The Beginning

This is a copy of our very first posting regarding our daughter Gracie.  If this is your first visit to our blog, this is a great place to start.  You can catch up with her journey by reading the posts in each month listed under the Blog Archive (located to the right of the postings).


"You shaped me first inside, then out: you formed me in my mother's womb." Psalm 139:13

I remember finding out I was pregnant with our daughter Gracie. I was so excited to have another baby. I am the person who LOVES being pregnant. Truth be told, its not too hard because I have easy pregnancies. With the exception of both my babies trying to come early, I got to enjoy every trimester. Our first child, Landry is now 3. He was an unexpected c-section, so Gracie was planned that way. On October 29, 2011 I walked into the hospital, got checked in and got ready for surgery. The process was so much calmer, I felt like I could have fallen asleep during surgery. Until she was born anyway. The OB announced time of birth to complete silence. Nurses surrounded my baby girl, and no one answered my questions on what was wrong. (I'm so thankful the nurses were more focused on doing their jobs instead of answering my questions...but in the moment, the silence was hard). The anesthesiologist finally told me the cord was wrapped and she wasn't breathing. They were cutting it and getting oxygen on her. What seemed like forever, finally ended in the beautiful cry of a newborn baby girl!!!! I thought the scary part was over. My husband took her while they finished the c-section and as I was wheeled into recovery, he told me she was missing 2 toes. He was so shocked he didn't even wait for them to finishing wheeling my bed in, and I thought he was joking. Seriously, I even laughed and said that's not funny. To which he said he wasn't kidding. I just couldn't think of anything other then this was some sick joke. I never worried about her having all her fingers and toes. I worried about her heart (Landry has a murmur and holes), and about her head (they kept saying she was too small), but not about her toes.

It took him showing me her foot to realize he wasn't joking. The next few days were a blur of frustration and fear. She wouldn't nurse and lost too much weight, had jaundice and we ended up in the hospital an extra day because they weren't ready to send her home. All the time I see this tiny little half foot...that's what it looked like to me. Half a foot. She has her first 3 toes on her right foot, toes 2 and 3 are webbed together, and the entire foot stops there...its incredible. Robert was devastated and we were both exhausted. Finally we got to go home with referrals to a geneticist and pediatric orthopedist. The hospital doctors thought it might be Amniotic Band Syndrome, and wanted us to see both specialists. My mom gave me the best advice for her at this point...just take her home and love on her. Both my family and my in-laws were so positive and amazing!

Fast forward one month. Gracie is doing good, weight gain is great even though she's still not nursing. The geneticist appointment was hard, but he did not think it was ABS, felt like it was Fibular Hemimelia, and not related to any syndrome or genetic issue. Pediatric Orthopedist agreed. Basically we spent an entire day at the hospital and left with nothing more then the following: -her right leg is shorter then the left, this difference in length may or may not continue to grow, -she should walk because she has her big toe, and -at some point we may need a leg lengthening. Apparently this was all we could handle hearing at the time, because we didn't ask questions...we just said ok, be back in a year for follow up.

A picture of Gracie's feet

Newborn hospital pictures

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