Anaïs' story

I have been wanting to start a blog after seeing how much it helped me to read blogs where parents were talking about raising a child with achondroplasia. So, this is it..I finally decided to just go ahead and do it.

I thought that for my first post it would be appropriate to tell Anais' story.

In May 2007, Jeff and I decided that it was time for us to have a second child. We were ready and felt that Sam was old enough to be a big sister. Four months later I was pregnant. This pregnancy was a tough one compared to my first one. Every screening test would come back abnormal but we never got a straight answer as to what was going on. Then, when I was about 30 weeks pregnant, I had an ultrasound and the doctors told me that the baby's arms and legs were measuring short. At first they didn't really think anything of it and told me the baby would probably just be short...kind of like me. They said that just to be safe, they would check again in 4 weeks to see how she was growing. Four weeks later, she was still measuring short and her head was now measuring big. The doctors then told us that they strongly suspected that it was achondroplasia but that we would have to wait until the birth to know for sure. These last weeks of my pregnancy were the longest and hardest weeks of our lives. We went through a roller coaster of emotions that I won't even go into.

On June 6th 2008, I had my C-section and Anais was born at 7:51AM. After a bunch of tests (CT scans, x-rays, genetic blood test) the diagnosis was confirmed.

We have been going through so many emotions and we are now determined to give this little girl the best life we can and to love her unconditionally. I can honnestly say that even though she is only 1 month old, she has already taught me so much more than I could ever think. I find myself being more accepting, which is quite frankly a quality I lacked.
My husband Jeff has been absolutely amazing, from the minute we learned about Anais' condition he was fine with it and was ready to give her everything. He truly is a role model for me and I am thankful to have him as my husband and as the father of my children. These kids have an amazing father...just ask Sam and she'll tell you! :)

Here are some pictures of Anais' birth:









Sam showing off her new little sister, she was so excited!
Sam, Anais my mom and me.