It’s hard to believe Autumn is already three and a half weeks old.  It’s sad how fast the time goes by!  Here is a picture of the sleeping beauty…

Anyway, I will cut to the chase.  As you know, we had Autumn’s blood sent in for a Microarray, to see if she has Down syndrome.  I called the pediatrician’s office yesterday because it had been three weeks, and I wanted to know if results were in.  The nurse said that she would call the lab today because they hadn’t heard.  She called today and said that the test came back with no abnormalities…which means no Down syndrome.  The Verifi screening was wrong.  The screening that the company claims is 99.8% accurate was not accurate.

I just can’t believe how all of this has played out.  I plan to make some calls – to the company, to the doctor’s office, to the MFM that we saw at Children’s – not to complain, but to inform.  I am also curious about the ins and outs of a false positive result.  I am not angry.  Not in the slightest.  I feel like we grew from this experience, and we are so thankful to have this beautiful new addition to our family.  I just want to know HOW it happened.  What causes something with so much “accuracy” to be totally wrong?

That’s all the time I have for now.  I have a lot more in my head about all of this – mostly about the internal struggle that has taken place with our feelings about this news, based on the fact that we already have a child with a disability that we love so much… but that would require a lot more organization in my brain, and time.  I am lacking both of those things, (as you can see from that run on sentence).  Right now I have a hungry baby, a boy that needs a shower, and a husband that’s working late.  I just wanted to get the word out because so many people have been asking. 🙂

So I will leave you with that.

Until next time…

As most of you already know, our baby girl made her way into the world a week early.  Friday afternoon I would have told you that she wasn’t coming anytime soon, but then at about 5pm, the contractions started, and progressed pretty quickly from there.  Proof that you NEVER know when it will happen…no matter how much google searching you do. The staff was great – including the midwife I had.  Since there are about six of them with the practice, you never know who you will get, but I was happy.  I don’t have a lot of free time these days, so I am going to leave out a lot of the little details, and stick to some basic info.  I really wanted to write because we have had so many questions from our super supportive family and friends.

Autumn Louise Eckhoff was born at 3:33am on September 12th, and weighed 7lbs 14oz.  The NICU Nurse Practitioner and another nurse were in the room and waiting, just in case we needed them.  The midwife plopped her on my chest when she came out, and I held her and watched her while the NP did a little not-too-invasive examining.  Autumn was crying and doing well, but she kept making a little grunty sound and was turning a little blue, so they had to take her over to the examining table and give her some blow-by oxygen.  I never took my eyes off of her.  I hated that she had to be across the room, but I knew it was what she needed.  After a while of the NP doing vitals, and everything else she is supposed to do, I heard her start to ask questions about what sort of testing we had done that told us Autumn had Down syndrome.  The midwife was starting to reply, but I jumped in to answer her.  She asked if we had an amnio, and I said no and explained why.  After a little bit, they decided to take Autumn to the transition room to continue the oxygen.  (This is a room they take the baby to for up to 2 hours to see whether or not they need to be taken to the NICU.)  I was beyond bummed, but kept it together…even though a big part of me wanted to scream ‘Maybe she just needs to be with her mom!!!’.  They did let me hold her on my chest for about five minutes before they left, and even got a portable oxygen tank into the room to make that possible.  I had made it very clear how important it was to me that I get to hold her skin to skin as much as I could.  While I was holding her, the NP stood by and explained that she couldn’t see any Down syndrome features on the baby, and went on to list some things, and point them out.  Soon after that they took Autumn away, and Josh went with her.  I told him to talk to her a bunch, and make sure to come back and keep me informed.

And there I was.  Alone in the room, with only my thoughts and the nurse quietly milling around.

So I ate some chips.

Did you know that childbirth makes you hungry?  Oh man, those Lays were so good.

Josh came back after about 20 minutes and said that Autumn was doing well, and the NP seemed baffled by the Down syndrome thing, as she still didn’t see anything indicative of it.  I sent him back, since he was torn on where he should be at that time, and said I was fine to wait alone.  He came back about five minutes later and said they were bringing her to me in a few minutes.  No more oxygen.  She just needed a little bump, which is not that uncommon.  Yay!

The morning proceeded much like it would for most people.  We were quickly transferred to the postpartum floor, and they let us be with our baby.  We tried to get some sleep, and succeeded a little bit, but then all I could do was stare at Autumn, and feel excited that she was finally in my arms.

I think that everyone was quickly informed of our “mystery situation”.  All of the staff that saw her made comments.  The pediatrician came and looked her over later that morning, doing her thing to check for any “abnormalities”, and then we chatted for a bit.  After she agreed with everyone else about the lack of Ds characteristics, we decided that a blood draw for genetic testing would be best, which would be done at our Monday morning newborn visit.  (We should get results in two to three weeks.)

From there, we just continued to celebrate our baby.  Our family came to meet her, and it was a very happy experience.  We left the hospital at noon on Sunday, itching to get home to Eli, who had been home with Grandma Ruth.

So there it is.  Our journey continues in an unexpected way.  It’s sort of like what happened with Eli, only the complete opposite.  (That makes sense, right?)  With him, we were expecting a healthy, typical baby boy and as soon as he came out we were bombarded with all the things that were medically “wrong” with him, leaving us feeling confused and scared and trying to make sense of everything.  This time, it’s a flip flop of that.  We went through half the pregnancy, expecting non-typical, and accepting it, but thinking we might be getting some some medical-based surprises when she came out.  I can’t tell you what “typical” even means anymore, and sometimes I hate using that word, but it’s not what we were planning for, and now, I guess you could say it’s a maybe.  Our kids like to keep us on our toes right out of the womb, I guess.

We don’t know what to think at this point, but we definitely agree that we are happy no matter what.  She seems healthy, she is eating, and she has filled us to the brim with love.  What more could we want at this point?  She is who she is going to be, no matter what the results of the test say.

Okay.  Enough serious stuff – now on to some cuteness…

Cousin love

Many people have said that she looks like me, so my mom dug up some baby pics.

Here is my dad holding me when I was just a day old, so Josh shaved down to a mustache to duplicate the picture.

My hair was intense, eh?

Until next time…

I hope I didn’t jinx myself by naming my blog “What Are The Odds”…

FOUR. Roosters.  That is what I ended up with from Denise’s hatch.  Just in case you don’t remember, she had four chicks.  I will explain that, in more depth, to those of you who aren’t very good at math…. that is ZERO hens.  ZERO egg laying birds!  Roosters are pretty much good for nothing when you have a backyard flock.  Not only that, but roosters are not allowed in many areas of Metro-Denver.  I had suspected earlier on that they were all roosters, so I told my friend that was going to take them to go ahead and get some different birds, about a month ago.  Good thing, I guess.  I figured I would have to put my birds on Craigslist, and give them away, but when I was at the local feed store a couple weeks ago, I happened to find out that they take roosters, and they even give you $5 for each one!  So, last Friday I took them in, and now I am rich.

Poor Denise.  Even though the babies were nine weeks, and didn’t really need her anymore, she was still attached to them, and quite confused when they disappeared.  (When I say they disappeared, I mean that a nine months pregnant crazy chicken lady chased them down, cornered them, and caught them one by one, over the course of 30 minutes.  What a sight.)  She roamed the yard for a while, came to the back door a few times, looking inside, and she was pretty anxious when I put her in the pen with her old crew of birds.  Chickens can be pretty mean – like junior high bully mean – so it will take time for her to be comfortable with the flock again, but it will happen eventually.

I felt guilty for taking her “babies” from her before she was ready, but I had to be selfish since, you know, I have a human baby coming any day now.  One of them was already starting to crow… well…attempting to crow.  It sounded more like a lamb was being tortured in my backyard, but he was trying.  The others wouldn’t have been far behind, and I am not allowed to have roosters where I live, so it was time.

That was one of the last things I had to cross off the list before baby’s arrival.  Josh and I have been working a lot around the house, trying to prepare.  I don’t know if I am doing so much because I actually think it needs to get done, or if I am just trying to distract my brain from thinking too much about what is to come.  Probably both.  I have ten more days until my due date, and that is just crazy to me.  It seems way too close, and way too far away at the same time.  I am a ticking time bomb, and the anticipation is almost too much.  Not only am I anxious to meet her and hold her, I really just want to have her, so we can know more about her health.  A big part of that has to do with Eli.  Since he requires a lot more than the average 9 year old, it would be nice to know what we are facing, so we can plan.

Anyway – I guess you will be hearing from me again when I have baby news…

Every year The Arc of Jefferson, Clear Creek and Gilpin Counties holds their annual Summit of Hope luncheon, an event that I never miss.  In fact, I am usually a table captain, and fill one or two tables with my family, friends and acquaintances.  It’s a FREE one-hour lunch where people are educated about what The Arc does.  That might sound boring, but it’s not.  It is actually a very emotionally powerful hour.  You can see for yourself – here are some clips from last year’s event. This non-profit means a lot to me, so I do my best to support them, and spread the word about them in any way I can.

For those of you that think I am talking about Arc Thrift, I am not.  They are two different organizations.  Here is a link to get an explanation on how the two are connected – Arc Thrift connection

This year, because of the timing of the event and when baby is due, I am not sure that I will be able to attend.  If she is healthy, and doing well, then I can probably swing it, (that’s what we are all hoping for, right?).  But, sadly, I am not able to put nearly as much into it as I normally do, which is why I have decided to write about it.  This is an organization that is not well known in our Jeffco community, unless you have a child with special needs, and I want MORE people to know just what they do.  So, this is my open invitation to anyone and everyone reading this.  If you would like to attend this event, that is sure to make you laugh, cry, and feel inspired, please contact me, (or RSVP to Genni at genni@arcjc.org, and let her know that you are part of my group).  I will have a table or two of “my people” that are representing me in my (possible) absence.  This is a charity event, so you will be asked to give money at the end of the lunch, but there is no minimum, maximum, or expected amount.  If you are a local business owner, this is also an opportunity to become a sponsor – get your name out there and support a great cause.  If that is something you would like more information about, let me know and I can email you a sponsorship packet.

I don’t normally go around asking people to give money – it’s very much out of my comfort zone – but this is my one exception.  That is how much The Arc means to me.

Here is the invitation (front and back) with event information.

You’ll learn all you need to know at the luncheon, but here is some info from The Arc’s website about what they do:

Yesterday was my baby shower.  I normally wouldn’t agree with having a big shower for a second child, but not only has it been 9 1/2 years since we had Eli, we also got rid of all of our baby items over the last several years.  So, baby #2 is like starting from scratch for us.  I was excited about the party, but also a little anxious about being the center of attention – something I am not usually a fan of.  I have to say, though, it ended up being a great day.  I have some REALLY amazing friends and family, and I was feeling overwhelmed with gratitude all day.  I have actually been feeling that way a lot over the last few months.  All of the support and kindness – we really couldn’t ask for more.  Josh and I are so lucky to be surrounded by such people.  And the gifts yesterday?!  Good gravy this little girl is already spoiled, and she isn’t even out of the womb.  It was just too much.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that came or sent a gift from afar.  Those of you that couldn’t make it – I missed your faces! 🙂

I would also like to say a BIG thank you to my mom.  What would I do without a mom like her?  I have no clue.  She planned, she opened her home, served lunch and cake, and overall worked really hard to make it a successful and pleasant event.  What a wonderful woman she is.  And thank you to Diane and Paul for helping prepare and clean, to Krista for ALL that she contributed, and to my in-laws that stuck around to help clean up.  I love you all!

Here are a bunch of party pics!

The people:

My view from the gift opening chair:

Cake time:

I was a hot mess after most people had left, so it was fan time…

I haven’t written anything for a couple weeks, so I thought I would do some mini updates, and share a couple random things.

Here is Denise and three of her growing babies, (one of them is hiding).  They get to roam the backyard all day, every day, so they are all very happy.  It’s still much too soon to tell whether they are hens or roosters.  They may even get passed on to my friend before we know for sure.  (Sorry Cam – haha.)

I had a routine appointment last week.  No ultrasound until next week, but for now things are still going along as they should.  There are several midwives at my office, so I usually see a different one each time.  I finally saw the midwife that saw us at the 20 week ultrasound.  She was the one that told us they the EIF on the heart, but that it didn’t mean much, (which is usually true).  She is also the one that I called to talk to the next day, after losing sleep and having a weird feeling about it all.  She had encouraged me to do the testing to “put my mind at ease”.  When she walked in last week she said ‘I guess you will never listen to ME again!’.  It made me laugh.  Honestly, I think she did everything right.  We didn’t talk about the role that she played very much, but after I thought about it later, I realized I should have hugged her and thanked her.  If she hadn’t handled things the way that she did, I maybe wouldn’t have done the testing, and we would have discovered the baby had Ds at birth.  I know I have said it already, but I am just SO thankful things didn’t work out that way.  Been there, done that, wasn’t fun.  Now we can be more prepared.  Yes, there still may be surprises and hardships, but at least we know, and have already accepted the diagnosis.  Anyway, we also talked about labor.  She said she has been there for a lot of births where no one knew the Ds diagnosis ahead of time, and labor was no different, (not that all labors are the same, but nothing scary or unusual happened).  So, unless something randomly comes up, we are just going with the flow, like we would if we didn’t know anything.  I think I like that plan.

Speaking of labor…  If you haven’t watched the viral video of the mom that has a baby in the car, while her husband is driving, I highly recommend you watch it.  It’s not super graphic, it’s mostly just amazing.  You can watch it here.

In other news – Eli had eye surgery a couple weeks ago.  He had a wandering left eye, and his new eye doctor felt confident that she could correct it, (his old doctor, not so much).  It can be a little tricky to get it right, but we decided to go for it, since she thought it would help him out with depth perception, (which he really struggles with).  We will have a better idea of whether or not the surgery was a success 6-8 weeks post-op, so we see the doc again at the end of August.  Here is a fun ‘Who wore it best’ picture from the day of surgery…  (Seriously, this picture does it no justice.  His eye was SO bloody and red, and hard to look at.)

We went to Heritage Square Sunday, to ride the Alpine Slide.  There is a church inside Heritage Square, and service was just starting when we got there, so we had to park at the bottom of the lower lot, and basically hike in.  That was super fun.  We normally avoid busy places on weekends, but randomly decided to go that day.  Of course we pick THE worst time.  haha  But it all worked out, and we had a great time.  Eli just loves the slide, and it was cloudy – perfect weather for having him outside.  He can’t sweat, due to a condition called Ectodermal Dysplasia, and overheats in the summer months pretty quickly, so doing lengthy outside activities can be hard.  I can’t tell you how incredibly bummed we are that this is the last year the slide will be open.  But, because it’s going to close, I decided to ride, too. 🙂  I am sure I looked crazy, and people probably judged me for it, but it was fun!  I am 7 months pregnant, so I miss fun!

Here we are, waiting to ride down

I don’t really have any other news, but I just have one more thing that I want to quickly add.  I won’t do stuff like this often, but it has really been eating at me lately.  If I see one more negative rant about Caitlyn Jenner, I might have a total freak out.  Please remember that ALL PEOPLE are different, and acceptance is something that we should be teaching our kids, so that the generations to come are not total close-minded jerks.  Life isn’t just about choices.  Sometimes it comes down to genetic makeup – something we can’t control.  People are so quick to say things like ‘God made him that way’ when it comes to someone like Eli, for example, who has a genetic syndrome and autism, but when it comes to being transgender or gay, it’s suddenly a choice.

Not. True.

I could go on and on about this topic, but I’m not going to.  I will leave it at this…You will never know what it’s like to be somebody else.  Ever.  So all I ask is that everyone do their best to have an open mind, and a kind heart…or at least keep your trap shut, if you only have hateful things to say.  😉