A few months back a friend of mine introduced me to this blog, http://www.kellehampton.com/, when she sent me the link of an amazing birth story (because really, what Mom doesn't love reading birth stories??). Kelle Hampton's daughter was unexpectedly born with Down Syndrome (you can read her story here, http://www.kellehampton.com/2010/01/nella-cordelia-birth-story.html).
I cant tell you how many tears I cried while reading her birth story.. they were not all sad tears. Many of them were tears because I was able to relate on some level.
When I was pregnant with Gianna, we chose to have the NT Scan performed. We had the same test done when I was pregnant with Ava. Ill be honest, the only reason I agreed to the test was so I could have another ultrasound. At 12/13 weeks pregnant the baby looks so much like a... baby. Its really exciting to see the miracle of life at that stage, arms and legs developed, fingers forming, eyes, nose, all the baby features are starting to come to the surface, the ones you spend months daydreaming about. With Ava we got back perfect results. Which I assumed, why wouldn't we? I was only 21 years old, in all seriousness what are the chances of me having a baby with DS given my age.
When it came to Gianna's test results, I didn't give it a second thought. In fact, I didn't even call the office to see if my results were in, I wasn't worried about it. It wasn't until my next OB appointment that my doctor told me our chances for our baby having Down Syndrome were 1 in 5. I was shocked. I didn't have any idea what to think or say, so I just cried. It was an emotional couple of days of doctors calling me and wanting to know how Id like to "proceed". I always told myself that regardless of what any of these tests said Id never get an amnio. The way I looked at it is, the results wouldn't change my mind (I must say though after being told my chances like that I knew I needed to know for sure!). Just to be clear though, Id never abort my baby. Sure, a baby with Down Syndrome has never been in my plan but I do have faith that God has a much bigger plan for me than I have for myself so I have to trust in Him. Rick and I decided that we would opt for a procedure called CVS. The CVS was very similar to an Amnio yet very different and because I was still within the time frame I was more comfortable with this procedure than an Amnio. After days of crying tears of sadness, fear, nervousness, uncertainty, hurt, any feeling you can think, I probably had it at one point or another. I finally got over my pity party, went as far as looking for support groups with children that had Down Syndrome, reading about these amazing children, I was finally able to feel that if this is what God had planned for me I was totally ok with it and would feel blessed that God chose me to be a Mother to one of these children that have so much life in them and would bring so much happiness.
On Christmas Eve 2009, we got the phone call from the Genetic Counselor at University of Michigan Hospital letting us know that our baby only had 2 sets of 23 chromosomes and did not have Down Syndrome and had two X chromosomes (ITS A GIRL!).
Ok.. totally getting off track.. Nellas mom has set up a "Nella's ONEder Fund" with the National Down Syndrome Society to help raise money and awareness for the cause in honor of her little Nellas first birthday that is approaching. Please take a moment to watch the video on her latest blog post.. it truly is touching!