It
was a scary sight as a new mother. I remember lying in the hospital bed
after having just delivered our second son, Marco. As the doctors are
dealing with my afterbirth I look over to my husband on the other side of the
room with my nurse who's dealing with the regular baby work.
Joe looks over at me as he sees me observing what's going on. He has a new dad look of Joy on his face and says, "babe he's beautiful...he has 10 fingers and toes". Then I see him turn back to the nurse and baby and have a quite different look in his face. One of more worry. I hear him ask "is that normal?" I'm getting a little nervous myself now as I can feel his internal struggle of trying to keep it together whilst also wondering how he's going to "break the news" to me. I ask if everything is ok and his response. "95%". What does that mean?
Our son Marco was born with a hand Deformity known as Syndactyly. We will know better after some appointments and x-ray tests we have coming up. Basically he has a pinky finger, but the other fingers are fused together to form what looks like one. At the moment we don't know what could have caused this other than just the sheer miracle of life process and all the cell generation that happens as a part of it....somewhere along that process his fingers just never separated perhaps.....
Joe looks over at me as he sees me observing what's going on. He has a new dad look of Joy on his face and says, "babe he's beautiful...he has 10 fingers and toes". Then I see him turn back to the nurse and baby and have a quite different look in his face. One of more worry. I hear him ask "is that normal?" I'm getting a little nervous myself now as I can feel his internal struggle of trying to keep it together whilst also wondering how he's going to "break the news" to me. I ask if everything is ok and his response. "95%". What does that mean?
Our son Marco was born with a hand Deformity known as Syndactyly. We will know better after some appointments and x-ray tests we have coming up. Basically he has a pinky finger, but the other fingers are fused together to form what looks like one. At the moment we don't know what could have caused this other than just the sheer miracle of life process and all the cell generation that happens as a part of it....somewhere along that process his fingers just never separated perhaps.....
Looking back .... all those
ultrasounds....and we never noticed. Nor did anyone point it out. (I had
several ultrasounds and we even did a 3D one!). And all the times we as
expecting parents say "he has all his fingers and toes....I'm happy"
or "as long as he has all his fingers and toes". I can't help
myself but relook at this and now and say "so what?" So what
if we had known or now that we know. Does it change anything?
Absolutely not! "So what" if he only has visually 7
fingers? Does it make him less loved? Absolutely not!
I want to share the email I sent out to
our family and friends when we shared the news about Marcos arrival and what we
call "his special hand". I've had an overwhelming positive
response to it. Perhaps cause I wrote it in 5 minutes strait from my
heart as fresh new mom of 2, hormonal, tired and bitterly honest.
Perhaps this will shed some light on our
love for our child who turned out to not have all his fingers and toes.
Perhaps you'll think again about using this phase when referring to a
newborn or expecting baby :)
----
Marco DAY 3 UPDATE and Info re: His SPECIAL HAND :)
Hello Family and Friends!
First of all we wanted to say a really REALLY big THANK
YOU for everyone's love and support and encouragement throughout the entire
pregnancy, the labour and what turned out to be a very FAST delivery. We
wanted everyone to know that Marco, Mommy, Daddy and Jonathan are all doing
really REALLY well and we are enjoying day 3 now that we are home from the
hospital as a family of 4. Marco is truly an angel and really just such a
good baby. He's beautiful, happy and healthy...Latching really well.... popping
like crazy and gives really awesome cuddles :) What more
could we pray for?
With that said, there is something
that we wanted to share with you all. We did have a little
"surprise" and I suppose you can say it's going to be a little
"challenge" that we will have to deal with. It looks like Marco
was born with a Hand Deformity possibly known as Syndactyly.
We will know better after some appointments and x-ray tests we have coming up.
Basically he has a pinky finger, but the other fingers are fused together to
form what looks like one. At the moment we don't know what could have
caused this other than just the sheer miracle of life process and all the cell
generation that happens as a part of it....somewhere along that process his
fingers just never separated perhaps......
Undoubtedly
we will have a little journey ahead of us in terms of getting more information
on it, probably speaking to a multitude of different specialists etc.; however
we wanted everyone to know that Marco is a completely (...and for lack of a
better word....) "normal" baby. We love him to death. He
is in no way in pain. He has full functionality of his hand and the
"two fingers" that he was blessed to be given. The hardest part
at the moment for all of us is just going to be getting over the
"esthetics" of the hand itself and possibly different
functionality. Rest assured, we are being told that this is actually
quite common and that there are a ton a options for us to explore on
this. Knowing our family, we will be ALL OVER the research and options
:) And we've been so blessed with so many great family and friends that
we are sure you will all be there to love and support us through it too.
We
trust that you will keep Marco and us in your prayers. We are so excited
for you all to meet him. Please PLEASE PLEASE do not worry about US or
HIM. We are all TOTALLY fine over here. We really appreciate your
love and support through this. We weren't sure the best way to handle
sharing this information; however after much thought we figured it would be
best to just put the information out there so that everyone can ask any
questions they might have (...and possibly share any information, contacts,
resources you have found too!). Please feel free to ask us
anything, touch him, hold him, love him, hold his hand...explore.....
He's a BEAUTIFUL baby boy (he looks exactly like his big brother Jonathan ;)
Looking
forward to seeing you all with our new bundle of joy!
xoxox
The Berenguers
Marco
Joseph Berenguer
Weighing 7lbs, 8onz
Born April 12, 2013 at 6:42am
For this child we have prayed and the LORD has granted the desires of our heart. 1 Samuel 1:27
Weighing 7lbs, 8onz
Born April 12, 2013 at 6:42am
For this child we have prayed and the LORD has granted the desires of our heart. 1 Samuel 1:27
