from the beginning

2008-10-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

At 24 I met my amazing husband, Casey. He was playing minor league baseball at the time in the Cubs organization in class AA. I was in grad school at the time and had gone out with a friend of mine for a night on the town. Obviously it went well because 5 months later, we were engaged. Because we didn't want to wait too long to get married (he was now in a different state than me), we decided to get married during baseball season at the stadium after a ballgame. No, we absolutely did not get married on the field! We had an amazing honeymoon in a local hotel that involved less than 12 hours of being alone and newly married. We had a roommate at the time so we decided he probably didn't want to spend our honeymoon with us, hence the hotel. A few days later Casey left to play some ballgames on the road. We somehow managed to get pregnant 5 short weeks after the wedding! I'm still trying to decide how that happened. The first trimester was pretty typical. I had nausea from about weeks 7-10 and I was definitely more emotional. After the nausea was gone, I was pretty comfortable. Several times during the pregnancy I had a stomach virus that landed me in the hospital a couple of times; but I was around children pretty often, so we thought that was to be expected. We later found out that I had developed an allergy to a certain antibiotic. Casey was in Mexico from the time I was about 12 weeks until I was 30 weeks. He also plays baseball there during the winter so I was living with my parents. Around the 26-27 week mark, I started having lots of pre-term contractions. I would be in the hospital with contractions every 3 minutes. At this time, my belly also started measuring small. My cervix remained unchanged so we weren't too concerned, but my doctor did give me steroid shots just in case the baby came early. The day my husband got home from Mexico, I was in the hospital again with contractions. This time my doctor checked me and told me that "the baby's head was hanging between my knees" and that I was to go home and stay in the bed. I was miserable. I had planned on visiting California and Arizona before I had the baby. My dreams of IN-N-OUT Burger quickly shattered. My bedrest was more of the same, lots of contractions and hospital visits. Around 33 weeks, Casey had to leave to go to Arizona for spring training with the Cubs. He left me on Valentine's Day and I was very sad to see him go. The next morning I went to the doctor for a checkup from being in the hospital a few days before. At that time I was told that my liver was not doing what it should and that I needed to head straight to the hospital. The specialist at the hospital did some tests and checked the umbilical cord carefully. About an hour later, my doctor walked into my hospital room and told me to call my husband because I was going to have a baby. Needless to say, my husband was on the baseball field all day and we were unable to contact him until that evening. He promptly boarded a plane back to Tennessee. At this point I really knew nothing about my sickness, I understood that I was sick but had no idea how sick I really was. Casey arrived around midnight and I had a c-section early the next morning. I was so drugged that the following account of that day is definitely not from memory, but from my husband telling me what happened. When our beautiful baby boy was born he weighed 3 lbs, 3 oz and was 16.5 inches long. He was in respiratory distress which caused him to turn blue. The doctors were unable to get him breathing so he was placed on a ventilator and quickly taken to the NICU. My husband went to the NICU and hung out with him but I did not even see him until very late that night. We named him Mackail Casey McGehee but we usually call him Mack. He was taken off the ventilator shortly after he arrived in the NICU and was placed on CPAP. By the end of the day, he was just on a bi-nasal canula with oxygen. Casey had to return to Arizona only two days after Mack was born, at that time he only weighed 2 lbs 15 oz. During his stay in the NICU which lasted 22 days, he had to gain weight, learn how to suck, and begin to maintain his own body temperature. With only a few minor setbacks, we blew that joint as quickly as we could. Casey would not see Mack in person again until he was 9 weeks old. At that point, we moved to be with him in Des Moines, Iowa, where he was playing AAA baseball for the Cubs. Mack has had a few common preemie medical problems since he was born. He has a delayed digestive system that caused him to require medication for acid reflux and constipation. In October of 2007 he had surgery at Vanderbilt. He was born with a genetic defect completely unrelated to his early arrival. His urethra was not in the correct location on his body so he had to have it completely reconstructed. He also had to have a hernia repaired and he had to have tubes placed in his ears after having fluid on them for 6 months straight. The rest of winter 2007 was pretty uneventful. He had to have a few developmental evaluations, but all parties agreed that he was just behind because he born so early. In February 2008, we decided to start physical and occupational therapy in order to try to speed up the process. He still was not sitting up at that time but he was able to pull up and stand while holding on to things. We continued therapy throughout the summer. In May 2008, we decided with our pediatrician to have a brain MRI. We were starting to notice that his left hand and arm were developmentally weaker than his arm. I knew that the MRI would be normal because well, I'm his mom, and I would know if his brain was not normal. He was also scheduled to see a pediatric neurologist several days after the MRI in order to discuss his development. A few days after the MRI, our pediatrician in Des Moines called me and gave me the news that has forever changed my life, the news that turned everything upside down, but the news that eventually put our lives in perspective. Mack has brain damage in both hemispheres of his brain. At that point, we knew the diagnosis was Cerebral Palsy. We didn't need to hear it from the neurologist, even though she did confirm his CP when we went to see her. When I was pregnant I had HELLP syndrome. Basically my liver was failing. It is a disorder that can be fatal for both the baby and the mom. One side effect of this syndrome is that it can restrict the flow of the umbilical cord, cutting off oxygen and blood to the baby. As far as we can tell, that is what happened to Mack. The lack of blood and oxygen caused the brain tissue to die. So, you might ask, where are we now? Mack attends therapy 2-3 times per week. He has leg braces and a walker. He can sit much better but he is still very "wobbly" when he does sit. He still cannot stand on his own or walk. But, he is making such great progress! When he uses his walker he is very hard to keep up with, he absolutely loves it. We have absolutely no idea about what the future holds. We hope that he will eventually walk on his own. We know that he will not walk like everyone else, but it will be more than perfect to us. In September, Casey was called up to play baseball for the Chicago Cubs, so we have been on a high ever since. He has fulfilled the dream he has had since he was 5. I'm so very proud of him and Mack loves watching dad play in person and on TV. This winter will involve lots more therapy and probably at least one more surgery. We are totally looking forward to spending some much needed family time. Casey is currently in Mexico but plans to be back before Thanksgiving. We will be spending Thanksgiving in California with Casey's family. The rest of the winter will be spent in Tennessee.

Whew!!!! That was way too long! I started this blog because I read so many other ones and thought it might be neat to do one of my own. I'm not quite sure what I will be talking about because I'm sure it will take on a life of its own. I'm sure I will update on daily activities. I will probably also blog about things that are important to me and things that I think deserve a good blog. I hope that you enjoy this blog and that you visit back often!!!

Babies and Baseball: my life thus far

from the beginning