Imelda's Journey

I was able to get an in-depth ultrasound appointment scheduled a week following my initial midwife appointment.  It was a rough week of crying, praying, and wondering what, if anything was wrong with my baby girl and if she would be OK.     We drove up to Long Beach because the center there had the earliest appointment available.  Sitting in the waiting room, waiting to be called back was nerve racking.  Finally the ultrasound tech took us back to one of the rooms.  It was so cold and I was nervous, and wondered what we would find out.  I remember the ultrasound tech was friendly enough and very surprised at hearing this was baby #11 for us.  I prayed as I laid on the table, hoping everything would check out OK and that our baby girl would be fine. The ultrasound tech had a hard time getting all the angles of the baby's heart but said she didn't see any holes or causes for concern there.  She then left the room and we waited for the doctor to...

 I had decided early on in my pregnancy that I wanted to have a hospital birth and an epidural this time around.  Ten, natural, unmedicated births was enough for me and my last few labors have been longer, harder, and more painful.  Because this was baby #11, I put off going in to my first appointment. Life was busy and I didn't get around to it until I was 18 weeks along.  I picked a midwife group that delivered at a hospital and when I called to set up the appointment she was horrified I hadn't had any care so far and she had to get special permission from the midwives for me to be seen.  But I digress..... June 6, 2023 was the date of my first midwife visit.  The dating ultrasound was set for the morning and I went to that alone as Gabe was at work.  It was so great to see baby girl jumping around on the screen and I couldn't get over how cute her little nose was!  I grabbed myself something for lunch, and Gabe met me a few hours later for the ...

       Let's start at the very beginning....it's a very good place to start.  (Kudos if you know which song/musical that is from!)      With 9 boys and 1 girl in the house we were very eager to find out the gender of baby #11.  The odds definitely weren't in our favor.  I made an appointment to find out the baby's gender when I was 13 weeks along.  Gabe and I went to the ultrasound appointment alone.  I wanted to make sure everything was fine with the baby since we hadn't had our first midwife appointment yet, and didn't want the kids to be there if  the baby wasn't moving.       It was so great to see our little baby on the screen jumping around.  However, she refused to open her legs to give us a peek at her gender.  No amount of jumping up and down or drinking cold liquids helped.  I was so disappointed!  We left with an appointment scheduled for the following week hoping baby wou...

 I am starting this blog to keep family and friends up to date on our daughter, Imelda.  Imelda was born on October 30th via emergency c-section.  She has a diagnosis of Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards Syndrome.  Originally we thought she would only be with us for a short time but it seems God has other plans for her life!  Thanks be to God she has been with us for almost three months and is thriving!  We are praying for God's guidance as we care for her and we are learning a lot along the way - just taking it one day at a time.