October 5, 2001 - Eleven years ago, our son Baby H was born, and passed. At 17 weeks in utero we learned that he had a chromosome abnormality, trisomy 13 with a translocation. Everyone is suppose to have 2 of each chromosome. Baby H had 3 of the 13th and only 1 of the 14th. A person with downs syndrome has 3 of the 21st chromosome. The lower the number of the chromosome, the worse the abnormalities. Baby H had rocker bottom feet, only 3 chambers in his heart, fluid on his brain, cleft palate, and so much more that I knew the only place he would survive was in me. I felt like I put off labor for about 3 days because I didn't want it to be over. My husband and I made some very grown up decisions from the day we found out until he was born at 34 weeks. He was born at 10:17 a.m. at 4 pounds 1 ounce. He lived for 5 amazingly peaceful hours. That day changed my life forever and, believe it or not, in some very positive ways.
October 8, 1999 - Livia was born 6 weeks early on September 16 (also 34 weeks). She spent 3 weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. She had apnea of prematurity. She couldn't quite figure out how to suck, swallow, and breath at the same time. She would turn blue and we would have to rub her down to get her breathing again. She came home on October 8, on a heart and breathing monitor. We didn't sleep that night. She was only 5 pounds and the monitor didn't pick up her heart rate and breathing very well because she was so small. The next day we got everything adjusted and it didn't have as many false alarms. Liv was on the monitor until around Christmas.
October 8, 2001 - We laid Baby H to rest. You might wonder why we named him "H." I'm not really sure how we came up with it, but it just worked for him and us. He'll always be "Baby" H.
October 8 - My husbands birthday! One year he gets to bring his daughter home and a couple years later he lays his son to rest. This year he turns 40!!!
What could these dates hold for us in the future?
Only time will tell....
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