You would think that anyone who went to a specialist every month because of an increased risk of Down Syndrome wouldn't be surprised when their baby girl was born with Down Syndrome. Well.....guess what. We were surprised!
When my husband
and I found out I was pregnant we were ecstatic! My husband Rick is 47 and is a wonderful step father to my 8 year old son, Will. He's great with kids but has never had any biological children of his own. We were so excited to add a new member to our family.
Rick was so excited about the pregnancy that he left work early and met me at almost all of my doctor appointments. In fact, he usually beat me there! I would walk in the office and he had already signed me in and was chit chatting in the waiting room.
I had a sonogram at my first appointment. Of course the person doing the sonogram can't really say anything so I got a phone call at work a couple of days later. It was the last work day before Christmas. The nurse told me they could see a small bleed in
my uterus. She said it probably wasn't a big deal. They would just keep an eye on it. The next month I had a sonogram that showed the bleed was better but not completely gone. They would check it again the next month. One month later the bleed was finally
gone. The usually outgoing woman doing the sonogram was still friendly but Rick and I both noticed she was more reserved. We didn't think too much about it though. We were also able to find out that we were having a baby girl! We had hoped to be able to tell
the sex of the baby but knew it might be too early. It was such a relief that everything would be normal now.
When we got home we told Will the good news. To say he wasn't thrilled would be an understatement. He didn't say much when we first told him.
He went upstairs to his room and I heard him screaming "It was supposed to be a boy!" For months he refused to accept that he would have a baby sister. He still told people we were having a boy and that his name would be Raymond. I have no idea where Raymond
came from. Luckily he FINALLY came around right before Landree was born. He loves his baby sister.
A few days later I got a phone call from the doctor's office. The nurse told me that they saw a bright spot on the baby's heart. She explained that it
was common and may go away on its own. She told me that sometimes it can be nothing but is sometimes related to Down Syndrome. They did some blood work but called a few days later to tell me that it was normal. I was referred to a specialist just
as a precaution.
My first visit to the specialist went well. I actually enjoyed my monthly visits. They had the really high tech sonogram equipment so we could see the baby pretty clearly (for a sonogram anyway). We even got a 3-D picture. The
only problem was that Landree always seemed to have one hand up over her face covering her eyes. The specialist didn't see anything abnormal in the sonograms other than the bright spot on her heart. None of the other markers were present. She couldn't guarantee
that the baby didn't have Down Syndrome but she didn't see any of the indicators. She looked in my file and saw that the blood work done earlier was actually for Spinabifida and not Down Syndrome. They had done the wrong test. She suggested we do the blood
work for Down Syndrome just for peace of mind.
A few days later I got a phone call from the nurse. The blood work showed that there was an increased risk of Down Syndrome. A genetic counselor contacted me to explain things a little better
and see if we wanted to do an amnio. Luckily she was wonderful. I've heard horror stories of doctors pressuring people to have the amnio or even to terminate the pregnancy. She wasn't like that at all. Rick and I decided we didn't want to do the amnio. The
sonograms looked fine and we wouldn't have terminated the pregnancy anyway. We decided it wasn't worth the risk. We would just deal with things as they came.
Rick and I look back and laugh at how dumb it was that we were so surprised Landree was born
with Down Syndrome. All those months we prayed and prayed that our baby would be healthy. Our church family prayed for us too. I guess I just believed in our prayers so much that I put it out of my mind. I trusted God and just knew that our baby would be fine.
Well....she was! God gave us a perfectly healthy baby girl with Down Syndrome. We didn't ask that she wouldn't have Down Syndrome; we just asked that she was healthy. That's exactly what we got. I think that is so funny. He knew exactly what
he was doing. I like to think we're fairly rational people (most of the time). We shouldn't have been surprised. Now that we know, we can even see that the one eye she let us see in the sonogram did look a little like it had the characteristics of
Down Syndrome. I think if we had gotten a clear look at her little eyes we would've suspected it, but she wasn't moving that hand. God obviously knew I was a worrier so he kept it a surprise. I would've worried all those months for nothing. She's
a miracle. She was born perfectly healthy and only spent 30 minutes in the NICU. It all fell into place just like God planned. We're so blessed!