10-15-2003

I was 21 years old… working at a daycare, while going to school full time to be a teacher. I had wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. I was 32 weeks pregnant… and I was HUGE!!! I went into work like any other day… not feeling great… but I never felt great at that moment. I was especially dreading this day because I knew that I would have to stay late for a required CPR/ First Aid training. I had told some friends at work that I wasn’t feeling great… that I hadn’t felt the baby move much throughout the day. My coworkers urged me to tell the nurse that was teaching the course what was going on. I decided to take their advice… and I’m so thankful that I did. She told me that I really needed to go to the hospital right away! Thank god she was there… and I listened to her advice… If I would have waited much longer… who knows what would have happened. When I got to the hospital they immediately did an ultrasound, and found 1. That she was a she… and 2. That she had an obstruction in her intestines. They told me that often times when babies have an obstruction in their bowel they possibly have cystic fibrosis, or Down syndrome. In my 21 yr old scared brain… I heard, “your baby has cystic fibrosis or down syndrome!!!!” I was scared, sad…. afraid of what the future was going to be like for us…. but then I accepted it…. w/ the support system I had…. I could handle anything life had to throw at me!

I was scheduled for an amniocentesis the following morning… to do genetic testing… and get a clearer picture of what was going on with baby girl… At the time she was in no apparent distress… and then we would be discharged to wait for the arrival of baby girl!!! …..