What led us to where we are today (part IV)

Our pediatrician visits were pretty normal the first time or two but then became more frequent because Brianna wasn't gaining weight very well. She had had a little trouble learning to latch on while in the hospital, but quickly got the hang of it and was doing well. We were told that we needed to consider supplementing with formula soon because she wasn't getting adequate nutrition. I refused. I knew I had plenty of milk and that she just wasn't drinking enough. She slept all the time and it seemed that only a few minutes after latching on she would fall asleep.

So I spent a week agonizing over her weight gain and our next checkup showed she had gained the 5 oz that the doctor had 'required' of her! She continued nursing but her growth was still slow. At 5 weeks old her ped (whom I LOVE!) very delicately told me that he has suspected a problem with Brianna since birth but had been unable to identify it. He wanted to run a chromosome analysis because the only thing he could find (albeit a bit of a far guess) was Turner Syndrome (a single x instead of xx or xy). We agonized once home but had her blood drawn and began researching this syndrome. We told family and friends that blood tests were being performed but never mentioned the suggested diagnosis. Mike and I both felt strongly that we wanted to KNOW what was going on before we shared every hunch of the doctor with everyone.

Three weeks later when Brianna was 8 weeks old the pediatrician called us in for an appointment. He first examined Brianna head to toe, snuggling her along the way. He looked at her hands, her feet, her belly, her neck... "We have a problem with little Brianna" I remember him saying. I can visualize exactly where I was standing and where Michael was sitting and exactly how his face looked when he told us. Michael and I just nodded, having come to terms that if he invited us into the office for the results that they were most likely positive. "Brianna has Down Syndrome," he said with his Puerto Rican accent. Mike and I just looked at each other with a surprised smile on each of our faces. Down syndrome. NOT what we were expecting. SO MUCH BETTER!