Showing posts with label Down's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Down's. Show all posts

Monday, 5 March 2012

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey

Today was THE DAY- i.e. the day when I get to take Morgan to hospital and get the results of her Genetic Profiling - meaning I would find out if she's a Down's Baby or not.  Before getting to the big revelation, I'll give you a background of what a day from hell it has been.

At about 3am, I gave Morgan her bottle and changed her nappy, and then went to the kitchen to prepare her next feeds and to enjoy a middle-of-the-night snack and hot beverage.  Yes, I just heard the words 'hot beverage' being spoken in my head by The Big Bang Theory's Dr Sheldon Cooper.  Oops - there we go again.

A thunder-cum-hailstorm broke loose out of nowhere.  And then it happened.  It was 4am. One moment I'm doing a Word Search, the next, a loud POP! was heard and the lights went out.

"FuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK!" I thought to myself.  Hugh, my laptop, was on standby, plugged in.  I ran to unplug it, whilst hoping it will still work once I give it a shot, to prevent any other possible damages.  I checked on Morgan, and told my mum there was a blackout.  Upon checking the circuit breaker, it turned out the issue must be related to the Electricity Main Thingy.  Great.

My grandma woke up and herself, my mum and I ended up bickering over what could be the issue.  Because you know, each one of us is a Certified Electrician, right?  Anyway. Everyone went back to sleep and I nodded off for about an hour until it was time to wake up.

I got Morgan fed and changed and cleaned up, then got ready myself.  It was soon after that hell broke loose over how on Earth I was meant to get to hospital.  Due to the sudden weather change, bussing it was out of the question, and the  taxi service I called was unavailable.  After a while, my brother managed to pick us up and drive us there.

A brief struggle to install the car seat and a mostly traffic-free drive later, and we were there.  My mum accompanied us to help me carry the car seat + Morgan as they are bloody heavy!  The Doc we had the appointment with hadn't arrived yet, so we sat in the waiting room, and did just that - we waited.

The wait was rather nerve-wrecking.  In the meanwhile, I received a message via Facebook from Morgan's Paternal Granny to say that Morgan's Paternal Great-granddad had passed away earlier this morning.  Yet another death that has affected someone close to me this year - brings the toll up to 5 in total.  It is rather sad that Morgan will now never have the opportunity to meet him, but I'm told that he was shown her photos and that made him smile.  So at least, there's that.  Now, we wait to see if this will impact her Paternal Granny's visit or not.  If the visit has to be rescheduled, then so be it.  It is a matter of prioritising after all.  If everything stays the same though, it would mean that we get Morgan's Paternal Granny over here on Saturday! Exciting stuff!

I was looking around me, observing other babies and children.  There was one colicky baby, who went bright red and just wouldn't stop crying.  Soon after, another baby joined in and started wailing as well.  I smiled, a bit smugly, I admit, at Morgan - who was asleep - and told her "Good girl, not to give in to peer pressure!"  This provoked a quizzical look and some chuckles from my mum.

I then was observing a boy - who was perhaps 10 years old - who seemed to have some disability. I didn't realise this until I heard him speak. That is when I looked at Morgan, a bit choked up and thought to myself how easy it is for a disability to stay hidden from the world, and how anxious I was to get the results. I kept hoping and hoping that everything would be fine.  Given the day's start though, I wasn't hopeful, to be honest.

Then, the Doc walked in and soon after we were summoned.

Doc said she was still waiting for Morgan's notes, and after a few moments, she broke the news.


Does Morgan seem Down to you?

No?

THAT IS BECAUSE SHE IS NOT A DOWN'S BABY!

The tests came back perfectly fine!  I was overjoyed to hear this, albeit it was a delayed reaction since I think I was somewhat shocked.  I had been preparing myself for the worst, just in case, so it was a bit of a dream-like situation.

Doc then weighed and measured Morgan - She now weighs 4.09kg [9lbs] and is 52.7cm [20.7inches] tall.  She'll be 5 weeks old tomorrow.  Quite impressive, at least to me!

Whatever else goes wrong throughout the day won't matter.  I know Morgan is well, and that is all that matters to me.



Sunday, 4 March 2012

Tomorrow Never Comes

Tomorrow is the day where I take Morgan to hospital for a check-up, and probably, her test results.  It is a daunting task, I must admit.  I suppose this is why a lot of people choose to be ignorant.  They would rather not know, rather than risk finding out some piece of bad news.

I had the option, you know.  The one where no blood tests would be conducted.  The one where we'd just sit back and see if anything emerges a few months further down the line.  The one where I wouldn't have had to sit in a room and help two nurses hold Morgan still so that they could poke needles in her hands as she cried her heart out in pain. 

But. I'm a nerd, heh. I had to know.  I'm what you'd call an Infornographer.  Knowing will help me figure out how to best look after Morgan.

On a positive note, I got her the cutest Baby Rocker ever.  No, not a boyfriend. This:


Picture quality sucks, I know.  It is merely a pain to unpack and repack it for no valid reason at the moment.  I will post better pics at a later date!

This, on the other hand, is the first vid I'm posting of Morgan since she was born.  It was taken a few days ago, [1st of March] whilst she was in the middle of her Tummy Time.

Tummeh!