In early 2012,
we had been praying for baby number two. Wistfully hoping for a tail end dragon
baby to be born in early 2013, so that we can escape the intense competition
with the rest of the dragons of 2012. Wonderful. When we went in for the first
prenatal check at 9 weeks in early June, the baby presented no heartbeat. That
was the Lord’s first spanner for me.
3 months
down the road, we discovered I was pregnant again. We saw a heartbeat at 6
weeks, and a good wave from the baby at 9 weeks. At 11 weeks, we were due for
an Oscars, not the award winning type, but a standard first trimester screening
test to determine the likelihood of a chromosomal abnormality in the baby. But
we did not have to do it because the scan showed the baby had a thick swelling
around the head and neck which would have failed any screening; a faster than
normal heartbeat, and was sluggish in movements. All these presented a very
high possibility of chromosomal disorder in the baby. The Lord had thrown us
our second spanner.
On the day of the invasive placental tissue test which was
to determine if the baby had any chromosomal issues, the doctor decided not to
go through with the extraction as the amniotic fluid was too low, and any
invasive procedure would greatly increase the chance of a miscarriage. He
further added (salt to the wound) that prognosis of the pregnancy was poor, very likely to end with
a miscarriage or stillbirth.
The night
before we were to consult with our gynae on the next steps to take, I prayed
like I was praying for a lost cause. You know like, how you might catch such a
scene on a melodrama or soap opera, with all the heartache that could not be
expressed with words but only with silent tears just streaming down endlessly? I
was reminded of how Luke described Jesus’s praying in the Garden of Gethsemane
the night He was betrayed, “And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly;
and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” And
so I prayed with all my heart and soul to the Lord that if it’s His will, take
the baby home. If not, heal and show us. Show us that the swelling around the
head has gone down; show us a normal heartbeat; show us the amniotic fluids are back to normal levels.
Well, the
Lord obviously heard me running His doors down. The scan the next day showed
the thickness was close to almost normal levels, heartbeat back to acceptable
rate, and amniotic fluids never seemed unusually low. A quick reschedule for the
sampling test in the next 3 days returned us NORMAL results. But despite the
positive results, throughout the pregnancy there were still milestones to cross
and careful observances to be made to see if the baby would develop any
structural issues, especially with the heart.
On 25 June
2013, Thaddeus Wong arrived with a webbed neck (a congenital skin
fold that runs along the sides of the neck down to the shoulders), and also had
to undergo a heart scan to be quite sure that all was well. By this time, my
concerns had dwindled down to his thick-skin being in the way of getting a wife
in future. But fast forward to his first week follow-up with the pediatrician, his
webbed neck was non-existence, and the heart scan showed no unusual concerns. When
the pediatrician said she could only think of the word ‘miracle’, how could the
mummy not burst out in tears?
The only
way to sum it all up, was when I thanked the pediatrician and she said, “I did not
do anything. He did it all.”
Oh yes, He did
it all.
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