25 years ago

I´m not sure I ever told my daughters their birth story´s. And if so, not as detailed as this will be (be forewarned.).  Taking the cue from my friend Joyce, I´m "giving" them their birth stories for their birthday´s this year.

Today is the day my first daughter was born, 25 years ago. She was very much wanted but came very unexpectedly three weeks too early.

But let´s start at the beginning. After having waited for 6,5 years to have a child we were very ready for a pregnancy. Having lost a child 6 months prior, when I found out we were pregnant again we were elated. We waited to make sure all was well, then told everyone. At the time we were still living in Canada. The telephone connections to Paraguay were not that good back then, so telling our parents was done by snail mail. Of course they were very happy for us.
Everything went well until I was about 7 months (now they say 28 weeks) into my pregnancy. I started to feel itchy all over, but especially inside my hands and on my toes. Since I had no way of knowing what was causing this, I went for a check up and after some blood tests they found out I was suffering from Cholestasis of pregnancy. It´s a rare genetic disorder of the liver that happens in late pregnancy. The symtoms are various but most prominent is the itching. And it gets worse as the pregnancy progresses, but goes away within a few days after delivery.
When I went for another check up I was also diagnosed with high blood pressure and had to stay in the hospital for 10 days. It also meant I had to quit work right away. This was totally not what we were expecting. When you´re young you just assume everything will go well. We imagened me working at my job till the end and having a nice calm pregnancy. So having nothing to do but watch soap operas at home, I was totally looking forward to the delivery date which was supposed to be in Oct. The itching was getting worse and worse and my hands and feet were full of scabs and even my huge stomach was starting to itch. All that helped me was if I took a piece of ice and held it to the place of my itch until it hurt more than it itched.
I had many sleepless nights and my nerves were raw. Anything would make me cry and I was at my wits end. (Later after we moved to P. my mom told me she had had the same disease with one of her pregnancies too).
Anyway about three weeks before my due date I went to see the doctor for my weekly blood pressure check. That´s when they found out I was already in labor and didn´t even know it. Unfortantly it meant for a long labor. I didn´t have bad labor pains, but they lasted the whole day and through the night (the labor got worse as time wore on). Finally, 24 hours later, our beautiful daughter Marisa Anne was born.

We were so happy. Finally we had the baby we so wished for. She was the sweetest thing. My itching subsided and you would think all would be well. But on the third day after the birth, I got the pregnancy blues. I started to cry and couldn´t stop. I missed my mother and wanted to be held myself and now I had to be a mother myself and I didn´t know the first thing about babies. Those first few weeks were very hard for me and if it wasn´t for my dear friend Barb, I don´t know how I would have managed.

My sweet little baby was a screamer.
Every evening before she would fall asleep she would scream for an hour. We could hold her, cuddle her, feed her or rock her....nothing helped. She screamed. It was very frustrating and I feel for every mother who has to go through this. After a couple of months we decided family was important to us and we wanted our kids to know their grandparents,so we decided to move back to Paraguay. It was a decision that many people tried to talk us out of, but we think it was the right one.

Marisa was  a happy child, always willing to help and learn. She had/has many friends and they were and still are important to her. She is a talented photographer and is loved by her little kinder-garden students.

We are proud of you and love you!

Happy Birthday Marisa!