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Trusting My Gut About My Baby’s Health

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During the first week home from the hospital, my daughter, for two nights, refused to sleep lying down. My husband worked, so my mother and I took three-hour shifts holding her in the rocker. She slept, and we struggled to stay awake. My mother said the rosary and I surfed the internet looking for answers.

Somewhere in the middle of one of those nights, I posted on Facebook. I jokingly begged someone to take a shift of this round-the-clock vigil. A woman I knew a long time ago told me to stop whining, that she would trade places with me; she was struggling with infertility at that time. On that sleepless night, I took her comment to heart and never spoke about our problems again.

See, in the middle of the night, that plea to Facebook was a cry for help. Even as a new mother of a week old baby, I knew something was wrong. Every maternal and teacher fiber of my being was screaming, do something, this is not right! Breastfed babies don’t typically spit up this much, breastfed babies tend to gain weight, babies don’t cry all of the time!

Fast forward three years, my daughter is lactose intolerant, has a sensory diagnosis and an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) at school. We have a path and she is thriving.

Now, when I see a plea on Facebook, I usually message the mother and say, “Trust your gut. If you feel like there is something wrong, push for answers. Even if the doctors say nothing is wrong, keep fighting. Someone will hear you. Someone will help. I will help if I can. I hear you.”

Sometimes, that is all a person needs.

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Thinkstock image by monkeybusinessimages

Originally published: March 28, 2017
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