Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.
After a difficult start and fertility issues, Zane and I were blessed in September to find out that we were pregnant, and that we did it without treatment! With all the pains (and nausea) of the first trimester in the books, we were so excited to share our big news on Thanksgiving Day with all of our friends and family. A few more ultrasounds and an amazing 3D scan later, we were shocked, and excited, to find out at our reveal party on New Years Eve, that we were having a little girl 💕😊
In January, we went in for our routine anatomy ultrasound and of course our little one did not cooperate (shocking 😉), and the tech was not able to get all the images that they needed, so we had to schedule another appointment. A week or 2 later we came back and, though baby girl still wasn’t in the mood, we were able to get the needed pictures. Once the ultrasound was done we meet with the PA who informed us that because of the quality of the image of the heart, they couldn’t tell if there was a shadow or if there was possibly fluid around the heart. With this concern, we all agreed that an ultrasound at Toledo Children’s with there higher quality equipment was the best next step. Of course the worry set in and the anxiety was high, but thankfully we were able to get in quickly.
The day comes for our ultrasound with Toledo and we head in. During the scan some of that worry and anxiety lessened as we got to again see our little girl moving around, heart beating, and interesting images of each part of her body. Unfortunately, that moment of euphoria quickly left when the doctor told us that, though there was not a concern with the heart, baby girl’s right radial bone (big bone in the forearm) was missing, and the ulna (small bone in the forearm) was short, leading to a diagnosis of something called Radial Rae.
Disappointed with the lack of information the doctor shared, and a conversation with their geneticist that left us with more questions and confusion then answers, we returned home with more panic, frustration, and sadness then before. Not satisfied with how things were left, we decided to start doing our own research, follow up calls, and asking friends and family (thank you!). All this led us to the need for a second opinion and asking for a few more tests to help us determine what specifically baby girl had and how that would impact the rest of our pregnancy and our birth plan. This has lead us to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and is where our story will continue soon...
