[tri-wings] Caileigh's Story(very long winded sorry all)

  My name is Jackie and I've been lurking around here for a while not writing 
but reading Erin's story I'm thinking maybe I'm ready to talk about mine. I 
found out I was pregnant in July 2005 right before my 22nd birthday after 
having my first pregnancy end in miscarriage February of that year. What better 
birthday present could anyone possibly receive? Then in my 15th week the nurse 
called to tell me my Triple Screen test had come back abnormal and that I would 
have to go to a perinatoligist and possibly have to have and amnio.So two weeks 
later we went for a level two ultrasound and an amnio. The u/s showed a heart 
defect which turned out to be Hypo plastic Left-Heart Syndrome and while trying 
to do the amnio I went into labor they had to stop doing the amnio and my labor 
stopped on its own. So two weeks later I returned for another amnio three days 
later they called with the results our baby had full T-13. I didn't believe 
them in my mind I made up all sorts of different s
 cenarios
 they mixed up my amniotic fluid, they did the wrong test all sorts of crazy 
things to make it so they would be wrong. Two days later Jon, our mothers and I 
went to the doctor to decide what our course of action would be. I already knew 
nothing they said was going to matter no one was going to change the decision I 
had made. I was having my baby no matter what, I wanted and loved my child and 
if she was going to die it wouldn't because I wasn't going to do everything I 
possibly could to keep her with me. It was after I said I was going to continue 
my pregnancy that I finally asked what I had been dying to know was it a boy or 
a girl? After I asked the doc said it WAS a girl. I wanted to jump over the 
table and choke her. WAS??? My baby WAS nothing my mind was screaming she is a 
little girl, my little girl and I loved and love her so very much. The 
Perinatology office made it very clear they thought I was wrong to continue my 
pregnancy. I went to one more app. there and I was 
 informed
 the would treat me and only me not my daughter they wouldn't even talk about 
her like she was still alive. I returned to my first doctor after that and 
would have changed doc a million times if I had to to find the right one for 
Caileigh (we named her Caileigh Lynn DeWitt). Luckily I didn't have too. Dr. 
Ebner was wonderful. I finally found a doc who would treat Caileigh like she 
mattered, like she deserved everything a "normal" baby deserved from a doc. He 
agreed to do a C-Section to reduce stress on her heart (perinatology refused 
saying "There's to much risk to you for a baby that wont survive") and 
everything else Jon and I wanted for my pregnancy and Caileigh. He helped us 
find a childbirth class that we could do at home because I wasn't comfortable 
doing one with a whole bunch of women who were having healthy babies when I 
wasn't, he found us a pediatrician he thought we would really like that would 
give Caileigh the care we wanted her to have and set an app. for us to
  meet
 them before-hand and he also set up an app. at the hospital in labor and 
delivery so they would have the birth plan in advance and to give them a chance 
to ask any questions they might have in advance so that we could have the 
delivery that we wanted. The hospital even bent there no children under 14 
unless its a sibling so that my 9 yr old niece would have a chance to meet her 
cousin in the event that we never got to bring Caileigh home from the hospital. 
Coming back to the hospital and doc where we live and not going to the one in 
the city anymore was one of the best choices we have made. In my 39th week I 
went for my check-up and they couldn't find a heartbeat and an ultrasound 
confirmed the Caileigh had passed away I was induced that night and Caileigh 
was born March 2nd 2006 at 8:34 a.m. she weighed 4 lbs. 4 ozs. she was 17" 
inches and she was the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen in my life. 
I miss her every single day and even though she was stillborn I will
  never
 regret my decision to continue my pregnancy. With 70% of all trisomy babies 
being miscarried in the first trimester I know that I was lucky for every 
single day that I had her every little kick, hick up, every single time I heard 
her heartbeat or saw her little body and the flutter of her heartbeat the u/s 
screen and for the time no matter how short it was that I got to hold her in my 
arms and kiss her little face.



                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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