Frances Hope Stueve Frances Hope

On Thursday August 30th we went in for a regular OB check on my 5th pregnancy at 31 weeks. I had lots of swelling and felt bigger than I should have been at 31 weeks. Sure enough when the doctor measured, my belly measured 5 weeks ahead of schedule so they did an ultrasound immediately. On ultrasound they found lots of extra fluid in Frances' abdomen and her skin, especially around her scalp. We were then sent directly to the hospital for admission.  After some testing and repeat ultrasound we were hopeful that the baby was severely anemic and an in utero blood transfusion would help her condition. During the transfusion the following day we discovered Frances was not anemic and were left waiting on more testing to find out what was causing her severe ultrasound findings. Her condition wasn't improving and despite not having answers we needed to get her out and start treating  her symptoms in a NICU setting to give her the best chances of  survival. Frances was born at 12:45pm on September 1st where she was welcomed by a team of close to 30 medical team members, and surprised everyone on how quickly they were able to establish an airway and stabilize her. Because her condition was so severe we were prepared to meet her and say good bye to her in the operating room. Fortunately, God had other plans and after being baptised and confirmed by our priest she was able to be whisked away to the NICU. Moments after her delivery we received more lab work with the results of her underlying condition. Frances has Down Syndrome, and we were all so happy to hear this, as this is one of the few diagnosis's that gave her the best long term prognosis.