On October 8th, 2001 I was taken to the Emergency Room, I was having a miscarriage; my fourth in so many years. Six weeks later I went to an appointment for a post examination, what I was told that day has changed my life for ever�
�You�re pregnant� said Dr Freidas, My OB/GYN Doctor. He was not very happy considering what my body had just gone thru six weeks prior! With as many babies as we had already lost, we couldn�t bring ourselves to believe this one would be any different. So far, the only difference was the time between pregnancies; six weeks instead of thirteen months. My pregnancy turned out to be basically normal according to all the books. About 3 months into the pregnancy, I was beginning to get excited (all my other pregnancies ended at about five weeks). Eric took a little longer to convince. At 9 weeks, Dr Freidas had an ultrasound done, everything looked ok so far. At about 20 weeks, we moved from Chula Vista to Lakeside and I changed doctors. My new doctor was Dr. Berchin in the Grossmont Hospital medical building. I requested a second ultrasound (I still wasn�t convinced that everything was ok) Dr. Berchin ordered one and we found out that we were going to have a little boy! We also had a scare with that ultrasound; the baby had possible hydrocephalus (an excess of the fluid surrounding the brain, butting presser on the brain.) Dr. Berchin ordered another test called an Amniocentesis; they take a really big needle and insert in to your abdomen and remove a small amount of amniotic fluid (the �water� that the baby floats in as it develops), this fluid is sent for analysis to find chromosomal variances which cause disorders such as Down�s Syndrome and Spinal Bifida; the Amnio came back normal and Dr. Berchin ordered another ultrasound, this time all was normal and Dr. Berchin told us not to worry about it anymore and to request an MRI when the baby was born just as a last precaution.
At 8:12 on August 7th, 2002; after a week of light contractions, a shot to make them stronger, and an Epidural (an IV with Pain Medication directly into the lower back [OUCH]) Dakota Nightwolf Rogerson was born. On his second night at one o�clock in morning, Dakota spiked a fever and was taken to the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit (NNICU) for a week where they put an IV in his tiny hand to administer antibiotics as a precaution. When we were finally able to take him home, I had to help the nurse get the tape and the IV out of his hand. I dressed him in a little blue outfit which he swam in, took him to get his first portrait, and put him in his car seat which made him look much smaller than his 9lbs 4oz.
A few weeks after we got him home, we took Dakota to Children�s Hospital to have his MRI, The prognosis was a lypoma of the Corpus Calosum (a growth on the bridge at the back of the brain that connects the two hemispheres). Thankfully, the doctors said it was benign (no cancer). He spilled a cup of coffee on his hand and wrist at about six months old that took two weeks of burn cream and bandages. And at about one year old, Dakota fell in the bathtub and split his chin on the side, which took eight stitches, he screamed in terror as they tied him down to give him stitches and again when they were removed.
Dakota is fifteen months old now, he has given Eric and me our fair share of scares thru these past months; but I would go thru all of it again because he is my very own little miracle and I would not trade one giggle, one step or one word from that little boy for love nor money. He has made me who I am today, a mom!