Life is Stupidly Unfair: A Mom's Journey of Survival

This time last year, we were flying to Florida and getting ready for our consultation with the doctor who we thought could save Jasmine.  I remember feeling excited and hopeful about it.  I mean he was the specialist and he dealt with CDH all the time.  The thought of having to do four appointments was daunting.  I had never had an MRI, so didn't really know what to expect from that.  The others were basically just long ultrasounds, which I was definitely familiar with.  We spent the better part of two days in all of these appointments.  I can say I hope I never have to have another MRI.  Those have a way of making people who aren't typically claustrophobic feel like they are!  Plus, even with the ear plugs, they are super loud and Jasmine didn't seem to like the noise since she was moving around like crazy.  The echo we had to do was just long and drawn out.  Before that, I never knew how many different parts of the heart they could even look at.  I remember going

It is so nice to finally be able to talk about the pregnancy openly.  A pregnancy after a loss, especially the kind I had, is not for the weak.  You become even more hyper aware of everything.  Even more you expect there to be something wrong because that's what prior experience has shown you. After we lost Jasmine, we met with a genetic counselor.  They said the issues didn't appear to be genetic and that while they couldn't guarantee that there was a zero percent chance of it happening again, that the chances were likely less than 1%.  But the chances of it happening in any pregnancy in the first place were small.  So once it happens to you, even 1% feels huge. I knew I was pregnant at a little before the 4 week mark.  I had betas drawn and those all went well.  I have had four ultrasounds before the one with the MFM yesterday.  Everything has been good so far.  I had the NIPT blood test and it came back negative for trisomy 13, 18, 21 and sex chromosome issues.