Laura,

There are no dumb questions.

This will be long but I’ll try to cover them. I miss one, it is because I rushed, just post again.

I breast fed all 4. 1st (boy) one for ten months, second one (girl) for 13 months, 3rd one (girl) for only 6-7 months (I managed to get pregnant again and I couldn’t do both). Last but not least, a boy, was about 10 months and then he lost interest.

My meds went up each time over the course of the pregnancy. My base line of med was/is 0.25mg dexamethasone and 0.1 mg of florinef. during the pregnancies, the meds went to 1.0mg of dexamethasone and 0.2mg of florinef. After the pregnancy, I went back down to my regular dose over the course of 1 to 2 weeks.

As for weaning the babies off of dex, they were weaned off by breastfeeding, as my dose went down, theirs went down. Because I have SW-CAH, the pediatrician repeated the newborn screening tests a few times to be sure the did not have CAH as my husband did not have genetic testing. We did speak to a geneticist (sp?) prior to starting our family.

As for labor, I had 4 c-sections. the first c-section was an emergency as I had preeclampsia (toxemia) and started to go into adrenal shock. My son was 6 weeks early but the high doses of dexamethasone paid off as his lungs were fully developed and we both went home after 1 week.

The first daughter was a c-section because I thought I was smart and a c-section wasn’t so bad. Ha, not good to have a c-section where they tell you that you cannot lift anything but the baby for 6 weeks. Then you go home to a 18 month who weighs 35 pounds who misses his mother. I lasted 1 day of not picking him up. It took forever to heal. The pregnancy itself was smooth sailing with no problems.

For daughter number 2, the pregnancy wasn’t the best. My endo dropped the ball and I wasn’t as diligent as I should have been (I should have harrassed him more). I was undersuppressed for most of the pregnancy. I had lots of fatigue, muscle weakness (climbing a flight of stairs was tough, couldn’t open the pick jar - a major problem for me!). When they decided to take her 3 weeks early due to failure to thrive, I wanted to try VBAC since I wasn’t thrilled with the last c-section (recovery time was much too long). They tried to induce me but my after 3 days, my OB said my cervix was like a rock and I was looking at another couple of days. Christmas was coming and I did not want to spend it in the hospital so we did a c-section. She weighed 5 pounds, 5 ounces and I only gained 5 pounds through the whole pregnancy.

All four are carriers and they’ll have to screen their spouses when they start a family (at 30 or so)!

I hope this answers everything and doesn’t scare you too much. It really wasn’t that bad (just don’t ask my husband :-))!

Good luck and ask away.

After 3 c-sections, my OB did not want to risk a VBAC and I had a full-term healthy boy via c-section. I then had a tubal ligation. I am done!

The c-sections were treated as surgery with hydrocortisone (60mg?) through IV.