It would have saved alot of heartache. Like I said, the chances are rare this could happen to your baby but if by reading this you are prepared, I am happy to have saved you the pain I went through.

Good luck to all expecting mothers. :) ***Shelly***

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