God's gift to me...

Auriana is 6 months old !! I can hardly believe as I sit and think of all that we have gone through with her, that it has been 6 months already! I remember the day we went in for a routine ultrasound, only to be told that we were having a little girl and she had a serious heart defect! I thought to myself, "how can a baby have a heart defect even before they are born?" I was 16 weeks pregnant when they told me they suspected a heart defect, 19 weeks pregnant when the heart defect was confirmed by a fetal echo, and we were also taken into a little room to be told that our daughter also probably had some type of chromosomal abnormality. At this point we were offered an amnio to confirm whether she had a chromosome disorder or not so that we could choose whether to continue on with the pregnancy... Excuse me CHOOSE?!?! There was no CHOICE... she was already MY BABY GIRL! We declined the amnio and focused on getting through the pregnancy and delivering our wonderful girft from God. I ended up being hospitalized at 32 weeks. I also remember the day the doctor came into my hospital room to talk to me like it was just yesterday...she said, "I know it's 5 weeks early, but the baby needs to be delivered today. She hasn't grown in over 5 weeks and we think she has a severe chromosome abnormality on top of her heart condition and quite possibly will not make it out of the delivery room alive."! I prayed and prayed and prayed that entire day... harder than I have ever prayed in my life... that my baby would be born and would live, that Kylee would get to see and hold and enjoy her baby sister! God answered my prayers that day and Auriana was born weighing 3 lbs 10 oz...now I have 2 beautiful little girls! Auriana has been through more in her 6 months of life than most people have ever been through. She was born with Down Syndrome which makes normal things that most mothers take for granted much more difficult for Auriana, but she trys so hard to do everything that every other baby her age would do! She has the will to live and the will to succeed, and it is very evident and has been since the day she was born! I remember the day I got to go see her in the NICU 8 hours after she was born (I didn't get to hold her right away, only give her a small kiss, befor she was rushed away by the NICU team to be evaluated and stabelized), but when I went to go see her and I stuck my hand in her tiny incubator, she lifted up her arm and grabbed my finger and squeezed it, as if she was telling me it was ok and she was going to be ok! She has been a fighter from the beginning. She spent 3 weeks in NICU before she was big enough to come home with us. We had to learn how to tube feed her because she had, and still has poor feeding. She had open heart surgery on February 23rd to repair the heart defects she was born with. She has recovered very nicely since that, after a week stay in the hospital and a couple of minor setbacks, but she is doing wonderfully now!! She was able to successfully eat and swallow her first bite of food (rice cereal) on Friday, March 13th!! This was definately not an unlucky day for her! This was also the day we received the news at the cardiologist's office that her repair looks amazing and is one of the best results he had seen in years!!! Auriana has been such a blessing to our family! She has helped us all to grow a little and I thank God for allowing me to be her and Kylee's mother!!

Please, if you are told that your baby has any birth defect and are faced with the decision of keeping them and giving them the gift of life, CHOOSE LIFE for your baby. They will bless you like you would not believe. It is so humbling to see what a little fighter your child is and how they are so happy to be alive!