From the Top

I'll start working on telling my little one's story, from the time I found out I would be blessed with daughter number 2 at age 40(!), through a relatively easy pregnancy and labor/delivery, to the devastating (at the time) news of what came with her beautiful little baby package, and over time get us up to now.   Let me start by saying that we've certainly had more than our fair share of ups and downs, just like the writers of so many other blogs I've read, but all in all I wouldn't trade our experiences for anything.  Even in the midst of terrible darkness and fear, plus anger and anxiety and total despair at times, my life would be so much less without my wonderful child in it and without the people I've met since she was born.  God is good and He has seen us through so much so far, and we know He will stand by us to the end. 

I won't go into the details of my pregnancy with the little one or even the delivery except to say that both were really pretty easy over all and until she burst forth unto the world, we didn't have any concerns beyond what in the heck was I doing getting pregnant at such an "advanced maternal age"!   We had been an only child family for so long, not necessarily by choice, that we were shocked and unsure when the pregnancy test came up positive in the summer of my 39th year.   We had considered foreign adoption a couple of times but when I thought I was ready for that my husband wasn't, and then by the time he decided he was ready, I was already so caught up in our only child's life and making plans for my emancipation back into the working world, that by then I wasn't keen on the idea anymore.  Got to take a moment here to say how much I do admire families who adopt!

Back to the matter at hand - I didn't have any prenatal testing beyond an ultrasound at 20 weeks.  My OB/Gyn and I shared a laugh over the fact that I was finally, and unexpectedly, pregnant and then she asked me what I would do if there were a problem.  I said I would do nothing and we would keep the baby no matter what, and she advised me not to have the testing.   The ultrasound did not cause any red flags and all we knew from that was that we were having another girl.  So, life went on as usual until almost the 39th week.  Little one was born 9 days early, and weighed in at 5 lbs, 7 ounces. A little time lapse here.... the question was, did she have Down syndrome or did she have congenital Leukemia, thanks to a critically high white blood cell count on repeated CBC's.  By the end of her first week out of the safety of the womb, it turned out she in fact had both!  Well, in truth, she did not have full blown Leukemia, but she was born with Transient Myeloproliferative Disorder, or TMD, also sometimes known as Transient Leukemia for the way it presents.  Many kiddos with TMD go into remission without treatment, but a smaller percentage need pretty drastic intervention, such as receiving chemotherapy in the NICU.  That was a first for the docs and nurses at our local hospital.  Our family likes to give them something to talk about for years to come.  No run of the mill life threatening illnesses around here.  To be continued.....