The Unknown begins

Before we begin this next blog post I wanted to update you on little miss Abigail. She is now two months old. She just started to smile and now she does it non-stop! We have had zero doctors’ appointments because little miss Abigail is doing great. The neurologist said they don't think she will have any set backs. The Cranial Facial team thinks she is doing really well, especial with her breathing and drinking her bottle. They don’t see any issues and they think after her surgeries she will do great! They are looking to do three surgeries in July or August all at one time - her lip, part of her nose, and part of her palate. That is nerve racking and a little scary, but really I am excited and I am happy that God has given us such great Doctors that can help my baby. So all that little Abigail needs to do is keep growing and just being the perfect little baby girl that she is!


Now to continue Abigail story. We got to the appointment and a lady called us back into a separate room. So we followed, and my parents stayed in the waiting room. As soon as we walked in the room and sat down I said, “I just want to make sure you understand, we do not want to end her LIFE.” and right when I said that I saw a change in their mood. They realized they weren't going to talk us into ending our daughter’s life, so now they were going to help us to actually try and figure everything  out. They wanted us to sit down and do our family history. Was that ever long! lol! We had to go through all of my mom’s side of the family and she had 12 siblings! Then we went over my dad’s family, then my siblings, and then the same with Michael's family! They were trying to figure out if Abigail's issues where hereditary, but from the looks of it, it didn't seem like that was the issue. They did think that she might be missing a chromosome or have an extra one. The only way they can find that out is to get a very long needle, put it in your stomach, and pierce the sac to get fluid. This process is so dangerous that they have an ultrasound on you the whole time because you don't want to hit the baby. Then they numb you. You are told that you can’t move whatsoever, because one little move and that needle could hit that little girl! The only way I know I wouldn't move (because I am deathly afraid of needles) was to close my eyes. Michael said that the needle was the longest one he had ever seen. So my eyes were closed and I felt the needle go through my skin into Abigail's sack. Yes, I felt that! It’s  hard to explain, but it was so weird and I just didn't move. If you would like to know the term of this process, it’s call amniocentesis. The doctor that did this believed that Abigail probably had one half of an extra chromosome. They then did a full ultrasound on the little baby girl, and they told us she has a double cleft lip. Before, they thought there was no bone structure for her nose. However, today they say that she does have bone there, it’s just not growing at the right rate, so she will need surgery for that. As for the part of the brain that connects the right and left lobes, they weren’t seeing it. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some of those nerves there. That’s great news, because she should be okay with developing if there is no nerve there. That just means that she might have a harder time learning, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be able to. The doctor even feels like she would live a normal life. We were over joyed to know that she will make it! We just have surgeries that will be happening right away. Next time we will talk about the results of the amniocentesis, and how we try and keep life normal for the boys when inside we are hurting.

When you read this I want you to understand that every meeting we went to we got told a lot about Abigail. One minute she has one issue, then the next minute they are telling us a different story. So, what I tell you in each post doesn't mean that this is what she has now. We were told some very horrible things about what the outcome would be.

Love,

Mother of a Miracle