Sweet Baby Girl

To my surprise, my nurse gave me the genetic test results over the phone this morning. I was expecting to make an appointment today to come into the office to go over everything, but maybe this is better. I was anxious to know.

Also to my surprise, we have a baby girl in heaven. I could have sworn up and down it was a boy, but we are glad we know the truth. It puts my mind at ease to know for sure. We also found that there was an abnormal chromosome in the baby. The nurse said it was a random event and there is no need to worry that this will happen again. Our baby had trisomy 18, meaning there were 3 (rather than the normal 2) chromosomes on #18. The nurse said this was non-compatible with life, so the baby would not have survived.

After googling trisomy 18, I found many interesting and heartbreaking things. Nothing that I'm about to mention was confirmed by my doctor, so I'm making my own assumptions. But trisomy 18 is known as Edwards Syndrome. Surprisingly, according to wikipedia, a baby can survive for a short time with this syndrome. But the survival rate is very low. Half die in utero. Of liveborn infants, only 50% live to 2 months and only 5-10% will survive their first year of life. Major causes of death include apnea and heart abnormalities. The prevalence of this syndrome is 1 in 3,000 (for conception) and 1 in 6,000 (for live births). Physical abnormalities are too many to mention, but some include feeding and breathing difficulty, developmental delays, small features, cleft palate, underdeveloped thumbs and nails, heart defects, etc.

The nurse said since they were able to pinpoint the cause of miscarriage, there is no need to test me further. I can breath a sigh of relief now knowing that this is the conclusion of our tragedy. This is the last piece of info we were waiting on. Now we can put it behind us.

I'm much more thankful now that I know we were spared from an even greater tragedy. God has blessed us through this and it's so much more evident now. I can't imagine the suffering, for our baby, for us and our family, if the baby were to have survived longer. I've been saying over the past few weeks, "It could be worse," and now I'm very aware that this is true. I'm so thankful that my doctor insisted on genetic testing. The results have helped put things into a greater perspective and eases the pain to some degree. I'm also reminded to trust God in EVERYTHING because He has our best interest in mind always.

I'd like to reflect on this verse again today...
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, PLANS TO PROSPER YOU AND NOT TO HARM YOU, plans to give you a hope and a future."
-Jeremiah 29:11