Dylan had his 8 month checkup with the maternal health nurse today. He now weighs 9.68 kg and his height is 72cm. This puts him in the 75th percentile for weight and 70th percentile for height. This is great for a baby with heart problems. Babies affected by a heart problem are usually small and underweight but Dylans weight indicates that he is healthy and growing well. We have an appointment with the cardiologist on December 18th so hopefully all his tests come back as normal.
I am following quite a number of blogs at the moment of parents with CDH babies. In fact I think I may be an addict. Its quite strange really. I have lost one son to CDH and I spend hours on the internet researching and reading blogs of those affected by CDH but I also have a surviving son with a heart defect and I know so much less about Dylans heart problems than I do about Alex’s CDH. Maybe its because Alex didnt survive and its my way of dealing with his loss. Im not exactly sure why I’m so obsessed. Anyway its so great that so many more babies are surviving CDH. It makes it seem as if the doctors are learning how to beat this horrible defect. I know that the sad reality is that there has probably just been a lucky streak and soon it will end. I remember when we visited the Royal Childrens Hospital when I was pregnant with Alex and we spoke to a surgeon there. He told us that they once had 43 CDH babies survive in a row but then they had 4 or 5 die. I hoped we would be part of that ‘lucky streak’ but we werent. Our baby died and we have now become a statistic. It just sucks.
