Our Baby

A week before Christmas, Peter and I went in for our 18 week ultrasound to find out the sex of our baby. The doctor found some serious abnormalities in the ultrasound and recommended that we do an amniocentesis to find out more information. A few days later we received the difficult news that our little girl has trisomy 13.

Trisomy 13 is condition in which the baby ends up with an extra chromosome 13, which is similar to down syndrome where the child has an extra chromosome 21. However, the extra 13 chromosome is much more serious and in most cases, as the nurse told us, is incompatible with life. Eighty percent of babies born with trisomy 13 die within the first month and the rest rarely live past a year. We have an appointment next week to meet with a heart specialist who will do an ultrasound of our baby's heart, the most serious defect, and help us better prepare for what to expect for our little girl.

It is obviously not what we were expecting, but we are grateful to learn the news ahead of time so we can appreciate each day of pregnancy as precious time we get to spend with our little girl as part of our family.

Thank you for all your prayers, love and support. We are doing fine. It is hard to be sad or depressed when I spend my days taking care of our beautiful, healthy daughter who is constantly reminding me how alive (and busy) she is! And I have the most wonderful husband in the world. We are grateful that God is giving us this special baby girl and hope that we can spend a little bit of time with her before He takes her home.



21 Weeks Pregnant with Daughter #2