We decided that it was time for us to add another child to our family. Gabriel was 3yrs old when I found out I was pregnant with Evan. Cynthia was 12years old. We found out in February 2004 that we were expecting again. I was of courese nervous since I had the miscarriage in my first pregnancy. Everything was fine expect for the fact that my asthma seemed to by aggravated early on, which was different from my pregnancy with Gabriel. It seemed I kept getting chest colds and having asthma problems. I was in the hospital when I was about 7 months pregnant, I was there for about 4 days. I honestly think they kept me mostly because I was pregnant. My oxygen levels were always good and evan's heartbeat was always great as well.
Here is our sweet little boy about 2 weeks before he was born.
Evan was born on October 22, 2004 at 4:33 am, he was 10lbs 9oz and 19 1/2 inches long. My labor was quick about 6 hours in all. Evan had meconium staining in the amniotic fluid and was a little off color when he was born but for the most part the labor was quick and uneventful. Evan came home 1 day later and did well for the first couple months of his life. He had his first ear infection at 7 weeks old and what seemed like continuous colds and respiratory problems in that first winter.
Evan met milestones such as holding his head up on time, he did roll over but only one way and did not do a complete roll until he was probably close to 2 years old. I had a feeling something was wrong when we noticed that he did not use his left hand much. I mentioned it to his Dr. at his 6 month check up. She gave me the whole speech about how every baby develops differently and not too worry. I left the office thinking maybe I was wrong and he would just do things at the end of the spectrum where Gabriel did it at the beginning of the spectrum. Well I had an opportunity to see a friends baby who is 3 months younger than Evan. Evan was 8 months and she was 5 months, there was really no difference between them developmentally, he was not sitting crawling or pulling to stand. So when I handed this baby a toy and she reached for it with both hands I just felt my heart sink because I knew something was wrong with Evan. So I made an appt with his pediatrician to address this issue again. She looked at Evan and said that she would refer us to a neurologist, and physical therapy and she suspected he had a brachial plexus nerve injury in his shoulder.
So on July 22, 2005 was the day our lives changed forever for the first time. We saw Dr. Asaikar and he diagnosed Evan as having a left hemiparesis which is a mild form of cerebral palsy, he stated that he probably had a stroke either in utero or at birth and doing an MRI could tell when it happened etc. Great we had an answer and it was not a life threatening condition. The Dr. was very positive with us and said Evan would basically be like other kids but his movements would be less smooth. Boy that was not totally wrong but it just did not prepare us at all for what was ahead.
So on August 10 we had his MRI and EEG done. On August 19th we had the follow up with Dr. Asaikar and he had a different diagnosis for us than what we had thought. Evan has a brain malformation called Bilateral Perisylvan Polymicrogyria and that is what caused his Cerebral Palsy. Dr. Asaikar said he was a little more worried now. He did not really give us a prognosis but that is good because I do not think he could really say what Evan would and would not do, he stated that if he had seen the MRI before Evan he would have expected to see a severely mentally retarted child. Evan is a miracle because he is defying what his brain says he should be doing.
