Niban, Our Miracle Baby

Or "last chance miracle baby" as I like to call her. We found out we were expecting this little baby in early January after many months of hoping (and the assistance of modern medicine) for another little Henderson. All appeared to be well during sonograms that worked out to be every other week. At 12.5 weeks I went for the trisomy screening, which is a big deal for us not-quite-but-almost advanced maternal age mothers-to-be. The scan went great, baby was super active, and nothing but good news. This is usually when even the most worry prone, Type-A, mommas finally exhale a bit. End of the first trimester, good scan, nothing to do but wait until the next sonogram feeling pretty good. Well the very next day (at work, while talking to my boss nonetheless) I felt like something was wrong. And it was. I went to doctor immediately. I was hemorrhaging. Not just a little. The report from the trisomy screening had not arrived back in the regular doctor's office, so I just orally reported what I had been told. Then the doctor immediately did a sonogram. And the baby was not moving. That's it. A few seconds on the screen, no movement. The doctor said the baby was gone. I was absolutely devastated and hysterical. We discussed what the options were for my health. I was given drugs to take at home the next morning. I took the drugs. The bleeding had stopped after I left the doctor's office but then resumed some after the drugs. A couple days later I went back to see whether surgery would be required. And this is what the doctor said . . ."oh my god, the baby's alive." And the heart beat is strong. So at 13 weeks, the baby was observed alive and kicking after the doctor declared the baby gone. Apparently the bleeding was caused by a blood clot, which is not uncommon and usually not threatening to the baby (as it was in our case). The clot was observed and noted on the trisomy screening report, but we didn't have that when I first got to the doctor's office. I have never been so traumatized by anything in my life. We've been monitored and are seeing a maternal fetal medicine specialist, but so far this baby looks good. We are very, very hopeful that everything is going to be fine, and the worst thing that will happen in September is that we'll plunge into the depths of sleep deprivation caring for a healthy newborn.

This is our amazing survivor Niban baby. (We call her Niban (number two), because we've always called Wyatt our ichiban (number one) baby. He was called peanut in utero, so this one needed a new name of her own.) We are told this is a little girl.

Wyatt hugging his baby sister. He is very excited about the prospect of a sibling. Ross and I both believe that is mostly because he has no idea what the job of big brother entails yet. We'll see ; )