Being pregnant balanced me out! I never felt better!
by Wendy Sarafinchan, ON, Canada

Here I am again writing to you about the only thing I'm really sure about, being a disabled mom.

Five years ago this January, I gave birth to a healthy beautiful baby girl. The way I remember it, I had one heck of a time. It took my husband, Steven, and me one year to become pregnant, and when we finally got the good news, we were in heaven. That was around the time one of my main fears kicked in. Would our child have CMT worse than I.

I had the usual morning sickness that lasted day and night for three months. I even lost five pounds In my fourth month our troubles began; I started to spot. I was beside myself with fear and anger. I figured I went through all the sickness and joy for nothing, especially when my doctor told me most women miscarry their first baby. I decided from that moment on I was going to fight to carry this baby to full term. I did everything by the book. We ended up the winners in the end. I carried to full term and then some.

My delivery was a little out of the ordinary, though. Normally you are put in the stirrup bed to deliver, but not me. After the doctor broke my water and realized how big a baby we were dealing with, he decided to let nature take its course in my hospital bed. The doctor figured with all the hard pushing I had been doing I could very well break my ankles. The doctor made his first good call. After I'd pushed for two hours in vain, the doctor suggested suction. Steven and I were horrified. The doctor put this cup on the baby's head and with all his might pulled out a 9 lb. 11 oz. baby girl. Steven and I named her Aleigha Lynn. The first thing I did was check to see if she could feel my touch on her feet. She screamed and that was all I needed to hear.

I had decided to breast feed Aleigha but we ran into problems. My milk was fine but this kid was always hungry. Aleigha cried for 16 hours out of 24. Steven and I were taking shifts to get some sleep. Everyone had an opinion -- she has colic, she's wet -- but I knew she was mad and wanted food. After three weeks of this, we put her on the bottle and a miracle happened. Aleigha went from the devil child to a nice happy baby. Steven and I finally got the normal amount of sleep most new parents get, about five hours. We could now take Aleigha places without her clearing the room.

I have the perfect husband. For the first month or so, I never changed a diaper or walked the baby around. That was another fear. My hands were too slow for diaper tabs and I didn't want to fall with Aleigha in my arms. Aleigha took all this in stride. She learned patience with me and we made it through without any serious injuries.

Aleigha is now almost five and I think because of my disability and the way Steven and I are with her she treats people who are different with respect and kindness. I still have my ups and downs but in Aleigha's words, "That's mom." Aleigha is fine, and now that she is older and caring for her is a lot easier, I have other things to worry about, normal things, not CMT things.

Being pregnant balanced me out. I never felt better!

Linda here: Aleigha shows no signs of CMT at age five. Some testing has been done, and so far everything looks good.