Naomi Jean Makes an Early Debut! -

In the last two weeks, our entire world has been turned upside down by the six-weeks-early arrival of our last baby, Naomi Jean. She was born on April 28, 2023, at exactly 34 weeks gestation after my water broke unexpectedly the morning before.

I plan to do a separate post all about her birth story, but right now I’m trying to process two main (unexpected) surprises:

1) Her extended stay in the NICU (which is now 2+ weeks and counting), and

2) Her diagnosis of having Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), which we didn’t know about until birth.

Once we knew she was going to come early (once my water broke, that is), I also knew we could expect a longer NICU stay. Fortunately for us, this isn’t our first rodeo in the NICU, which has actually helped me enormously. While my son’s stay in the NICU was much shorter, it did give me a good baseline of what to expect so that I’ve been able to handle this whole situation much more calmly than if all of this was brand new. I am hoping to do at least a post or two on our extended NICU stay this time around, just because I’m hoping it might be helpful in the future for someone who finds themselves in a similar situation.

As for her diagnosis of having Down syndrome, while it did come as a surprise, Matt and I have since had some pretty strong spiritual impressions that this was what our life and our family have been heading for all along, and that she was always part of God’s plan for us. We’ve had many tender conversations about how we both feel that so much in our lives for the past several years has prepared us for exactly this moment when she would join our family, and although I sometimes feel overwhelmed with all I don’t know about having a child with special needs, I also feel overwhelmed with love and wonder and joy at this perfect little baby who feels just like a little piece of heaven every time I’m in her presence.

We know she will do great things and has so much to teach us, and we’re so excited to see who she becomes over time.