Saying Goodbye to Baby LaSalle

I apologize for the delay in updating ya'll on Baby LaSalle, but things have been quite a whirlwind the last couple of weeks, which makes it extremely difficult to even know where to begin this sort of awful news. The first of the bad news began when we received a phone call on June 14 from the doctor's office saying that we had received some elevated markers back on our Quad screen results and wanted to schedule an appointment immediately. So the next day we went in to have an ultrasound.


Our last ultrasound video of Baby LaSalle June 15, 2010

The doctor didn't tell us a lot, he did tell us that the test results of the Quad screen came back with high markers for Spina Bifida, a 1 in 4 chance. The doctor said that it was still too early to tell and that he would like us to go to a specialist in St. George in about a week and a half. We ended up getting in to see the specialist on Monday the 21st, thinking in the meantime that this would end up being a false positive like so many other people receive on this test. Unfortunately, our visit with the specialist would put to rest any hope of having a normal pregnancy. After a lengthy but quiet ultrasound session with the assistant and then another with the specialist himself, we were told that there was more than one birth defect and that it was highly recommended that we do an amniocentesis to determine if there were any chromosomal abnormalities present, of which he suspected a Trisomy disorder. We were sent to see the genetic counselor on staff, and were given the understanding that more than likely they expected our baby to have Trisomy 18, a rare and fatal chromosomal abnormality where our baby would have an extra #18 chromosome creating multiple birth defects. We were sent home to wait for results of our amnio, and researched everything we could about Trisomy 18 for the next two days.

Our last ultrasound picture of Baby LaSalle June 21, 2010

On Wednesday of that same week we received the preliminary results of our amnio which said that our baby was not suffering from Trisomy 18, but an even more rare and fatal chromosomal abnormality called Triploidy, where the baby has an extra set of every chromosome. Again, we were hit with devastating news that just seemed to keep getting worse and worse. We did our best to learn what we could about this condition, and while it is in many ways similar to the Trisomy 18 we had become well-versed in in the past few days, it carries even lower odds of survival. It was difficult to find as much information on Triploidy, but here is one site that was quite informative if you're interested in learning more about it:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/441672/triploidy_syndrome_how_to_cope_with.html?cat=52

Along with this diagnosis came news of several risks to Allison's health as well, these being the risk of cancer, and also the risk of death by hemorrhaging by the 20th week. Allison was 18 weeks at the time. Due to the nature of the pregnancy, the doctors believed Allison may have what is called a partial molar pregnancy... Here is some info on partial molar pregnancies and the risks associated:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/613125/what_is_molar_partial_molar_pregnancy.html?cat=52

This is where the news continues to get worse, when the doctors recommended that due to the diagnosis of our baby and the possibility of harm for Allison, we should terminate the pregnancy. Although this was the hardest decision we have ever had to make, we felt that due to the possible risks and our doctors' urging we had no choice but to say goodbye to our baby. On June 30, our little baby returned to Heaven where it will always be an angel in our hearts.

We are so devastated at the loss of our little baby that we were so looking forward to meeting in November.... It was so hard to put this into words just so that friends and family can be updated, so please understand it is a difficult time for us, and still difficult to talk about at times. Thank you for all of your support and prayers in this hard time. We love you all.

Jared and Allison