Rh Negative...What are we? by Stephanie Wolfe

Tests would also reveal later that she had a PDA (a hole in her heart) that would need fixing. Once we got to see her, she had a nasal cannula because she was having breathing difficulties- something I never imagined she would have. I was so worried but thought maybe they had been so quick to take her that I hadn’t realized she cried. Of course, Addie had other plans and came a few days before my scheduled c-section- Augat 5:48 am at 5 lbs 11 oz and 18 inches long…and she wasn’t screaming at the top of her lungs. He also told me because of my pre-eclampsia and cholestasis that I would need to deliver at 36 weeks. Our doctor told me that Addie would need to go to the NICU straight after being born until it would be time to have surgery to remove her SCT. With scans every other week, appointments and MRIs in Houston at Texas Childrens, and more, it was a rough pregnancy- yet I loved every minute of it. What that meant for Addie- we honestly had no idea.

One of her chromosome strands from 1 and one of the strands from 5 were swapped with each other, and she had more of chromosome 1 and less of chromosome 5 than a typical person. We also had genetic testing done through an amniocentesis and found out that Addie has an imbalanced translocation with her chromosomes. We were sent to a maternal fetal medicine doctor who determined Addie had a sacrococcygeal teratoma (basically a tumor on her bottom). We had just found out Addie was a girl, but that she had some sort of physical abnormality. When Mathew and I went for our 18 week anatomy scan at my OBGYN they noticed something was different during the appointment. I know it’s long, but if you really want to get to know our girl, this is her full story (for the most part). Oh where do I begin? SO many people have asked me about Addie’s story, but I’ve been neglecting to take the time to write it all out because it’s so long and it’s ever-changing.

Rh Negative...What are we? by Stephanie Wolfe