i requested that my babies be tested to see if they had genetic defects and also to see if we had boys or girls. this time round, we had girls! b & i have always wanted a boy first, then a girl (or in this case, girls). we want the older boy to look out for the little one(s). it seems like we would have had our little perfect family if i had not miscarry.
i was completely shaken up when my doc told us our girls had trisomy 13 too. this was what our baby boy had the first time. how can this be? based on what i read the last time about trisomy 13 (& i read A LOT - i needed answers), this was a once off "freak" of nature incident. all our hopes were put into this incident NOT happening again.
the chances of trisomy 13 is 1 out of 10,000 births and the recurrence rate is 0.6%. just to round it up -1%. trisomy 13 is the worst kind of genetic defect in the medical books because trisomy 13 causes MULTIPLE disabilities AND defects. the babies do not survive in the womb. even if they do, and are brought into this world, over 90% do not survive pass 24 hours.
to know that all our babies had trisomy 13 have thrown us into a curve. we have had our blood taken for genetic testing. it takes three weeks to get the results back - these are three long and torturous weeks for me. i am agitated, nervous, restless, the list goes on.
i asked my doc if there is indeed a defective gene from either b & i, who would be the likely culprit that is causing the trisomy 13. the answer? me. the mother. this knowledge cuts me through the core - unwittingly i put my babies through all these pain?
my doc & also based on all the stuff we have read prior, did not think that we might have another occurrence of trisomy 13. trisomy 13 usually happens once and to older women. the average age is 31 years old. i am 2 years short of that. the hopes that we had to become parents to normal healthy babies are becoming smaller.
i have started looking for answers on the net once again. there IS one type of trisomy 13 which is hereditary - translocation trisomy 13. there are cases of normal babies and babies with trisomy 13 within the same family. even with this hereditary condition, it does not necessarily affect all the children. this gives us hope. i have also started to look for alternatives. i might be doing all these prematurely because our test results are not back yet. but i can not simply sit around and do nothing.