March 4, 2019,

This was supposed to be an exciting day, I was going to have an ultrasound to know the gender of my baby. 

The day started like any other for me. I had taken a day off work to be able to attend my appointment. The ultrasound technician, was quite talkative so we were having a conversation just before starting.

As she was examining me, she seemed very quiet and by the look on her face I could tell that something was concerning. 

I was looking at the screen myself but to be honest I couldn’t really understand what I was seeing.  I was 19 weeks pregnant at that time, with an uneventful pregnancy except for common food aversions and nausea.

As some of you may know, ultrasound technicians are no supposed to tell you what they see on the screen, it needs to be confirmed by a doctor. When the doctor came in the room, she told me that on the ultrasound they were not seeing the babies’ left foot and that they could not see 5 fingers on her right hand and also that her spine seemed not fully closed or developed. 

In all honesty, at that point it’s all a blur, I don’t remember what I tough, if I cried or was just motionless.

The next thing I remember is the doctor telling me that my assigned OBGYN was in the clinic at the moment and he would see me and talk to me. I have to mention that this was my first appointment with my OBGYN and this man will forever have a place in my heart. He talked with so much care, softness. He immediately said that he was going to call one of the lead Geneticist at another hospital so that he could elaborate on the findings and follow me as well from then on. He made the call right in front of me while I was in his office. I was booked to see the geneticist two days later. 

The geneticist was so compassionate and understanding of all my emotions throughout the whole process. He explained to me the findings and scheduled me several other ultrasounds to confirm again what they were seeing. He even called me one day on a Sunday afternoon to know how I was doing. The outcome of all the tests was still the same. He was able to tell me that he believed that my daughter had amniotic band syndrome and possibly spina bifida. 

As the pregnancy progress, let me tell you it was NOT easy, I shed a lot of tears, thinking about my daughter’s future, I relied on my family for support, I prayed like never before and this was the only things that really gave me some solace and kept me going. 

The journey was just starting. 

In my next post I will be elaborating more on amniotic band syndrome and what this meant for us.