A Day of Firsts

Tuesday March 5 was a big day for me!

Holding Henry

For the first time on Tuesday March 5 I was able to hold Henry. Because he is required to be side laying or on his stomach the way they have to position him for us to be able to hold him means he has to lay right on your stomach/lap. Having just had a c-section it had just not been feasible for me to hold him comfortably because the weight of our chunky monkey was too much on my incision.

Not being able to hold Henry for almost a week was more emotional than I thought it would be. I don't really have the words to describe what it was like to hold Henry for the first time, so rather than elaborate with words what it was like, I will let a picture do the talking for me.

Catheterizing

Henry was born with a perfectly healthy urinary tract system. Because the bladder requires functional nerves in the lower spine (sacral spinal cord) in order to have control over urination only about 5 to 10% of children with spina bifida have normal urinary control and are able void spontaneously. The nerves in Henry's lower spine does have some level of paralysis. Because of the location of Henry's Spina Bifida his brain is unable to communicate to his bladder that it's time to potty.   These nerves sense bladder fullness and transmit this message to the brain. In order for Henry's bladder and kidney's to remain healthy we have to catheterize him. Which means a small, sterile, plastic tube is inserted into Henry's bladder to help him void urine.

When Nathan and I chose to have Henry's care handled by the team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital we knew that their urology department was very strict about cathing children with spina bifida early and often to prevent long term damage to the kidneys. I would say that secondary to Henry's surgical procedures this was the thing I worried about the most. Some days it would consume my thoughts when I would read about incontinence in children with Spina Bifida. And not for the reasons that one might assume. I was worried about hurting him. I am clearly not any type of medical professional so doing something like catheterizing my child freaked me out.

But as with many things in life learning to cath Henry was a teachable moment. I worried myself silly about this aspect of Henry's life and when the moment came I thought to myself: "really that's it--that's all I have to do?" My dad tells me all the time that the things I worry about never happen. Here I am just knowing that I am going to poke hole in my child or give him some deadly infection because I'm not a nurse but honestly it was EASY! And now I am pretty much a professional. How often I do this with other things in my life?!? The place that worry takes me is so far beyond what actually happens that you would think that I would have learned by now that worry gets me no where.

So all in all, March 5, 2013 will forever be remembered as a good day for this mama.

-Erin-