30/04/2021
Happy 8th Birthday Elliot!!!! 🎉🥳
😭😭😭😭
Where do I even begin!!
My birth story isn’t one I like to share. I never talk about the little details of that day. Hearing the whole day from my moms perspective or my mother in laws, it gives me chills.
I developed thrombocytopenia and my platelets were dropping every week. We caught the bloodwork early on and tried to keep track of where my platelets were. If they dropped to below 50,000 they’d have to intervene.
Every week I would get a nst on Tuesday, my finger poked on Wednesday, and an ultrasound on Friday. It was week 37 and my platelets were literally at 50,000, I went in for his ultrasound and they said he wasn’t practicing his breathing like he should. They sent me to labor and delivery for a nst, and then sent me home. Said everything was fine. (It wasn’t.) I’m now 38 weeks and I went in for the nst and Elliot was doing the same thing he was on Friday. They send me down to L&D for an ultrasound. Tried giving me something to go into labor and then the next thing I remember, all these doctors coming in saying we need to get him out. Alex made it 30 seconds after I was wheeled back. I remember being on that operating table and the last thing I heard was count backwards and I was out.
This is Elliot’s birth story and it defines his strength and how he’s overcome so much.
He was born with a 2.9 hemoglobin, he was losing so much blood. He was born a ghost baby, he was on the ventilator for 15 minutes. He then had to have 3 blood transfusions. We had to go to a hospital nearby with a better NICU and went for his first ambulance ride on his 6th day of life.
Once we got to the new hospital, Elliot went down for a MRI, we were sitting in the NICU and a team of 8 or 10 doctors walk up to us and told us that Elliot suffered a perinatal stroke that damaged the whole left side of his brain. That feeling I still remember. 8 years later, I remember everything. The smells even, I remember.
Elliot was able to come home 26 days later on an apnea machine. He kept failing his car seat test, so the team decided to send him home on an apnea machine. We had both of our cars there so I drove home with Elliot. The apnea machine kept going off, I didn’t even get around the corner and called Alex crying because it kept going off. But we made it home 🙌🏻
And then that goes into the beginning of what this BIG 8 year old has been through. Infantile Spasms, Cerebral Palsy, Focal seizures, epilepsy, 2 hemispherectomy surgeries, and now a boy living with half a brain. He is so amazing, so happy, he is so smart, he is the absolute sweetest. He has grown up so much, we are so proud of who he’s becoming.
Through the years it’s been so hard, but his smile, his laugh, his love for music, his love for life makes everything seem not so bad. Hey we can do anything!! He proves that!!!!
This day 8 years ago you came into this world and you’ve made such an impact Elliot!!!! Keep going baby!!!
🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
