So before we had Bella we struggled to get pregnant with my son, we needed fertility treatment, just tablets and they worked on the 2nd cycle, we had a beautiful baby boy with no health issues and no pregnancy issues, we decided to wait a year and then try again using the same tablets....... my boy was 5months old when I fell pregnant naturally with Bella, at 12 weeks we had a scan and some screening tests, all tests came back fine except the Down’s syndrome test which came back at “high risk” we had a 1 in 70 chance of our baby having Down’s syndrome because I had a low PAPP-A. This is a hormone that can cause problems with the growth of the baby in the third trimester, and this is what happened at 29 weeks.

 

We refused the amniocentesis as I wasn’t risking a miscarriage after what we had been through to have our little boy, but I just had to know - I like to be organised and prepared for things. So we had a private non invasive blood test that give you a 98% accuracy. After having that ( and a gender scan at the same time, revealing baby girl) it came back positive at 16 weeks, so then we knew we could prepare for our baby having Down’s syndrome. At 20 weeks we went for a scan with the foetal medicine department and had the same consultant for the rest of the pregnancy which was nice. So at that scan they discovered 2 holes in Bellas heart, excess fluid around the brain and a small nose, which are all soft markers for Down’s syndrome, at 29 weeks we went for a scan and Bella had lost weight inside me and there was a problem with the blood flow from me to the placenta, so i was scanned every week and some weeks Bella has gained weight and other weeks she had lost, so at 37 weeks they booked us in for induction and Bella came on the 20th of January 2017 weighing 5lb 7oz and she was beautiful.

 

She was taken straight to a paediatrician where she was examined, then we had cuddles with her - she fed beautifully from a bottle so she didn’t need to be tube fed, the next day she had a heart scan where it showed 2 holes still in her heart but only little, we were allowed home the following day and Bella was a dream..... a week later and another heart scan 1 hole had closed up on its own and the doctor was happy with the other hole that he didn’t need to see her for a year. Bella was a beautiful baby and she has grown into a happy little girl. She has always struggled with reflux and developed sleep apnea at around 8months old. Bella also has hypotonia which means she has low muscle tone so has to work that extra bit harder to reach her gross motor milestones. A year after she was born she had her heart scan and that showed the second hole had also closed up on its own so Bella has no other health issues.

 

She is perfect, very determined and so happy, she always has smiles for everyone and she loves her siblings and her mum and dad, she loves food and loves crawling around on the floor we were so lucky to have 2 children and we forget that she has Down’s syndrome most of the time, she is just our beautiful, cheeky little girl. When she was 1 she got a modelling contract with zebedee management and she loves being in front of the camera. We are extremely eager to change peoples perceptions as people with Down Syndrome are just people. 

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