The Phamily Blog

Mother's Day: I finally got my first real nights rest the night before and it was nice. Cameron and Nguyen went out before I got up and got Donuts and coffee :)

My mom came over to visit and so I could give her her Mother's Day gift (Rachael Ray Furi Knives, woohoo!) After Nguyen and Cam got back from Starbucks and the donut shop, they gave me my present... How spoiled am I? I have always wanted pearls and Nguyen took notice! He is the BEST!

Shortly after we got a call from the on call pediatrician to give us an "update." He went on and on for about twenty minutes about how Gabby showed signs of a "stressed" baby in the womb and that she was displaying pretty typical behaviors of that, etc... And then he dropped the bomb. "Oh and also, not to scare you but I hear she looks just like her dad and her brother...is that right?" To which I respond with, yeah she kinda does. And he says "okay good because we were looking and one of the things that came up was down syndrome because of the way her eyes looked." My heart just sank because just the day before as I was holding her, I had the very same thought. I quickly dismissed it though because she looked different the next time I held her and she continues to look different every time I see her.

So, he goes on about how she has the eyes of a person with down syndrome and also her ears are set a little low on her head but he measured them and they were within range of "normal." "The only other thing we found that could point to DS is that she has what is called a "Simian Crease" on her hand." (Most people have three creases on their palms. A simian crease is one crease that goes straight across and although they are very prominent in people with DS, you can also have them and NOT have DS.) So he continued to tell me they are ordering a blood test to get a chromosome analysis done to see what's up but the results would take about a week.

Getting off of the phone and relaying that message to Nguyen and my mom was pretty difficult but I remained hopeful and optimistic. I decided to do a google search and see what I could come up with. We found out that 13% of asians have the simian line and that was GREAT news to me. At that point, I felt like our chances of Gabby having DS were low and we were all going to be just fine.

Later, after cam woke up from his nap, we took a trip out to the hospital to see our princess. My mom and I were in the nursery and Nguyen was outside waiting for his turn with cam. The new on call pedi came over along with a social worker and said she wanted to talk to us. It sounded scary so I sent my mom to get Nguyen.

Immediately she pulls out a sheet she printed up with ALL of the characterisitcs she felt Gabby possessed that pointed her towards a diagnosis of down syndrome. She said she felt about 90% certain it WAS down syndrome. That was the most painful sentence I have ever had to listen to. Nguyen and I both cried right there in the nursery but they were very comforting and reassured us that there were plenty of awesome resources for us and everything was going to work out for us.

We went home and cried for the rest of the day. It was/is just so shocking. We went in waves of emotions...one minute feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders and the next feeling like this was the best thing that could have ever happened to us because she was going to bring our entire fanily closer and we would love like we never thought possible.

SO, it was a pretty rough mother's day but we got through it and we will continue to get through each day and hopefully, it will get easier and easier.