Our New Family

When a couple finds out they are pregnant for the first time, they spend nine months envisioning the doctor placing their firstborn in their arms and congratulating them. For us, this vision didn't go exactly according to plan. After three years of marriage and a whirlwind trip backpacking through France, Italy and Spain, Patrick and I returned home from Europe in July 2008 to find out we were expecting our first baby. Nothing was more exhilarating than telling family and close friends that we were finally going to be parents.

To our dismay, on September 24, 2008 the pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Determined to be parents, we went back to step one after we were emotionally and physically healed to "try, try again". Luckily, we quickly conceived by February 2009 only to be devastated when this second pregnancy ended again in miscarriage on April 15, 2009. Due to the unusual nature of the back-to-back losses, we underwent extensive genetic counseling to rule out any problems beyond simple "bad luck". To our relief, everything came back normal, so it was back to square one.

As the old saying goes, "Third time is the charm". After discovering that we were pregnant AGAIN almost exactly one year after our first pregnancy, we held our breath, waiting to see what would happen. Then, on September 10th the doctor changed our life when we saw our firstborn on an ultrasound. Little did we know how much our lives were really about to change.

Fast-forward to April 15th, exactly one year to the day after learning of our second miscarriage. I checked into Willis-Knighton South in Shreveport, LA to deliver my baby. After the easiest labor and delivery on earth, we waited for the doctor to place our baby in our arms. Instead, after some concern about his breathing, he was taken to the NICU for further evaluation. About half an hour later, the neonatal specialist came to confirm not only Respiratory Distress, but also that he suspected that the baby had Down Syndrome.

Needless to say, this is not the moment that we had envisioned for so long. After the initial shock came a torrent of emotions from sadness to anger to fear and everything in between. It literally felt as if someone had hit us in the stomach and all of the air came out of our lungs; we just couldn't believe it. To make it worse, we couldn't go to the NICU to see him.

In the meantime, Patrick and I were going over all of the reasons why Luke couldn't possibly have Down's. We poured over the few pictures that we had the chance to take before he was taken to see if we could see any of the tell-tell signs of Down Syndrome. When Patrick went with his mom up to the NICU to see Luke, the doctor reviewed his concerns, including the potential for lung, heart, and intestinal defects. Patrick asked what physical signs of Down Syndrome he saw in our baby. The primary sign was the extended bridge between the eyes and weak muscle tone among others. It was interesting, as Patrick looked he saw it one minute and then didn't another.

After the blur of emotions on Friday, Saturday proved to be a much more positive day. Not only did the doctor inform us that Luke had NONE of the additional possible defects, but the staff also managed to wean Luke off some of his oxygen. From the emotional standpoint, Jennifer, a nurse at the hospital visited our room to talk about her 15-year-old daughter who has Down's Syndrome. She spent almost an hour talking to us, discussing her own fears, hopes, and experiences when she received the news about her daughter. Then, she showed us pictures of her daughter on the cheerleading team, hanging out with friends, and so forth and our perspectives finally switched. Having a child with Down Syndrome was not "bad" news, simply just different news. As the story above says, we may have "planned for a trip to Italy", but Luke had something else in mind.

As we start this new chapter in our lives as parents, we hope you follow this blog to share in the joy that Luke brings to our lives.