Kyle David Van Zandt

So I have probably been needing to do this blog but never had the urge to do it. But for some reason while I was laying in bed last night I thought to myself that I needed to make this blog today. Kelly and I will someday hopefully soon will be pregnant and have a baby of our own and I would like to let everyone know the reason why I know I will be having a scheduled C-section. A little over 6 years ago I found out that I was pregnant. This was a huge surprise and very very unexpected! I had just moved back home in November 2002 with my grandmother to save some money. It was a very troubling and hard time in my life. I was soo scared to tell anyone let alone my grandmother. This was the last thing she needed in her life as well. I had been dating a guy for a little over a year but we weren't serious. I finally got the courage to tell my grandmother, she was in shock but at the same time she was there for me. She always had and always will be. Kyle's father and I were not dating during the pregnancy. So I went to my doctor visits just like everyone does and was getting excited about finding out the sex of the baby. My grandmother, sister, and my best friend Tonya all went with me to this exciting appointment!! It's A BOY!! It was clearly a boy! I was so thrilled! Like usual at the 20 weeks visit they do some measurements also to make sure everything was going like scheduled. Well that's when we found out there was something wrong with Kyle. My dr was not sure exactly what was wrong so he sent me to a high risk dr. I really didn't know what to expect and honestly I dont think anything else sunk in but the fact that it was a boy. The day came and my grandmother and I both went to visit with the high risk dr and the geneticist and they explained to me that Kyle had an Omphalocele.

What is an omphalocele?
An omphalocele is a congenital (found at birth) malformation in which variable amounts of abdominal contents protrude into the base of the umbilical cord. As the fetus grows in pregnancy, the intestines grow and get longer and project from the abdomen into the umbilical cord. This growth is taking place from the sixth to the tenth week of pregnancy. Normally the intestines return rapidly into the abdomen by the eleventh week of pregnancy. If this fails to happen, an omphalocele is present. It is important to remember that you did not do anything to make this happen. However, more than half of all infants born with an omphalocele may have other birth defects. Some of these defects may be serious. http://www.pedisurg.com/PtEduc/Omphalocele.htm

At this time they told me what other complications can come with this birth defect. There could be chromosome normalities, the baby could have down syndrome, heart defects, and the list goes on. They suggested I get an amniocentesis. So a couple days later I came back to get the amnio and had to be on bed rest for a couple of days due to the risk of miscarriage after an amnio. I think it was about two weeks or so I got the results back. No Down Syndrome, No Trisomy 13. I'm not really pro-abortion but at this point I had considered aborting if either of these came back positive. So I continued to see the high risk doctor along with going to the normal appointments with my regular OB. And by the way my grandmother went to the majority of these appointments with me if not all and the appointment with the high risk doctor could take hours. He was one of the few high risk doctor for all of ft worth and the surrounding areas. I remember we had to wait in the waiting room before every being seen by the doctor for 3 or 4 hours. So thank you grandma! I don't know if I had ever thanked her for that! It meant soo much to me. Here I was, just turned 20 and faced with soo many hard decisions. I joined a couple of online groups with other moms that this has happened to or is happening to. I did my research on what to do after he is born, how long would he be in the hospital. I even met with a pediatric surgeon to see what they suggest and to get prepared! I do feel that for how young I was and how much I was hurting and scared I was somewhat prepared. When a baby has an ompalocele the severity can be anywhere from a small omphalocele to a giant omphalocele. Giant omphalocele being the most sever