Reagan

Reagan is my youngest child. She is the baby I prayed and begged for and then took almost a year to get pregnant with. I was devastated that it took so long and gained 5 pounds every month leading up to that pregnancy because well what the heck I'm probably pregnant. Then when we finally found out she was a girl we also found out that she had an echogenic focci (sp?) on her heart. It's a small white spot of calcification on I think it was the left side of her heart. The doctors told me she could possibly have Down Syndrome. It was a LONG rest of the pregnancy and I was not prepared to have an amnio and risk the life it took so long to create inside of me. We have a couple of distant relatives with DS and I honestly was terrified. Those family members died young.
So on with the pregnancy and my rock in it all was the fact that my husband stood by me telling me countless times that we WILL love this baby no matter what happens. It changes nothing. I was still reading everything I could find. We told a few people but not my husbands family because we didn't want them at the hospital when she was born just to see if she was "OK". We knew that it would be about looking at her to see if she had "IT" or not. That was unacceptable to me. She was a little person no matter what her chromosomes (sp?) were. So of course when the little bean decided to be born 5.5 weeks early we were again worried that this could be a sign. After my 2 previous children were 10 lbs Reagan was born at a whopping 6 lbs 9 ounces by my 3rd c section. Dean and I studied all of the signs to look for and Dean took video of her entire first half hour after she left the operating room. I can hear him on the video tape asking the neonatologist if she had DS about ummm 50 times all nervous like. The doctor kept assuring him that she was a perfectly healthy baby.
They brought Reagan to me after I came out of recovery and everyone of course had a chance to cuddle her. Husbands family and mine. They put her in my arms and she was squeakily grunting when she took each breath and wouldn't even open her mouth to breast feed. I called the nurse into the room a few times and she finally took Reagan back to the nursery and the same doctor that examined her admitted her to the special care nursery. She was there with a feeding tube and an oxygen tent and heart monitors for 4 days before we took her home. Talk about a lonely hospital stay. Once she came home she ate, pooped, peed, and slept right up until her due date. She had to stay in the special care nursery because of her prematurity and nothing else.
She is wonderful and she is Reagan. We love her to bits and she is now 3 years old. Here is the first year video I made for her. It is long though. 10 minutes.