u/Strict_Algae8233

He had open heart for coarctation of the aorta. I guess it’s pretty common for the surgeon to accidentally paralyze the nerve since it’s so close to the area where they are operating. My little guy is now almost 10 weeks old and he’s been on level 3 (honey thickness) thickened feeds since his surgery. He was on an NG tube in the cardiac NICU and for a couple days here at home after he was released… but he did so well with oral feeds that we stopped the tube. The last couple weeks he has been making this hacking noise… it happens randomly… I googled it and couldn’t find any reassuring information. My husband was thinking it might be his paralyzed nerve healing up. I just talked to the on call cardiologist and let him know about it… he said to follow up with ENT as soon as possible, which I am. But the first available appointment isn’t until the beginning of August. Ugh. 😑 Has anyone had anything similar to this happen to their babe? I’m hoping it just means he’s progressing…

For context: my baby boy is 8 weeks old today. He is such a little miracle. He was diagnosed prenatally with COA (coarctation of the aorta). He had open heart surgery at just two days old. Scariest thing I’ve been through! By the grace of God, the surgeons did a phenomenal job and he’s doing great now! He was in the cardiac NICU for about a week and a half… I was up there every single day. I stayed across the street from his hospital with my daughter and husband. My oldest son stayed home to take care of our dogs. We were so happy to be home! We have now settled into our normal day to day routine for the last few weeks… and I’m so grateful. 🥹 So what I’m about to type makes me feel absolutely awful about myself. Like I’m the biggest piece of crap mom ever. My baby is 2 months old and I love him with my entire heart. I just don’t feel very “connected” to him yet. Is this normal? Is it because of the time spent in NICU? We weren’t even in the NICU very long at all… so I don’t see how that would affect me. I’m prescribed Prozac right now for postpartum depression & anxiety. Has anyone else ever felt this way? I’m feeling so guilty about feeling this way at all! What’s wrong with me? Every other mama seems to fall in love with her baby RIGHT when they’re born! 😢

I wanted to add: I’ve also dealt with postpartum preeclampsia. And my stepdad just passed away out of nowhere… only 60 years old. 😞 So I’ve had quite a bit going on lately. Hoping everything gets better soon! ❤️‍🩹

I’m currently 6 weeks postpartum. My baby boy had to have open heart surgery at 2 days old… it was so scary. He’s been home a couple weeks now and he’s doing great besides feedings. He’s on thickened formula and it’s hard to get him to burp… he throws up quite a lot at least once a day. Taking him back to the doctor this week. But anyway, I’m struggling. Really struggling. I developed postpartum preeclampsia and had to be put on Procardia. This happened with my last baby too… and every time I’m on this damn drug, it makes me feel awful. 😞 It helps my blood pressure tremendously! But it fucks my liver up (liver enzymes go WAY high) and I swell sooo badly… it’s so rough! My legs and feet are extremely swollen. My cardiologist took me off the Procardia. Now I’m just on Labetalol and a water pill to help get this water off. My weight is so damn depressing… I had my daughter on 1/9/25 and lost 35 lbs a couple months after having her. And she was a c-section baby! This time I gave birth vaginally and I’m so huge! A week after birth, I weighed 182… at birth I weighed 204. They put me on Procardia and within a week I was back up to 194! Wtf!! On top of that, my dental partial won’t fit anymore because my teeth have broken off and some have shifted.. my dentist quoted me $18,000 for implants and a pop in denture. I’ll never be able to afford that. Also - three nights ago… my stepdad fell and hit his head very hard. It killed him. He was only 62 years old. I’m just a fucking mess right now… 😥 I have no front tooth or side teeth because of my messed up partial. I’m missing my stepdad a lot. And I’m a huge cow. That’s all. Just thought I’d let you guys know… 😒 PS) I’m on 40 mg of Prozac. It doesn’t seem to help at all. I’ve been on it for a year.

My baby boy was prenatally diagnosed with CoA. He had open heart surgery at just 2 days old and it went well! He’s been home with us for about 2 weeks now… he’s done really good with feeds. He was sent home with an NG tube but we were able to take it out a few days after being at home. He has a paralyzed vocal cord but he’s able to handle thickened formula. He’s currently on Enfamil Gentlease Neuropro. Thickened to a level 3 with oatmeal cereal. He eats around 2 or 3 ounces per feed. The past few days he has been very upset… crying a lot while feeding. I’ve tried gas drops (I can feel him farting while he’s crying in my arms) and I tried some gripe water last night. It seems like nothing works! I feel so bad for him! Has anyone else experienced this? Am I just dealing with a colicky baby? He has a follow up appointment with his cardiologist in 2 days.

Hey guys, I had my little guy on May 6th. It was a great birth! He weighed almost 9 lbs… he’s a big boy! lol He was diagnosed prenatally with coarctation of the aorta. So he had open heart surgery at just 2 days old… it was extremely scary, but he did so well! He is now home with us and doing great! The only thing we have to do differently for him is thicken his formula. His left vocal cord was paralyzed during the surgery. He had an NG tube in but he’s doing so good with his bottle feeds that he no longer needs it, so the doc said to take it out! I’ve been pumping since the day I had him but I’m having a hard time continuing… I can’t give him my breast milk because it can’t be thickened. 😞 So I’ve been pumping anyway just to keep my supply in case he can nurse later on. But I’m wondering if I should give up? Will this vocal cord paralysis take months to heal? Did anyone have success with nursing? I’m just kinda wondering what to do right now…

My son is 10 days old today. He had open heart surgery for coarctation of the aorta at just 2 days old. Scariest thing I’ve been through! Surgery went well, thank God! He is being discharged tomorrow… it seems so soon. But I’m excited to get him home and be with all my kiddos. His left vocal cord is paralyzed from the surgery… so they had to do a swallow study and it showed he was aspirating on breast milk and regular formula. 😣 So they thickened his formula and he’s doing really well with that! The last 5 feeds he hasn’t needed to use his NG tube. Before we leave tomorrow afternoon, I’m taking a class on changing the tube. And I’m freaking out because I’m scared to touch it! I know that sounds ridiculous but it’s intimidating to me… not sure why, it just is! I wish they would take it out… but they’re keeping it in just in case he doesn’t drink all of his formula. I’m worried about him becoming dependent on it… I’ve read that small babies can become dependent on it pretty easily and I definitely don’t want that. Does anyone have any advice on this?

I had a VBAC last Wednesday. So I’ll be 10 days postpartum tomorrow. I noticed my bleeding let up a lot after a few days and now it’s back. It’s bright red. Not a lot but definitely there… I’m wearing about 2 pads per day. Is this because I’m pumping? I’m gonna call my doc on Monday and let him know.

Hey guys. I had my little man last Wednesday… he’s a week old today. I found out while I was still pregnant that he had coarctation of the aorta and would most likely need open heart surgery after birth. They ended up doing the open heart surgery on him when he was 2 days old. Scariest thing I’ve ever been through… I can’t believe I made it through this past week without Xanax. Seriously. lol
He graduated from the cardiac NICU to the step down unit. He’s been in step down for 2 days now, and he’s doing really well. We’ve had some rough patches after surgery… like part of his lung collapsing. It’s better now. But then we found out his vocal cord nerve got damaged during surgery… so he’s barely able to drink from a bottle. They’re doing some type of test on him tomorrow to see how well he’s able to swallow. He has an NG tube in right now. They feed him a bit by mouth but mostly it’s from the tube. Anyway… things are getting better. He’s at a hospital located an hour away from where we live. We have been staying at the Ronald McDonald House since last Friday. I started feeling pretty bad physically a couple days ago… I took my blood pressure and sure enough it was high as hell. 178/90. So I ended up going to the nearest ER… my bloodwork looked okay so they put me on Procardia (nifedipine) and sent me home. I’ve had the absolute worst headache for 3 days now. I called my OBGYN at home and let him know what my BP was doing… he wanted to see me in the office n asap. So I told my husband I needed to go home today. He was upset that we had to leave… and that made me feel sooo bad. I’m currently at home, feeling so exhausted, sad, drained, and guilty! I’m going back tomorrow afternoon… (I have another blood pressure check at my doctor’s office tomorrow at 2:00) but I still feel extremely sad and guilty for leaving my baby boy! And my husband hasn’t made me feel very good about coming home. 😞 Has anyone been in this situation? I had postpartum preeclampsia last year after I had my baby girl. It was very rough. :( I can’t wait until our whole family is at home together!

Hey guys, I had the foley balloon placed and my water broken. They broke it 6 hours ago. I’m dilated to a 3 or 4. Baby boy is very low… they just aren’t sure why I’m not dilating. I’m on 12 mg of pitocin. Having a hard time right now… the docs are getting ready to come in and discuss the options. Has anyone experienced this and still had a successful VBAC??

I had a c-section in January of ‘25. It was due to a failed induction… baby was having decelerations in heart rate. I got pregnant around 6 months postpartum. I’m 39 weeks and 3 days pregnant right now and will be having an induction tomorrow. I was supposed to be induced the week before but I fought it because I wanted to give baby boy more time to grow and gain weight… he might need open heart surgery after he’s born. :(
My due date is this coming Thursday. I honestly wish they would just let me go into labor on my own! But they keep freaking me out about the risks of staying pregnant. It’s been stressful. I’m monitored with a BPP and NST every week, on Tuesday and Friday. I figured I might go into labor soon because with my first baby I had him one day before his due date. Any advice or suggestions on this would be great. Just wanting other mamas’ opinions. To induce or not induce? (I’m most likely going to just follow my doc’s orders and go in tomorrow for the induction. Praying for a safe VBAC!)

I feel extremely pressured to have this induction. I had my first baby naturally at 40 weeks. My second baby was born via emergency cesarean after a failed induction in 2025… I was only 38 weeks along and she was jaundice. I was really hoping for a successful VBAC this time around. The high risk doctors said I could attempt a VBAC… they are supportive of that. But they are really pressuring me to get this induction done asap. Since I’m opting for TOLAC, I wanted to go into labor naturally… because it’ll give me the best chance of having a successful VBAC. I’ll be 39 weeks tomorrow. Should I just go in and get induced tomorrow or Friday? Or give myself the weekend to see if I can go into labor on my own? I’m currently being monitored twice a week… I get an ultrasound every Tuesday and an NST every Friday. Has anyone ever held off on the induction? The doctors want him born on a weekday due to his heart condition. He will need to be closely monitored for several days after birth to see if he needs open heart surgery. :( I’m just wanting to do what’s best for both of us. I don’t want to be negligent. I asked the MFM doc why they wanted to induce at 38 or 39 weeks… I’m a type 2 diabetic with chronic hypertension. I figured those were the main reasons for inducing. She said my numbers have been great so it’s mainly because of his heart defect and needing to connect with the pediatric cardiology team on the day he is born. She doesn’t want him being born on a weekend, basically. Any mamas who have been in this situation? Baby’s heart condition is COA = coarctation of aorta.

I’m currently 38 weeks & 4 days along… my doctor has my induction scheduled for tomorrow evening. I’ve been having a lot of Braxton Hicks the past 2 days. Lots of lower back pain, too. I wanted to reschedule for later this week… because maybe my body will go into labor on its own. I had my first c-section in January of 2025… so I got pregnant pretty quickly afterwards. I was about 7 months postpartum. I was really hoping for a successful VBAC… and I feel like being induced is not wise. But the induction is for medical purposes so I’m really back and forth on what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have 2 kiddos, and I’m about to be induced to have my 3rd this Tuesday! I’m nervous as hell. I have a 15 year old son and a 15 month old daughter. I know my oldest will be fine while I’m in the hospital, but I’m so worried about being away from my little girl! 😥 My heart seriously breaks just thinking about it! I had a c-section when I had her… this was last January. I’m really hoping to have a successful VBAC this time. So that way I can get out of the hospital sooner! I’ve never been away from my daughter… except when she was a month old and I was in the ICU dealing with double pneumonia and sepsis on top of having the dang flu! Ugh 😣 I just can’t imagine being away from her for 3 nights if I have to have a repeat cesarean… 😔 I’m kinda scared to TOLAC because it’s only been 15 months since my surgery. But the doctors are okay with it. I’m just so worried and nervous about everything. My baby boy may have to have open heart surgery after he’s born… so that has me extremely concerned. Can someone please tell me how you dealt with being away from your other kiddos while giving birth to your baby? Am I gonna be a total mess? I’m sure I will. 🫤 Also, should I attempt a VBAC or just go for the RCS?? I’m so up in the air with this! I want to be able to pick up my toddler and not worry about hurting myself. I also want to have a vaginal birth because I won’t need to be hospitalized as long and I can be there for my newborn after his heart surgery (if he needs it. Praying he doesn’t need any surgery and he’s completely healthy!) I feel like I developed postpartum preeclampsia because I had to have that c-section… I can’t prove it but I’m telling y’all… there’s a connection there! I just know it.