By Abby Moreira
Madeline was a surprise from the beginning. My husband, Nick and I weren’t trying to get pregnant until our son, Theo was 4. He was 2 when we found out we were pregnant. We found out 1/2/2022 the day after New Years Day. I like to think this was only the beginning of her keeping us on our toes and starting our new year off with a BANG. I had morning sickness and exhaustion from the moment the test changed to “pregnant”. Besides constantly wanting to nap and wanting to throw up, I still had a household consisting of my husband, Nick, our 2 year old Theo and 2 yellow labs to take care of plus work a full time job. Nick was so helpful during the 18 weeks I was sick. I truly couldn’t have done it without him. I declined all prenatal testing, I was 32 not a worry about any genetic issues plus I had a healthy pregnancy with our son. But on to our anatomy scan at 20 weeks, tech told us everything looked great and it was a girl! I was kinda figuring she was a girl as she had made me so sick. We left that appointment on top of the world, wonderful little boy at home and sweet little girl bouncing around in my belly. Nick suggested the name Madeline Lucia. I wasn’t 100% sold on Madeline but I love her middle name of Lucia. I told him let me think on it. It took about 3-4 weeks for me to be good with Madeline.
Fast forward to 37 weeks pregnant, we have an addition being added to our house. So we were living in a construction zone while preparing for a baby coming soon. I started having contractions but they weren’t consistent. I was still 2 weeks away from my due date and 1 week from my scheduled induction. I sat down to eat dinner with Nick and Theo. We ordered dinner because I was not cooking dinner. My contractions were painful and coming every 3 minutes. We called my in laws to come get Theo so we could go to the hospital. My water also had broken at home before I left for the hospital. We got the hospital by 7:45pm. 3 pushes later, Madeline Lucia joined the world on August 25th, 2022 at 9:10pm.
I was alone with Madeline in the delivery room and I took a picture of her to send to a friend. I looked at the photo and thought to myself “she looks like she has Down syndrome” I never mentioned it to the nurses or my husband. I was moved to the maternity unit. The next morning Madeline went to the nursery for a check up. I mentioned her ears were tiny to the nurse. The pediatrician came in to talk to us about Madeline, which is normal. He said “we are sending out bloodwork to check for genetic abnormalities.” Nick and I looked at each other and asked “Why?” The pediatrician told us “Madeline has some stigm