March 30, 2022. The day that our 3rd child was born. I had gone into my routine 37 week appointment for the last scheduled sonogram. We had moved 2 hours north just a few months prior but I didn’t want to change OBs so we had continued making the trip back and forth for all the appointments. Praying I wouldn’t go into labor early and I’d make it Plano on time. My first 2 babies were prior c-sections so we had already planned our 3rd baby would be a c-section as well.
My pregnancy had been pretty easy going. Other than exhausting, as our older 2 kids were 2.5 (Louie) and 4 (Lily) at the time. We had also just renovated, sold our prior house, bought a new house, and moved into our new house – all during this pregnancy. It’s just how we tend to do things – all at once.
Baby was growing well. I say baby, because well… we were waiting to find out the gender! Baby was looking good! Heart looked great, baby’s legs, arms, tiny toes, fingers… oh and so much hair!! I had gone into labor early at 35 weeks but we were able to stop the labor. That preterm labor had been initiated by me being dehydrated. I had been on bedrest for a week and then back to our scheduled routine.
My husband was going to join me at this appointment but I told him not to come, “the baby is too big and you can’t even see it’s face! Stay at work!” He was supposed to be a keynote speaker the very next morning to a group of 400. No biggie.
During the sonogram, the ultrasound tech looked at everything, listened to the heart beat, and measured the baby. I didn’t even pick up that she may have seen something concerning. I just jumped off the table and into the room to wait on my OB to tell me everything looked great and send me on my way!
Then I heard him in the hallway – “Hey, I need you to take a look at a patient of mine, she’s from Wichita Falls and I just don’t feel comfortable, sending her 2 hours home without another opinion.” He comes into my room and tells me that he wants a high-risk ultrasound Dr to take a look at me. I had “cervical funneling.” (whatever that was!) The plan was to get looked at before going home. At the latest, I may have to wait until the morning to get looked at. I actually thought to myself, “Great! – a night to myself with room service and a full night's sleep without kids waking me up!” Reflecting back now, I just laugh at how much our world was about to be flipped on its head.
I walk over to the hospital and to my surprise the high-risk ultrasound Dr comes within 10 minutes. Nice guy. He takes a look, and he starts showing the nurse his concerns. He says that my uterus was measuring less than 1 MM thick, which is comparable to the thinness of a single sheet of paper. Anything less than 3 MM is considered an emergency and at risk for uterus rupture. Oh, and where it’s so thin… is right where baby’s head is AND a huge blood vessel…. GREATTTTT.
My OBGYN comes in and tells me that it’s Go time. Call the husband and get him here. I’m not leaving the hospital and he is calling all the OBGYNs on call because he has to have another one in the OR with him. I call my husband, luckily, he is only about 15 mins away. My OB tells me straight - this is an emergency, I have a risk of rupture, I have a high probability of blood transfusion, and if I rupture, the baby and I could be in serious danger. A flood of nurses rush in and start prepping me. IV in left hand for anesthesia, IV in right hand for blood transfusions if needed – oh and they were checking to make sure they had my blood ready. I had held it together until now, but now I’m crying and praying. I’m praying/ begging God for his protection over us. I was praying for peace. I was trying my very hardest to stay calm because I knew I needed to be totally focused going into the OR and to get a quick spinal. My husband arrives. Praise the Lord.
They wheel me back, get the spinal in – first time. YES. It’s GO TIME. Alright Lord, we are doing this. We are about to see our baby – God willing – and find out if we are going to have a baby boy or baby girl!!
The c-section starts, and everything is smooth. The OR is instructed to not say a word about the sex of the baby. My husband would be told when to look, so he can then announce! My OB pulls our baby out –“IT’S A BOY!!!” Our baby lets out the biggest cry! My tears wouldn’t stop. I was so relieved; our baby BOY is okay! I’m okay! We are all okay! Praise the Lord!!!! The nurses take him over to the baby bed to wipe him off and take his vitals. They then bring him over to me for skin to skin. This was the first time I ever got to do skin to skin! I was so excited, an unexpected surprise!! This was the first unexpected surprise! We take pictures and collectively breath so much relief.
In addition, to deciding to have a c-section, we had previously agreed that I would get my tubes tied. This was our last baby. We had prayed and felt at peace with 3 kids. Also, knowing that my uterus almost ruptured it was even more clear to us, we were done. While they were tying my tubes, my OB asked us if I had a surgery between my 2nd and 3rd babies. We had not and we questioned why he would ask. He said that I was completely missing one of my tubes. It was gone. Couldn’t find it. He said that he had never seen this in his career, but read about it! He shared that if something was wrong, the body could detect issues and will sometimes just self-amputate a tube, and your body will absorb it. WILD. We laughed about it, they finished up, and I was moved into recovery.
While in recovery, they bring us our baby. He’s swaddled up tight. I ask my husband to show me the pictures he had taken in the OR. I’m flipping thru the pictures and there was one picture where the nurse had held him up and they had just put the ointment on his eyes. The shininess of the ointment made his eyes pop. Something about his eyes just looked different, thin and more almond shaped. I took note in my head but didn’t think anything else of it.
I started to try and get him to nurse. I’m just so relieved everything worked out. I just kept praising God for taking care of us. My husband asks to look at our son’s ears, and then his hands. I could tell he was looking at a list and I could see the wheels turning in his head. I asked him what he was looking for – it was obvious he was looking for something. He said very calmly, “I think he has Down syndrome.” The moment he said it, I knew he was right. His eyes in that picture made so much more sense now. We were now going down the Google list for Down syndrome markers together. He had every one – almond eyes, palmers' crease on both hands, neck fold, flat nose bridge, and folded ears. We asked the nurse what she thought. She told us that she wasn’t sure, but we could just ask the on-call pediatrician in the morning.
I can honestly say, I was at peace. We had just lived through a crazy couple of hours. My husband and I are firm believers that all life is God-breathed. God created our baby perfectly, just as he was. We would love him and were there to protect him – just as our other babies we had been blessed with! Now that we knew he was a boy, we started talking names. We had a short list, but we weren’t firm on any of them. Since our older two kid’s names started with an “L” we thought his name may start with an “L” too. But it just didn’t click.
Isaac – “he will laugh,” “reflecting the laughter,” We love the story in Genesis, about Abraham and Sarah. When Sarah, laughed when God told them that they would have a child at an old age. It was a perfect name. God was showing us his plans.
That was it. That was what his name was going to be, and he was ours. This was just the beginning. That evening and those 3 days in the hospital while I recovered, we deep dove into all there was to learn about Down syndrome. We knew nothing. But we knew, for our family, we needed to know as much as we could – quickly.
The next few days in the hospital would be filled with so many conversations between pediatricians, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, and lactation consultants. Conversations that were very different from when we had our 2 typical children. We knew then we needed to know all that we could about our new diagnosis so that we could ensure Isaac received the best care and resources. I didn’t know then, but I had turned into an advocate overnight. God knew. He knew we were capable. He knew we could handle it but, we couldn’t handle it alone. We would be only able to handle it with HIM guiding us.
