Baby Story

The Labor
I woke up on Monday, December 20th, not feeling quite right. I had an early doctor's appointment before
going to work. While I was getting ready to leave, I knew that something wasn't right. At my appointment, I
asked the doctor to check to see if I was dilated at all or leaking amniotic fluid. He checked and said I was
not dilated and the baby was still way up there. He put me on bed rest 7 weeks before I was due, simply
because I was starting to get uncomfortable at work. I told work about the news and went home.

About an hour after I got home, I started cramping. I didn't think anything of it because I heard it was
common to cramp after an exam. I took some Tylenol and a warm bath and that didn't help. My cramps
were getting really intense and I started having contractions. Again, I didn't think that was uncommon
because I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions for the past month and they would go away if I
changed my position. I got the point where I couldn't stand up straight at all. I called the doctor at about
4:30 p.m. and he told me to come in and get checked. So, I called Alonzo and we went to Labor & Delivery
for observation.

By the time we got to the hospital, I felt like my water had broke. A few minutes later, my doctor showed up
and checked me. He said that I was 3 centimeters dilated. I could not believe it! He suggested that I get
put on a magnesium drip to try to stop the contractions and he would check back in about an hour or so.

He checked me again and my contractions were so intense and I was approaching 4 centimeters. That
meant that the magnesium was not working. This little girl was ready to come out! Alonzo made the
necessary phone calls around 6 o'clock in the evening to family members and friends that we were going
to have a baby soon.

An epidural, couple more hours later and 45 minutes of pushing, Natalie Rene Morales was born on
December 21, 2004 weighing 6 lbs. & 1 oz., 19 inches long. She had a head full of dark brown hair!

She barely missed being born on her Grandma Janie's birthday, which was December 20th.

Our Baby Natalie
Before Natalie was born, the doctor knew that there was some type of blockage somewhere near her
stomach because there was too much fluid built up. The doctor explained to us that when Natalie is about
1-2 days old, she would require surgery to see what kind of blockage she had and said this could easily be
repaired.

When Natalie was born, you could tell that she had a lot of fluid in her stomach. Several hours later, once I
was moved to my room, Alonzo and I met with the pediatric surgeon to discuss what he saw in the x-rays
and drew us four different pictures and listed the as a, b, c and d. He said that the pictures in a and b
where most common where the small bowel was too thin and could take off that part that was too small
and reattach the rest that was working. He also said that if it was c, then he could still work with it. Most of
the time, babies have had a and b, sometimes c and that d was fatal and extremely rare. He is one of the
top Pediatric Surgeons in Dallas. He was ready to do her surgery that evening around 7 o'clock.

We got to see Natalie before she left to the operating room and then we waiting patiently for the good news.
She was only 17 hours old and was very scary and it seemed like that night was lasting forever. Finally, the
surgeon came in, along with the pediatric doctor and family-care coordinator. I knew by the look on his
face, that something was not right.

He said, "I'm sorry, but I have some bad news." My heart sank and I listened as he explained what he found
in Natalie. When he went into her abdomen, he saw that her small bowel was dead. There was nothing for
him to work with. Her small bowel had died in utero several months ago. The doagnosis is an atresia of
the small intestine. I put my head down into my hands and sobbed. It was the one moment in my life when
I truly thought the world had stopped.

The doctors left the room and said they'd give us some time, but would like to come back and talk with us.
About 30 minutes passed when they returned to the room. I could tell by the surgeon's tone of his voice,
that he also was stunned by what he saw.

The next week was probably the most difficult. We were told that without a small bowel transplant, Natalie
would not have a normal life. She was given a central line through a vein in her chest where her only
nutrition would be administered through intravenous infusion. This type of nutrition is called Total
Parenteral Nutrition, also referred to as TPN. This is a complete form of nutrition containing protein, sugar,
fat and added vitamins and minerals that would fit her needs. This is extremely hard on the body and is
damaging to other important organs, such as the liver, kidneys and pancreas which could result in multiple
organ transplants.

When Natalie was one week, the director of the NICU at Baylor University Medical Center told us about a
hospital in Chicago that was doing living-donor small bowel transplants and this sounded much more
promising than putting Natalie on a waiting list for a cadaveric donor. This type of transplant is only done at
the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago. Natalie will take 5-6 feet of my small bowel. The
recovery time for her is anywhere from 35 days to several months and only 3-4 days for me. Natalie will
have to be about 8 kilos, which is about 16 pounds, to have the transplant. If she were put on a waiting list,
she would have to be about 9-12 months old and 1/3 of the babies waiting do not make it to the transplant
because their livers fail quickly. By doing the living-donor transplant, it beats time before Natalie's liver will
be too damaged.

It will be difficult being away from Alonzo and Briana for a long period of time. They will be there when the
transplant is done, but will have to fly back home to Mesquite, TX where the rest of the family resides.
Alonzo and I currently work full time and I've had to take additional time off work, to be with Natalie and
Briana, when she comes home. Hopefully, Alonzo and Briana, as well as other family members, will be
able to visit us in Chicago on the weekends, until we can come home.

Natalie is now 7 weeks and has already undergone 3 surgical procedures. The most recent is a
Gastrostomy, also referred to as a G-tube, which is a tube inserted through her stomach to drain the gastric
fluids and the other is like a Colostomy, called a mucus fistula, which is connected to her large bowel,
which is pulled through her lower abdomen to save what is left of it. The mucus fistula is also being used
to put back the gastric fluids to her large bowel to make sure that her colon doesn't become micro tiny. Her
colon is already tiny and this will help her out when she gets her transplant.

Natalie is a very healthy girl, aside from her not having her small bowel. She is now eating 15 cc's of
formula which will help her after her transplant. She doesn't know that it's coming right back out, but it
makes her feel good and it's her natural instinct to want to suck.

Briana cannot wait for us to bring Natalie home. She is a little confused because we have baby stuff all
over the house and she hears us talking about Natalie and sees her in pictures, but doesn't understand
why the baby is not home with her. We hope that Natalie is coming home soon, before her transplant!

Natalie's story continues in the Weekly Journal, located at the top of the page.