The First Day…. Day 2

we found out that Josie would be born with Down syndrome was the most horrible day, or so I thought at the time. We were first time parents and this on top of it, just didn’t bode well in my mind. As the geneticist delivered the news over the telephone, I feel to my knees and sobbed as I cried out to Joe what I had just heard. He fell to his knees with me and the phone dropped in my hand. The wind had literally been knocked out of me. The wind that I thought would never be put back in me… at that point, life seemed very, very hopeless.

Little did I know that we were to begin a journey of love, dreams and hope beyond measure. Joe and I talked at length about the news we had been given. We decided that we should try not to worry unless and until there was something to worry about. We decided that we would just focus on getting her into this world safe and sound and save the “worrying” for after her arrival. So that we did. Dr’s appointments, ultrasounds, stress tests were a part of our almost daily routine or so it seemed. Then at 38 weeks, I went to work one morning and had a bad feeling. I hadn’t felt Josie move for several hours and off to the Dr. I went. After a stress test and an ultrasound, everything appeared fine and my Ob was just about to let me head back to work. I was still feeling uneasy, but what could I do? I went to the bathroom and passed a HUGE blood clot. I showed it to the dr and within a matter of minutes I was being wheeled to the Birthing Center. I was hooked up to several monitors and an IV was started.

I called work.. called Joe and soon my room was a buzz with visitors and nurses. The dr came in at 6:15 pm to check me and see if I had progressed. It was at that point that things got a little fuzzy. Josie’s heart rate was dropping with every contraction and she was in danger. It was a whirlwind at that point. Nurses everywhere…machines disconnected….I was flipped on all fours to take the stress off Josie and I was whisked to the operating room. Luckily I had an epidural previously so I didn’t need to be knocked out completely. At 6:42 pm, Josette Elaine was born. She didn’t cry right away… I was scared… I waited… I fought to stay awake to hear that cry and I didn’t. I cried… I started getting anxious and then… the most glorious sound in the world… cries from my new little girl. THANK GOD!!! She was wrapped up…. and rushed to the NICU because her breathing wasn’t great. I saw her and she was beautiful… absolutely perfect.

The fears I had for her and our future were gone at that point. She was just my little girl… my precious baby girl! I couldn’t see anything else at that point. And so our lives began!!!