My Journey To Becoming a Mom!!

Hello everyone! My name is Tuesday Shatswell, I’m twenty-three years old and 26 weeks pregnant with my first child. I’m writing this blog because I wanted to put my thoughts down on a page and possibly help those that are going through the same thing that I am. My blog will be all about my pregnancy and being a first-time mom. Not only will this be my first child, she is going to be a very special baby; even more special than she already would have been; she is a DS baby and her name is Silvia May Barnett.

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the abbreviation ‘DS’ it means Downs Syndrome. This is what my boyfriend and I’s daughter will have. This doesn’t mean anything to us other than that she may need a little more care than a regular baby would. Now, let us start out with a little history about me.

I am twenty-three years old, like I said before, I live with my boyfriend and we have an amazing little family already. We have two cats and now four bunnies! Two are his and the other two are just in our care as of right now, but they’re all related to each other. My boyfriends name is Dylan Barnett and he’s the best guy/father/boyfriend I could’ve ever asked for. We’ve only been together for 8 months and for most of this time I’ve been pregnant. As you could imagine, it came as a very big shock that I fell pregnant. Mostly because I didn’t think I could get pregnant. That was a self-diagnosis though because I was with my ex-boyfriend for two and a half years and for about half of that we were trying to get pregnant and nothing ever happened. So, I just thought that if I could get pregnant easily, it would’ve already happened. Fate however had other plans for me.

We found out the day before Father’s Day that I was pregnant, and I was in complete and udder shock. My period was always inconsistent, one time I was even eighteen days late and still no baby. This time I was only seven days late and I usually keep pregnancy tests on hand just because my period is so irregular. I’ve never gotten a false positive either, I should add. So, it was routine for me to take them, and when I did, I was not expecting that “Positive” that appeared on that test. Once I saw it, I immediately freaked out and went back into our bedroom where Dylan was, and I started to panic. Luckily, he knows how to keep a level head and calmed me down. I was an emotional wreck. We had only been together for two months and I didn’t want to lose him. I feared that I would have scared him off and I would have to do this all alone. He proved me wrong however and is still here and he’s just as, if not more, excited as I am.

Fast forward to my first ultrasound. I went in to determine how far along I was, and I was three weeks earlier than what we originally thought. It was supposed to be my twelve-week ultrasound but instead I was only nine weeks. I also had opted to do genetic testing just for the heck of it, but they couldn’t see what they needed to while I was still that early so I had to come back three weeks later so they could get an accurate image of what they were looking for. I go back in three weeks later and they see the cystic hygroma on the back of our daughters’ neck. Its much larger than usual so they give us the talk about her possibly being born with a genetic defect. We heard our options and then we decided that we wanted to get an amniocentesis done. It’s a genetic test that takes fluid from around the baby and they use that to determine if the baby will have a genetic defect and what the defect would be.

Unfortunately, I would have to wait several weeks in order to do the test, so in the meantime we had my blood tested as well. They use the DNA from my blood to see the baby’s DNA and see if/what genetic defects she would have.

When I tell you that was the longest week of my entire life, I’m not exaggerating. Dylan and I were riddled with anxiety about the wait to see what the blood test would say. I would lay in bed and just rub my belly and cry and repeat “please be okay” repeatedly. Dylan was such a saint as he comforted me even though he was probably scared out of his mind too. He never let it show and was always the one to have a level head. I don’t know how I would’ve kept sane without him to tell you the truth.

Finally, a week goes by and I get a call from the genetics counselor and she tells me that the DNA tested positive for Downs Syndrome. We were over the moon happy about this because it meant that our baby would have a real chance at life, and she would be okay! The counselor then told me that we would now have to watch for other health concerns such as holes in the heart, intestinal issues, bone growth issues, etc. We didn’t care about all of that as long as our girl would have a real chance at life. That was when I was thirteen weeks, skip ahead to nineteen weeks and we went in for another ultrasound and found out some more news. Our little girl does indeed, have a hole in her heart. She was diagnosed with a disorder called AVSD. Which mean she has two small holes and one valve where there should be two. So now I’m getting ultrasounds every three to four weeks to make sure she’s growing on track.

As of right now, Silvia is growing right on track and she seems to be fine even with her heart defect. I just had an ultrasound last week and it showed another thing that may be alarming. She doesn’t seem to be swallowing any amniotic fluid which may mean that her esophagus and windpipe may have a connection somewhere, but we won’t know for sure until she is born and looked at. The doctors have been very helpful in all of this and my OB said that I won’t deliver past thirty-nine weeks in order to keep the risk of stillborn low.

I hope to continue informing you guys on Silvia’s condition and I hope to keep you guys around and entertained. Thank you for your time and for reading! See you soon!