Happy Sunday! Welcome to our second to last Birth Blog as of now! This series has brought so much joy and so many inspiring stories! Thank you so much for sticking along for the ride! Today’s story is a unique one and honestly warms my heart every time I re read it. Jazzmyne shared her story with me and it blew me away. She also introduced me to the hashtag #clubfootcuties and OMG y’all. You ever need a little cute baby pick me up? The only thing missing is the sweet newborn smell! Happy reading and look forward to more collars with this sweet mama! She really is a gem.
Alrighty!
So the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy were perfect! A little morning sickness, and super tired but everything was perfectly normal! At our 20 week ultrasound we found out that not only was our baby a boy but that he also had clubfoot, they sent us to Mayo Clinic in Rochester to have a level two ultrasound! At this ultrasound they confirmed that he had clubfoot, and they said it was bilateral (meaning both feet)! This didn’t come as a huge surprise as my older brother was born with clubfoot and we knew it was a possibility I think I had just stuck the idea into the back of my head and forgot about it!
Also at our level two ultrasound we preformed an EEG on our sons heart( I still can’t believe they could this when he was still in my belly!) My husbands son passed away in 2001 from a heart issue so we wanted to make sure his heart was ok! THANK GOD it was!
But we still had the clubfoot to deal with, my parents especially my mom are super knowledgeable when it came to treatment as my brother was born with it. But honestly in the first few days it didn’t seem like that would matter (oh how wrong we were!) the first night after we found out my husband and I sat in bed and researched all we could, we joined clubfoot groups on Facebook, and watched videos..and cried! We were scared! Scared of what treatment would be like, if our son would feel pain, if his treatment would go as planned (hello horror stories all over the internet) we were scared he would end up having a relapse, or that surgery wouldn’t go as planned. Everything you could possible think about! Oh and the cost, what parent doesn’t think about how much it will cost when it comes to a medical issue?
But we gained knowledge, and had a meeting at the hospital he would receive his treatment which was at the time about 2 hours from where we lived! And we felt prepared for our clubfoot journey!
At our 32 week ultrasound (our regular doctor was gone and we ended up switching to this new OB after this appointment!) we found out that for some reason Brakston wasn’t looking like he was growing correctly, man I’m pretty sure my heart was breaking right in that moment! We monitored it closely and had weekly ultrasounds and non stress tests, and at 38 weeks and 6 days I thought my water had broke.. long story short the doctor on call said my water hadn’t broke but fast forward to my 39 week appointment/ultrasound they found out that my water HAD actually BROKE days before and our son had no fluid left in there! I was so scared, and I had no idea what any of it meant! I was moved upstairs and started the induction process! 12 hours later, and constantly monitoring me and our little man, and a few interventions to try and get fluid back to our baby they decided I was going to need a c section. I had already had an epidural at this point and was exhausted so those moments leading up to my c section seem sorta like a blur but they called for an emergency c section because Brakstons heart rate was dropping a lot! Next thing I know I’ve been wheeled back into the OR room and what feels like just seconds later (it was about 30 mins) I heard our sons first noises and I knew it was all worth it and all going to be ok!
He absolutely was born with clubfoot but he weighed 6 pounds 7 oz and was as healthy as possible (THANK GOD!) and 3 weeks later we started our casting for our clubfoot journey! He is now a little over four months old and his clubfoot journey is going perfectly! He has had 7 casts, 1 surgery, and he is currently in boots and bar and doing wonderfully! 😀 right now he is in them 23 hours a day, and in July we will be going down to 12 hours a day (night and nap time) he will most likely do 12 hour wear until he is between the ages of 3-5!
It’s been a crazy journey, and lots of ups and downs but we wouldn’t change it for the world! We are forever thankful that it wasn’t anything more serious, that it was a treatable birth defect, and that we caught it before he made his arrival! I truly believe those 20 weeks before he was born that we knew about it helped us feel so prepared!
Special thanks to my mom, Kerri Yeager who has been to every appointment, helped with castings, and bnb, and has in general just been the best Grammy in the world.
We love our clubfoot cutie and we couldn’t be happier to share our story! ❤️
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