Hello Family and Friends –
Dan and I wanted to share some news about my pregnancy and ask for your prayers, support and understanding.
We’ve read a lot about people who have been in our shoes and one of their top suggestions was to write a letter to family and friends explaining what they know. So, here it goes.
We have learned that our daughter has a congenital defect of her digestive tract called Duodenal Atresia that will require surgery to connect her stomach and intestines very soon after she is born. Due to the surgery, I will be delivering at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and we will be relocating to the University City area during the 4-6 week recovery stay in the hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
This condition has a high association rate with Down Syndrome, which we initially tested at high risk for back in July. We opted to not have the amniocentesis to know for sure since it would not change our love for this baby and the test itself carries risk to her. We will know more about any related conditions she has once she is born.
This news has been a lot for us and our immediate families to process and we decided to wait until after the Baby Shower to share this so it wouldn’t cloud the joy of that special day. Please do not use the word “sorry” or to talk to us in a sad way – as we are absolutely OVERJOYED that our daughter is on her way to our arms, although the road to our arms may be a little bumpy.
My due date is January 19th. But, our doctors think that a December delivery is most likely what will happen, and we are being seen twice a week at CHOP to keep an eye on us. Delivery will be a planned c-section due to the fact that I’ve had fibroid surgery. Since there are very strict visiting policies at CHOP during flu season, we will not be able to invite friends and family to meet her while she is in the NICU, but we look forward to visits once we are settled in at home!
So, a few things we are asking of you for now:
-Pray! Send good vibes! Hold us in your thoughts! Lift us up!
-Show us kind support - we are having good moments of joy and rough moments of worry – sometimes in the same few minutes...
-Understand that talking about this is not easy. We are working to get stronger, but currently we reduce to puddles more frequently than we’d like.
We thought this letter would be the best way to tell you all what we know right now and would help keep the questions and difficult conversations to a minimum.
We have created a Caring Bridge page where we will give updates on BabyZ’s progress. Goto www.caringbridge.org/visit/welcomebabyz (
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/welcomebabyz). You will have to sign up for an account using your email address and we will approve it. Then you can choose to get email or text notifications when we make updates.
We Thank God for the gift of our Baby Girl, who we know will fill our hearts with Love.
We send a million thanks for your prayers, support and understanding,
Danny, Vicki & BabyZ
