Tuesday 21 August 2012

Blog 27 - Birth of Jessica 2007

We were content with our two adorable pigeon pair children.

But then one day I saw the big '4 0' approaching and I suddenly became very clucky.

Joe was happy to try again. One month later I was pregnant - too easy....before I even had a chance to change my mind which I was in the process of doing!

The baby was due on the 15th of April, 2007.


I had the nuchal translucency scan and blood test at 13 weeks. The scan began with the technician saying 'the baby may have Down syndrome' because he/she had the thickening of the back of the neck. We explained to her that Melissa and Nick also did. On further investigations the baby did not have any other Down syndrome indicators e.g. lack of nasal bone, the bones in the legs were the right length, the heart was fine etc, so Down syndrome was not discussed again.

The technician reported that the baby most likely had Crouzons. We were disappointed but ok with that. We knew what we were dealing with.


At the 21 week scan, shown here, the technician changed her mind and said that the baby may not have Crouzons at all. This was because her eyes were only slightly wider then the average baby. Nick's at his 18 week scan were two and a half times wider then the average baby's.


At the final scan which was at 30 weeks, the findings were that the baby's sutures were still open and that her eyes were the same width apart that they were at 21 weeks. This was very good news. But her eyes were prominent which they should not be for 30 weeks. So the final report was Crouzons. That was what we went into her birth believing that Jess had.


Jessica was born at 8:17 am on Wednesday the 4th of April, 2007 by c-section. She was breathing and healthy.


 
During the next few days we would see the obstretician and the paediatrician looking at Jess, moving her arms and legs, and whispering. Not loud enough for us to hear. They never explained what they were whispering about.

When we questioned the paediatrician as to whether she thought the baby had Crouzons she would say that she wasn't sure.

She told us that all of Jess's sutures were still open as they were in the last ultrasound, though her lamboid suture may have been in the process of fusing. Her eyes were also not really prominent but were slightly wider apart then the average. Jessica did have a gap between her big toe and her second toe which could be an indicator of Crouzons.

We were asked by the paediatrician if we were going to see our geneticist - yes we were...
So no diagnosis or hint of a diagnosis was made in the first week of Jessica's life. We went home not knowing. Down syndrome was not mentioned once whilst we were in the hospital.

We put Jessica in her pretty going home outfit and proudly took her home, showing her off to family and friends.



© 2012 by Jenny Woolsey
No part of this blog may be reproduced without prior permission.


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