20-Week Ultrasound

For those who haven't heard, or haven't heard the whole story...

We went in, very excited, for our 20 week ultrasound on November 6, eager to find out the gender of our baby. We've been very excited about our growing little one and we had very much enjoyed our previous ultrasounds.

When the ultrasound began, the sonographer told us that the baby was curled up in a little ball deep down in my pelvis, so it would be hard to see anything. She took the few measurements she could and told us that the baby was measuring too small, about 3-4 weeks behind. She got the doctor and they looked at our previous ultrasounds to see if it was just that my due date was wrong. The other ultrasounds appeared to measure correctly for my due date, so they told us that it was likely that the baby had a chromosome disorder.

They suggested that we do an amniocentesis and a lot of bloodwork to determine what was wrong. At first, we did not want the amnio performed. It was a risky procedure-- about a 1 in 500 chance that it could cause a miscarriage. As they were taking my blood, we decided that we would go ahead and have the procedure done because it seemed that we would need to do it eventually to find out what was wrong. So we had it done. We went home very upset, hoping that nothing was really wrong with our little one.

The next day we got some of the first results from the amnio. They called us in to see the doctor. She told us that the baby had 69, XXY (triploidy), which means that the baby has 3 of every chromosome, instead of two. The most likely cause of this disorder is that the egg was fertilized by two sperm instead of one. She informed us that this is a lethal disorder and that we had the option to terminate or wait for his heart to stop. When his heart stopped on its own, my body may recognize it and go into pre-term labor. If my body didn't recognize it right away, we would discover that his heart had stopped at a doctor visit and would induce labor. It sounds more likely that my body will not quickly recognize that his heart has stopped, and I will most likely have to be induced.

The labor would be just like the labor with a full-term baby, and it will likely be very long because my uterus is not ready for this process. Most triploid babies are miscarried early in the first trimester. Our doctor has never actually seen one that has carried this far. She told us that she would be surprised if he lived to 24 weeks. She also informed us that this is a random event, and it doesn't mean that it will happen again in future pregnancies.

Of course, we are heartbroken over the news of our little one's disorder. We have been praying that God will fully heal our baby, but we want His will to be done either way. The elders at our church came and prayed over our family the weekend we heard the news.