Hi Sylvia,
My baby was diagnosed with diaphragmatic hernia when I did the 20th week scan. Not sure if you have heard of this condition, but briefly, my baby had a opening too wide in her diaphram which caused her entire stomach to move up to her chest level. The stomach pushed her heart to the right and compressed her left lung. Her heart then compressed her right lung. There were many possible complications with this condition, for e.g., heart not growing well, higher risk of down syndrome, lungs not formed properly which will affect her ability to breathe on her own, premature labour etc etc.
We had a choice to terminate the pregnancy but decided without a doubt to keep because we would not know whether baby's condition is a serious one or not until she is born. If it is a not so serious condition, all baby needs is a corrective surgery but of course if it turns out to be a serious one, we will lose her. We were determined to keep baby as long as there is a chance.
My pregnancy was a smooth journey, no morning sickness at all. The only uncomfort was the itch on my tummy and limbs but those were nothing.
I gave birth exactly on my EDD. Baby was hooked up with many tubes and machines to help her breathe, open up her lungs so that she can go for the corrective surgery once her condition stablises.
I didn't even had a chance to hold her as she was sent to the Neonatal ICU immediately after she was born. I returned to my ward and caught some sleep. When I visited her couple of hours later, she was already on sedation to relieve her of the pain (tubes etc) and also to enable readings to be taken more accurately as she will be sleeping and not moving.
Doctors were quite positive at first but soon told us baby was not looking good as she the level carbon dioxide in her body was high since she was unable to breathe properly.
Things just did not turn for the better and baby's heartbeat went really low 2 times the next day. The doctors did not manage to revive her the 2nd time after 15 mins of manual massaging and drugs. Her heartbeat just went downhill.
We were at the ICU all these while and witnessed how the doctors tried to save my baby.
I almost fainted when the doctors stopped what they were doing and walked towards us. I knew it was bad news.
We held our baby in our arms, took pictures, kissed her, told her we love her very much, told her that I have no regrets in carrying her to full term, told her that we were proud of her bacause she did not give up and fought so hard, told her not to worry about us, told her we would be strong if she needed to go..... And my baby passed away in the evening a day after she was born...
We made arrangements for her burial the very night and buried her the following day. We changed her with the clothes we bought, gave her most of the clothes, toys etc, keep the rest for memory sake and took more pictures. The whole process was really painful and heartbreaking.
Now we visit her as often as we can, bring her toys almost every visit and tell her we love and miss her lots....
Sorry for such a long story, couldn't control....