Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Feeling much better


Claire Audrey arrived by C-Section at 10:24 am on Weds Jan 13. She weighed 5 lbs 4 oz and was 17 3/4 inches long. She was about 3 weeks early and is still in the NICU. She is doing very, very well. She is currently in an ioslette as she has jaundice. In addition to the heart defect that we knew about, there is a second condition that the Drs are watching. There is a vessel in the heart that usually closes within a couple of days of birth. Claire's PDA is still open, so they started her on meds last night to hopefully close this without surgery. They will do another echo on her heart on Friday and hopefully the meds will have worked their magic. If not, there is a possibility that she may have to have surgery to close this.

As you know, there was a suspicion before birth that Claire might have Down syndrome. This was confirmed by a genetic screening. What this extra chromosome means to us is that there is more of her to love! She is already an absolute joy and we can't wait to get her home.

One of the common themes in the book Gifts was about how scared and nervous parents were about thier babies having Down syndrome, but that once the baby arrived they realized their fears were much worse than the reality. I felt exactly this way, and now I can happily say that I am one of those parents who isn't worried at all anymore. My daughter is beautiful and perfect in every way!

5 comments:

  1. I am so inspired by your strength. Congrats to you and your little one, I am so eager to meet mine! Blessings and prayers.

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  2. Aww, so happy for you! Isn't it nice being on what I call "the other side"? It's not so bad is it? Congrats to you and your family!

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  3. Congratulations on the birth of your daughter! I commented on your book review of "Gifts". I'm one of the contributors. Anyway, my daughter Angela is 13 and has DS. So, it sounds like she may have a PDA or a PFO? Usually, if they don't close on their own, they don't need surgery until they're a little older. Lots of variables involved with that! My Angela had a PDA along with an ASD, which closed on their own when we were just gearing up for surgery when she was 3 years old. My Angela was a tiny thing too...4lbs 4 oz at 35 weeks (she had stopped growing around 30 weeks.) after 6 weeks in the NICU she came home back at 4 pounds. Wow..I can't believe I brought such a tiny baby home!

    So, as Adrienne said, it's nice to be on the other side, isn't it? Now you can just get to know your baby, and get on with life! Again, congratulations!

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  4. Congratulations!!! I didn't know that Lily had Ds until after she was born. Now, 19 mmonths later, i can't imagine her any other way. She's such a blessing to us and all who meet her. Lily was a little peanut like Claire...4 lbs, 13 oz at birth.

    I look forward to learning more about you and your family as you embark on this wonderful journey.

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  5. It's funny, all the "little peanut" comments remind me that I had no idea that's what tiny little ones are called in hospitals. When we went back in for my son's heart surgery (he had Tetralogy of Fallot) I was surprised that the nurses knew that the NICU nurses had called him that, like they had all chatted about my special little boy. No, no ego here at all. :-)

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