Gastroschisis(gas.tros.chi.sis) Support and Resources

Hi my name is Maria, I am 20 years old.  I first found out that my baby had Gastroschisis when I was about 15 weeks pregnant through my first sonogram.  I was devastated because I had never heard of anything of its nature and I was like how am I going to go home and say this to my mother.  My boyfriend and I were told by the doctor that this was something that was reparable and could be fixed but that if would could not handle it we were free to have an abortion.  My boyfriend immediately told me no.  It is my first baby first pregnancy and I was not about to have an abortion the baby was almost 4 months. When I was about 5 months pregnant they had told me my baby was a boy. We later came to find out that she was a girl.  Through my whole pregnancy I had a Doctor check me regularly the visits started to become more and more regular to make sure everything else was in and nothing was dragged out along with the intestines.  My doctor told me that she would be there with me throughout the whole pregnancy.  Towards the end I found out she would be the one to deliver my baby which made me feel much more confident and calm.  On Saturday, September 19, 2009 I began to have contractions but they were far apart.  I had called my doctor and told her and we joked around and she told me that if the baby would be born that to try and aim for before Sunday morning, I guess the baby heard her and took her advice.  On Sunday, September 20, 2009 I had contractions at about 10 mins apart.  I was anxious and I couldn’t sleep which was not normal being that throughout my whole pregnancy I did not have problems sleeping. Something that was rare and something in me just kept telling me to get up which finally I did.  When I did I called my doctor she told me to get there and when I got there I had lost all my fluids.  I had to have an emergency cesarean.  My daughter was born at 9:36 she weight 5’5 and 17’1/2 long.  As soon as I heard her cry I started to cry. I got to see her for just a couple of seconds and they quickly took her away to take care of her.  They took her away and place her intestines in the silo to protect her intestines.  The surgeon then told me that her intestines looked good and nothing had to be cut or anything like that.  The first couple of days in the N.I.C.U were tough because I wanted to hold her and I just wanted to take her home.  She got her 2^nd operation to put all the intestines in on September 25^th 2009 and the operation was about two hours long which made me worry but the surgeon then told me that the operation was a success.  Now we are just waiting for them to start feeds and hopefully she will be home soon.  Her intestines have began to function she has had two small bowel movements but they count .