Saturday, December 17, 2005

Pregnancy & Birth

For you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13-14

At my 20 week ultrasound we discovered that the baby boy I was carrying would be born with a cleft lip and palate. An amnio revealed that he also has an extremely rare chromosome deletion (12)(q15q21.2). We were told that our baby would probably be stillborn or have severe problems at birth. We went for biweekly fetal assessments and the baby was growing very slowly. We were prepared for the worst but praying that we would have the chance to spend some time with our son.
After a very long stressful pregnancy, on September 21st, 2005, at 39 weeks, Noah Grant John finally decided to make his appearance. He was born kicking and screaming at 8:35pm, and breathing on his own! We were thrilled! He had severe IUGR, weighing in at 3lbs 12oz and 17 inches long. He was immediately wisked off to NICU at Children's Hospital which would become his home for the next month.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a beatiful baby you have... I was told at 8 months that my son would be born with a bi-lateral cleft lip and possible cleft palette. they also told me that (due to the ay he was positioned in uteral) he would have one leg shorter than the other (NOT) and most kids with clefts are also retarted..and that he would never carry on the family name.. suggested I have an abortion at 8months.. I was VERY MAD! We had a beautiful baby boy 5 lbs and 9 oz.
bi-lateral lip and palette.. go to widesmile.org in the photo gallery look under 3-pete. there you'll find my mircle.. He is now 10. about to go thru a bone graft surgery in Dec if not sooner. Depending on when the Dr's can get together to set a date. (agree on one) I love your story! Tamara