Celebration Email

After the original email, we went to the doctor's office on Monday afternoon to conduct the amniocentesis. The short story is that the test was conducted, Madeleine didn't respond well and the doctor said these fateful words "there's no easy way to say this-- you're going to deliver today." Kirsten was put in a wheelchair and little over an hour later, Kirsten and I named our daughter (while Kirsten was still lying on the operating table). Here's the email announcement sent out on March 7, 2007:

All,

I know many of you have been receiving word from various members of our families regarding the status of our little girl Madeleine Eva, the baby formerly known as “Pat” but Brent and I want to send out a status update and some pictures to begin the celebration of the newest (and littlest) member of our family.

It was eight days ago when Brent and I walked into my doctors office that we began to have in inkling that our seemingly easy and run of the mill pregnancy was rapidly turning into anything but run of the mill. Since then we have met with countless specialists in neonatal care, genetics and fetal/maternal medicine. All were amazingly smart and humble as they helped us navigate the tricky waters of a potentially devastating diagnosis. Without rehashing all of the details (we’ll torture you with them in person), we are happy to report two whole days of no new news and the doctors have told us that we should be out of the woods with any other significant diagnoses. Brent and I looked at each other yesterday and realized that this was the first time in a week that our worlds had not been turned on their heads and how odd it was to just have a “normal” day.

Enough about us, let’s get to the good stuff. Madeleine as you may know, was born at a lean 2lbs 9oz. She is a little over 15 inches long, so as you can imagine she is a bit of a string bean. She has a full head of blonde hair and blue eyes. Her little feet seem huge for her body and she is using them as a means to torture all of her nurses as she kicks all of her monitors off day and night. At 31 weeks she does not yet have the ability to suck/swallow so she is being fed by a tube in her mouth. She also has a tube in her belly button so they can provide her with additional nutrition and/or medicine. The doctors are eager to increase the volume of food she receives through her mouth so that the port in her belly can be removed as soon as possible. As benchmarks go in the NICU, this is the first one we are looking forward to hitting. Everyone seems to be smitten with her because one of the primary reasons we had to deliver her early is because she was lethargic and too sleepy in the womb. Now on the outside world the only word used to describe her is ‘feisty’.

In addition to being feisty, the doctors have provided additional confirmation/diagnoses concerning her health. First, they confirmed the AV valve deficiency identified in utero (the valve is missing) and this will require surgery. While this is a serious heart surgery, the cardiologists and other doctors are not focusing on the heart at this time. Instead, given Madeleine’s health, they prefer to let her grow and in a month we will begin to make surgical plans. Further reassuring, the doctors have identified a number of top surgeons in the DC area and have also stated that despite missing the valve, the heart is perfectly shaped (atypical with hearts missing the AV valve) and very strong. The doctors also confirmed earlier this week that Madeleine has Down Syndrome. This was somewhat surprising to the doctors as Madeleine doesn’t display many of the typical Down’s characteristics. While the news was surprising and initially difficult, we are ecstatic at her overall health and firmly believe that this is yet another blessing provided to us.

I will be heading home today while Madeleine will be in the NICU for many weeks if not months to come. While I am a bit sad that our trip home from the hospital is not what I once envisioned, I am thrilled to know that she is getting top notch care and I am eager to spend my days and nights at her bedside watching her grow. Obviously they won’t give us a date of when she will be coming home, however they told us a good rule of thumb is that healthy preemies usually go home on or a little before their due date. Thus, we are thinking she should be home in mid-April/early May if all goes well. Until then, Brent and I will be finishing the nursery and getting ready for our new lives.

Attached are some pictures of the first few days (actually-- see this link: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=186529629/a=13247378_13247378/t_=13247378). She has a bit of jaundice so they put her under lights called bilirubin lights. In order to protect her eyes they put on little sunglasses, thus the laying on the beach look. She HATES the glasses and tears them off or turns them around on her head whenever the nurses aren’t looking. It is tough to capture how tiny she is or have any perspective on the proportion of her little body.

Finally, we want to say thank you to each and every one of you for all the support and love you have sent our way over the past week. Thanks for listening to us when we were scared and listening to us when we have been gushing about how wonderful things have turned out. There is no way Brent and I could have survived the past week without the incredible support of family and friends. We look forward to having each and every one of you in the next chapter of our lives and are eager for Madeleine to woo you the way she has us.

Love,

Kirsten & Brent