Family Gathering in San Diego

Love and Family

We're Expecting a New Nephew

I've been waiting to announce this for ages and have finally gotten permission to share with everyone! In January Surf and Cali announced that they were expecting a new baby in September. In May they had their 20-week ultrasound and found out that they're having a little boy.

They also found out that he has a rare condition called Edwards Syndrome, or Trisomy 18. Trisomy 18 is a chromosomal disorder where the baby has a third 18th chromosome instead of the usual pair of chromosomes. (Down Syndrome, or Trisomy 21, is the most common trisomy.) Unfortunately, unlike Down Syndrome babies, babies with Edwards Syndrome tend to have very short lifespans: 90 percent of babies born with trisomy 18 or 13 die by age 1.

It has been a difficult journey for Surf and Cali the last few months, and there is a lot of uncertainty ahead for our little nephew. They don't know if he will make it to term, how long he will live once born, or what kind of issues he will have once he arrives.

We are looking forward to welcoming Alexander Francis to our family, and I am making plans to fly out to California for his birth over Labor Day weekend--I can't wait to meet him.

I've spent a bit of time reading about Trisomy 18 as well as other stories of babies with fatal prenatal diagnoses since finding out this news. What follows are a number of links that I've found helpful in processing all of this:

Sites about babies with Trisomy 18:

• Prenatal Partners for Life: Trisomy 18 Stories
• Trisomy 18 Foundation (click on "Get Support" and choose "Legacy Pages" from the drop-down menu. Within this page, click on "View Pages" and then "View All Pages"--this will bring up a list of Legacy Pages created by parents of Trisomy 18 babies)
• 99 Balloons: Eliot Hartman Mooney (this link takes you to an amazingly touching YouTube video)
• Reagan-Hope and Love (Reagan died shortly after she was born on May 4 and her parents are still chronicling their experience)
• Nolan's Miracle of Life (Nolan celebrated his first birthday on June 25!)

I've also been reading incredibly touching and heartbreaking stories written by other parents who have experienced a fatal prenatal diagnosis. These are three of the most powerfully-written ones:

• Bring the Rain: Audrey Caroline (they also have a book, called I Will Carry You, about their experience. I haven't read it, but Cali has).
• Finding My Feet: Evie Grace (scroll all the way to the bottom to read the posts in order, backwards)
• Embracing Elijah
• You may also find it helpful to read this link (I know I did) written by a father who lost his baby son at birth.

ETA: If you want to read more posts about my nephew Alex, or see some pictures of him, click on the "Alex" tag below to pull up all my Alex-related posts.

Favorite Holiday Photos: Ohio (Part 2)

Here are more of my favorite holiday photos--this time taken from Surf & Cali's camera.

I love this shot of me and Li'l Tyke. Reminds you of how little they are--and how quickly they aren't so little anymore!
My family has a weakness for smokies from the market--and it looks like Li'l Tyke has caught the bug, too!
It wasn't always easy to get both cousins together-- R would sometimes get very angry if J or I was holding Li'l Tyke (even if the other one was holding her!), but other times, all she would do is demand to be held too. Here are some photos of a few times that happened. Isn't the cuteness just unbearable?
I think R liked her presents, don't you?

Favorite Holiday Photos: Ohio

In no particular order, here are some favorite family pictures from our Ohio trip.

My mom, Cali, Li'l Tyke, R, and my dad--just a nice picture of them all.
I absolutely love this picture of Surf and my father making Li'l Tyke laugh. The entire time we were there, we kept trying to come up with things that would get him to just laugh and laugh. What usually worked was finding some phrase that you could say repeatedly, and loudly, right to his face. "Merry Christmas!" worked very well, as did "Yes, sir!" and "There you are!" and "Calm down!" among others.
In this picture, R is "smiling". She squints her eyes shut like this when she's trying to really smile. (Kind of like our other nephew G used to smile with what I sometimes call the "Beast" smile.)
This next picture was taken the night Surf and Cali arrived. Surf was checking out my parents' tree and laughing at all the old ornaments. A lot of them are actually ornaments we kids made at school. The one he's holding has a picture of Geg on it in these too-short blue sweatpants and a teenage mutant ninja turtles long-sleeve t-shirt, on a paper cup covered in tin foil and hung with a pipe cleaner. Remember those elementary school arts and crafts? My parents still have them and hang them on their tree every year, when most parents probably threw those things out the minute they came home from school. Note, too, the angel at the top of the tree. She is wearing a knitted hat that used to be a christmas ornament in the colors of a high school my dad used to coach at. It got put on the angel's head when the last strands of her hair finally fell off.
Ok, in terms of picture quality this one isn't the best, but I love that my dad looks like he is really talking on a plastic green phone.

AND MORE TO COME...

Li'l Tyke

We got to talk to Cali earlier today and everything is going smoothly. We're just so tickled to have a new nephew!

Isn't he a cuuuuuutie???

We have a new NEPHEW!!!

Li'l Tyke, as we're calling him on this blog, was born this morning, 9ish Pacific Time. 7 lbs 4 oz, 19 inches. I am absolutely dying for pictures!!

Congratulations, Surf and Cali! We are super-super excited and can't wait to meet Li'l Tyke in person.

Love, S, J, & R