I’ll try to keep this post as clean and as PG as possible! To be honest going into my c-section I was petrified, a surgery where you’re awake the whole time?! No thanks!! It wasn’t that bad though, in fact I could totally do it again and again :)

The biggest thing I was nervous about was the pain medication. Having achondroplasia means having issues with your back and although I personally have never had any, I’m still wired differently than someone who doesn’t have achondroplasia. You can get pain medication when you have a c-section one of three ways: General anesthesia, a spinal or an epidural.

General Anesthesia: They put you to sleep
Spinal: Pain medication is administered all at once
Epidural: Pain medication is administered a little bit at a time and it slowly builds up

One big problem that we faced was that none of the anesthesiologists at the hospital I was delivering at had ever met anyone with achondroplasia so we set up a meeting and met with one of the doctors, after he checked out my back he felt confident about performing an epidural on me.

Another big problem we faced was how much fluid I had, it was getting to the point where I could not lay on my back without getting dizzy and almost passing out. It’s a big problem because to have a c-section you have to lay flat on your back for a long period of time. Luckily my doctor came up with a brilliant idea! The morning of my c-section I came into the hospital an hour earlier than I needed to and my perinatologist came in and performed an amniocentesis and extracted 3 liters of fluid! I lost about 12 pounds! Taking all that fluid out was the best possible thing they could have done! I could finally lay on my back with no problem. One funny thing that happened during the amnio (it took about 45 mins to perform the whole thing) was that at one point Ray started playing with the needle that was extracting all the fluid! We saw it through the ultrasound and the doctor assured us that he wasn’t going to get hurt, he wasn’t strong enough to poke himself, either way it was hilarious to see a little bit of his personality shining through!

Next was the C-section, the epidural was pretty painless (I have a very high pain tolerance so it might be different for other people). After it was administered my anesthesiologist kept poking me with sharp objects and if I felt any sharpness he would give me more medicine. This went on for about 5 minuets till I couldn’t feel the sharpness anymore, then my mom and Nathan could come into the operating room. They started the surgery right away and within about 5 minuets Ray was out and we could hear his precious cries! He let out a few good ones and then when they cut his umbilical cord he relaxed and went to sleep. They got him cleaned off and put him on my chest as soon as possible. He was the sweetest baby I had ever seen! He took about 4 good deep breaths while on my chest and then his breathing became more shallow and less frequent but the doctors would check his heart every few minuets and he was with us the whole time in the operating room.

While we were loving on our sweet baby the c-section was still going on. I could feel a lot of tugging and pulling but nothing unbearable, it also was nice to have a super cute baby to look at! Seeing his sweet face was the best moment of this whole pregnancy and made everything worth it: Sleepless nights, stretch marks and tears. I just kept saying over and over “I could do that again and again.”

Healing from the c-section was tough for the first few days. For the first day you’re mostly stationary in the hospital bed, but by the second day the nurses want to get you up and moving to the bathroom. When I first sat up my first thought was “this is IMPOSSIBLE!” The more you move though, the easier it gets.

I stayed at the hospital for 3 days and I was walking around with no problem and going shopping with my mom about 2 days after that. Overall my experience was a lot easier than I thought it would be and right now as I type this I’m feeling about 95% back to normal and I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight (-2 pounds even!)

Keep in mind my story is my own personal experience and it may not be as normal as everyone’s. I praise God that I had such a wonderful and safe surgery and that I could meet my baby and see some life in him. Healing physically has been so easy that I can focus more on healing emotionally and although it’s an everyday struggle we’re getting through!

I wanted to write a quick post about what it was like being pregnant and having Achondroplasia. I was super lucky that I had a few friends who had babies before I got pregnant, some of them even had double dominate babies like me, so I used them as my resources and bombarded them with questions (thank you Jen, Crystal, Kim and Emily!). Some girls out there might have no idea what to expect so I want to be a resource to them!

Growing up with Achondroplasia we all get the question “will your children be little like you?” and we all have recited the answer ” if I have children with someone like me there is a 50% chance that they will be little like me, 25% chance that they will be tall like you and 25% chance that they will be double dominate and not survive”. It seems like there is such a good chance that everything will be just fine right? I mean 75% chance of a healthy baby is good odds. Once you get pregnant though it becomes more of a reality that things might not work out in your favor.

I found out I was pregnant in January and had the normal appointments that every pregnant woman has. My doctor had never had a patient with Achondroplasia but I explained to her that the only difference between me and a normal pregnant woman is that I have to have a C-section and that there is a 25% chance that my baby might not survive. She felt super confident about treating me as any normal patient but she did want to talk to me about genetic testing. She gave me two options to test my baby to see if he would have dwarfism or not, either an amniocentesis or a CVS. I decided to get an amnio because that’s what all my friends had done.

To get genetic testing done you have to go to a perinatologist, that’s when I met the amazing Dr. Chan (you’ve read about him here!) I went in at 16 weeks to have mine done but you can go in anywhere from 15-20 weeks, it’s a standard procedure where they take a needle and extract some of the baby’s amniotic fluid to get some of their DNA, it feels a little like a bee sting, uncomfortable but not painful. There is some cramping afterwards like a period and I’m sure if you’re like me you’ll make yourself sick worrying about all the complications that could happen with it, but trust me, I’m so glad I got it done. Finding out our baby had the double dominate gene was the best thing we could have done in the situation, it gave us time to prepare ourselves and the doctors.

The rest of my pregnancy had it’s ups and downs. Obviously finding out that Ray had the double dominate gene was a big low but I didn’t have any morning sickness at all during the first trimester which was a blessing! I started feeling him kick and move at around 15 weeks, it feels like little gas bubbles or popcorn popping at first but as they get bigger and stronger so do those little kicks! The second trimester was fun because you start getting a really cute baby bump and you can start wearing all the maternity clothes that you’ve been picking out! Towards the end of my second trimester however, I started getting super uncomfortable because of all the amniotic fluid that was building up. Because Ray was double dominate his little lungs weren’t big enough to process all the fluid that my body was making so it was just building and building inside of me.

At about 20 weeks I scheduled a C-section for September 5th so that I could deliver Ray when I would be 38 weeks pregnant. I wanted to wait as long as I could so that he would be as healthy as possible and I would get to spend as much time with him as I could. When I got to about 31 weeks it became obvious that I wouldn’t last much longer because of how big I was and how much fluid I had, my mom would actually text me everyday asking if I was still pregnant and tell me to take it easy so that my water wouldn’t break. We decided to make the hard decision and move the C-section up a whole month so that I wouldn’t have to do an emergency c-section and we also wanted a set date so that Nathans family could come out from Wisconsin and be there for him and also meet Ray. By the time I delivered my belly was over 52 cm big, normally you are supposed to measure according to how many weeks you are, for example if you are 34 weeks along, like I was when I delivered, you are only supposed to measure 34 cm. I was measuring bigger than a mom with triplets! Luckily I made it to August 7th and had a successful c-section! My next post will be about my c-section, because that was a scary and mysterious thing to me as well!