Letters to my Grandchild

Dear Grandchild, You are now 17.5 weeks and growing!   I found this picture of an 18 week foetus in the womb on the cover of LIFE Magazine. It is so amazing that I feel as though I have just looked at you for the first time! You are a REAL being, not just a growing mulberry, or a squiggly tad-pole. I think this baby is a girl (I don't see any dangling bits!) so perhaps you are also a girl. We'll just have to wait until the next scan to find out! It is your uncle Greg's birthday today. He was born in 1975 - and your father was born 2 years later in 1977. I always wanted boy children and I dearly love my two boys but it would be nice to have a little girl in the family now. You have another two uncles- your mother's brothers are Brent and Steven. You won't have any aunties but I know that Patty and all our 'girl' friends will want to be your aunty. There are so many people thinking of you, praying for you, caring about you alread...

Great news! Tammy felt you move today for the first time! What were you doing? Changing position? Stretching? Sneezing? It was Tammy's birthday today and Mark treated her to a day at a SPA. It was there, while she was relaxed and being pampered that she felt you kick. It will be a while yet before anyone else can feel those movements. I remember when I was pregnant and could feel Greg, or Mark, kicking, I would lay Finn's hand on my tummy and say, "There! Did you feel that?" I was always so frustrated when he said no. Babies move about quite a lot in the womb and it always surprised me that Mark didn't sustain any fractures whilst he was curled up in that awkward position. Many babies with brittle bones fracture in uetro, some have dozens of fractures during delivery. Mark's was an easy birth with no fractures. He was a calm, happy baby and hardly ever cried. We only found out that Mark had brittle bones when he was about 3 ½ months old. I broke his leg ...

15th May: Dear Grandchild, It was your father's birthday today - he is 31 years old. I still think of him as my baby and now he is going to have his own baby. We met at their place before going out to dinner and Tammy showed us the latest scan taken of you at 15 ½ weeks. My how you've grown. It was still too early to tell if you are a boy baby or a girl baby but your spine and limbs were quite clear. So far you are developing normally - which is a good sign because babies with OI often have stunted growth and severely affected babies can be tiny - with a form of dwarfism. This is what the Mayo Clinic has to say about your development: Your baby's skin starts out nearly transparent. Eyebrows and scalp hair may make an appearance. For babies destined to have dark hair, the hair follicles will begin producing pigment. The bone and marrow that make up your baby's skeletal system are continuing to develop this week. Your baby's eyes and ears now have a baby...

Dear Grandchild, Last night we went to visit Mark and Tammy and they showed us a scan photograph of you taken at 8 weeks. You now look more like Casper the ghost than a tadpole! I Googled 8 week embryo and this is what I read:   This week, your baby graduates from being an embryo and becomes a foetus. Up to now, your baby's framework has been made up of cartilage. From the 47th day, the first bone cells begin to replace this cartilage. The bones for arms and legs begin to harden and joints begin to form. The face and jaw is formed, but teeth and facial muscles are only just starting. All of the vital organs are in place: heart, lungs, brain, intestines. However, they are all still immature and will develop further. The genitalia begin to form. Your baby will develop webbed fingers and toes this week. Wrists, elbows and ankles are clearly visible, and your baby's eyelids are beginning to form. The ears, upper lip and tip of the nose also become recognizable. As your ...

Dear Grandchild, Welcome to my world. You are the last thing I expected to happen in our life. When Mark (my son - your father) told me back in March that he had something to tell me, I did not for one moment expect him to say that Tammy (your mother) was pregnant. Pshew!! Although they'd known each other for a long time - each had different partners when they first met and Tammy had moved away to Gauteng. They had only started dating 6 months earlier so this was a shock! My first reaction was one of panic! Mark has a genetic order called osteogenesis imperfecta - brittle bones - and there is a 50% risk that his children will inherit the gene for OI. There is no test for Mark's type of OI and the only way they might be able to diagnose OI before you are born is through ultra-sound. The memories of caring for a baby with brittle bones flooded back and I thought, "It's not fair to bring a child into the world knowing that it might be facing years of pain and traum...