July 13, 2009 may seem like just any other day to you...but to us, it was the day our lives would change forever. It was the day that we found out we were pregnant. I found out I was due March 8, 2010. Like with Cali, we didn't find out if we were having a boy or a girl. My pregnancy was fine, but I was consistently smaller than I should have been so instead of the regular 1 ultrasound I ended up having 4. We even saw hair in one ultrasound (which we later figured out was actually her nevus hair)!!
Here she is...just minutes old. 3/7/10 @ 2:22am 6lb4oz 19" long
Here she is with our amazing doctor, Dr. Bennett
I do need to take this minute to say an emotional, & huge, THANK YOU to our wonderful family doctor, Dr. Bennett. I have heard WAY TOO MANY TIMES of families who's children were born with a nevus & the babies are immediately taken away to the NIC-U because they don't know what's "wrong" with them; the doctor's can't identify what the nevus is. Or the doctor's say that it's cancer & the baby will die within a year. Or that the doctor's have no idea what the problem is when they see the baby with the nevus that they can't even tell the parents what this spot is on their child. How horrific for these parents! I believe that we are one of the fortunate families out there. When she put Brooklyn on my stomach immediately after she was born I noticed her nevus right away. I, however, was convinced that it was just bruising from the birth canal so I didn't even mention it. She was so covered in gunk that I hardly even noticed the slight hair on it. Once she was taken to the nursery Dr. Bennett got a good look at her & came back in & told us that she has a birthmark on her forehead. This was after hours of labor & it was about 3am so I don't think I was thinking quite straight. Later that morning when Dr. Bennett came back in, she told us that her birthmark was called a "hairy nevus" & that it'd need to be removed. I can not thank her enough for actually knowing what Brooklyn's nevus was. She saved me so many hours, so much worry, & so much internet searching time. Now, I still stressed myself out searching for nevi's on the internet months after she was born, but AT LEAST I KNEW WHAT IT WAS!!!!!! And that's all thanks to Dr. Bennett. I couldn't be more thankful for her & her knowledge.
Brooklyn - 8 days old. You can see her nevus on her right scalp/forehead.
And our precious little Brooklyn today. Just 20% of her nevus remains.
Who'd have thought on July 13, 2009, that we'd be here today?! What an amazing journey we're on!!
I recently gave birth to a healthy boy with a hairy nevus on his forehead. We have been told by three different plastic surgeons three separate courses for removal (tissue expansion, skin graft and excision). What method did you use and at what age? She is adorable!
ReplyDeleteWe used tissue expansion. Grafting doesn't allow hair to grow on the area that the skin graft is at...so we needed to do tissue expansion so that she would have "normal" hair growth. Excision is ok too but ours was too big to do that. If you write me at misspriss_mv@yahoo.com I can give you more info!! Where are you located? What's your email? I'd be happy to tell you more!! :o)
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