Lera's Gift

                  Meet our precious baby girl, LERA MICHELLE!

Cody and I are choosing to share Lera’s story to hopefully encourage others that may have a similar journey and help change the way the world views Down Syndrome!

At 11 weeks our OB at the time noticed a thickened nuchal fold and suggested we do a genetic blood test. Honestly, we didn’t believe anything would be detected with our baby, we were just looking forward to finding out the gender so early. The results came back, and the screening detected a 76% predictive value for Trisomy 21. Definitely not something we ever expected. And the way it was presented to Cody and me made us leave the appointment scared, confused, and in denial of the results we had just been given. We cried, we were mad, we prayed and processed and prayed some more. We shared the results with our closest family and friends and just like us, they prayed over our baby daily. After talking more with our first doctor we knew we had to switch OB’s. We needed someone that was honest but encouraging. After switching doctors, we left that initial appointment with much more encouraging information and less anxiety and fear about the possibility. We were referred to a high risk doctor and had a choice to make…we could move forward with an amniocentesis or we could move forward without knowing 100% if our baby was going to have Down Syndrome. Every situation is different and everyone’s choice is just that…their choice…there is no right or wrong choice. It’s whatever you feel in your heart is best. For us, we chose not to do the more invasive test and move forward with hope, faith, and acceptance that whatever was supposed to happen would happen. From there, we had multiple ultrasounds which all came back that our baby girl was perfectly healthy! We listened to all the statistics and information and knew if our baby was born with DS then it would all be part of God’s plan, and he would lead and guide us on this beautiful journey just as he has done with Liv + Lai. All the markers that are looked for on an ultrasound of a baby with DS were not present with our baby. This gave us hope and helped carry us through the remainder of the pregnancy.

Fast forward to the 3rd trimester.

At 36 weeks I started contracting and was sent to the hospital where they gave me a shot to help stop the contractions. I went another week and at our 37 week appointment the ultrasound showed that our girl had not gained any weight in 2 weeks and had hardly any fluid left. Dr. Malone (best OB ever…literally an Angel on Earth) felt like my placenta had stopped doing its job and with the statistic (only 57% of pregnancies of babies with Down Syndrome result in live birth. That means that Lera’s odds of existing at all AND living beyond my womb were 0.000456% (456 millionths)😳 she immediately sent me to be induced. Our precious, perfect, beautiful baby girl was born on November 2nd. She was blessed with an EXTRA special gift from God…she has an EXTRA chromosome {and an awesome natural Mohawk}.🤣 We cannot wait to see how God works in and through Lera’s life and ultimately how her journey impacts, shapes, and changes us all for the better!

We may not be able to change how the world sees you sweet Lera, but you are helping to change how we see the world. We love you more than anything, and you are absolutely perfect for us! We feel extremely blessed to be chosen to go on this beautiful journey with you. You are the sprinkles on our family cupcake!