July of 2009 was one of the hardest months for us during Mommy's pregnancy. On the 9th, we went to see the Pediatric Cardiologist. We had been praying for your little heart from the time that we found out something could be wrong with it. We went to the appointment confident that you would be alright, but also knowing that God's plans are always best no matter what. We arrived and got the echo done. We were talking and smiling when the doctor came back into the room with a model heart in his hand and said "Your baby does in fact have a heart defect". These words were really scary for us to hear. Me, Bubba, and Mommy listened while the doctor used the model heart to explain to us what was wrong with your heart. He told us that you had a Complete Atrioventricular Canal Defect, and that you would need open heart surgery sometime after you were born. A Complete Atrioventricular Canal Defect is basically a large hole in the center of your heart. That is not something that's easy to hear. Mommy was strong and only teared up a little when we stepped into the elevator. At least this time, it wasn't completely unexpected like your Down syndrome diagnosis was.
Then, on the 14th , Mommy got a call from her OB/GYN. I remember we were all sitting in the garage. We were cleaning it out and it was really hot that day. The phone rang. It was the OB/GYN, and she told Mommy that since we didn't have a confirmed amnio, the specialist said that all of the soft markers on your ultrasound were also soft markers for Trisomy 13 and 18. See, when a baby is born with Trisomy 13 or 18, they normally do not make it very long past birth or they are born early, stillborn. So this was not a very easy thing for us to hear. Even though Mommy's blood tests came back positive for Trisomy 21 and not 13 or 18, it still had us worried. Because a blood test is not a confirmed diagnosis so we weren't sure. It was just something else to add to all of our stress considering that we had just found out your original diagnosis less than a month earlier and about your heart defect just weeks earlier. Me and mommy ended up taking a car ride to get away for a little while. We parked in the parking lot of our community pool, and we talked and cried.
I wish we would have known in July of '09 that you were going to be ok...I wish we would have known then what we know now. But God was carrying you all along, and we put our trust in Him. And once again, the waiting continued....
I love you to the moon and back 1,000 times x 10!
Love,
Sissy
1 comment:
That must have been so hard, Ashley. I know how hard it was waiting to find out if Lily had a heart defect, and here Laura really had one. Little sweetie, thank God she is all better today!!
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