The Mayfield’s are an amazing family! Chelo contacted me on facebook regarding my “Give Back Sessions” She told me she was part of “THE SISTERHOOD” down syndrome info. This group of over 100 women all get together and support one another in a way they all adopt each other as sisters! She connected me with a few other women in the group and I was able to bless them with sessions and to bring more information and light to this amazing gift of Down Syndrome!
When I was able to meet Aliyah for the first I can tell you it was heaven! She is one spunky, giggly and wild child! Her smile radiates and she has the sweetest soul ever! I followed her around and watched her interact with her family. She is 100% a daddy’s girl…. or maybe She is daddy’s little girl. He was playing with her all over the place. Their family rocks and I am so very blessed to have been able to hang out with them enter into their world and hear their story!
Here is The Mayfield’s story:
There were many twists and turns along my journey to meet my daughter Aliyah or they may have been signs I will never know for sure……the first was that my husband and I had actually decided to start trying for another baby back in late August of 2009 I called my OB’s office to set up an appointment but was informed they were booked out until January of 2010!!! Crazy huh?? Finally in January 2010 I went in for the removal of my IUD at that time my Dr warned me that since I had the IUD for close to 4 years it would be a while before I could conceive up to a year. Well…..I became pregnant!
Shortly after I discovered I was pregnant I started bleeding and cramping, worried something was terribly wrong and scared to death I called my OB she told me that it either was nothing serious. It could be a sign of miscarriage so they told me to take it easy. {something most may not know is that as high as 80% of baby’s conceived with DS miscarry 🙁 so in other words these baby’s are miracles!} Now I just had to wait until my first prenatal visit at 10 weeks along for the ultrasound to confirm if there was a viable fetus in my womb….Crying from pure joy I was so relieved when I saw the tiny bean shape with the center flickering away, it was my baby’s beating heart! Thank God!!
I went in for the ultrasound portion of my prenatal screening I was so excited because I was going to see my baby again! 🙂 I could tell she was really trying to measure and remeasure “something” on the baby very carefully, she then asked the Perinatologist { A sub specialty of obstetrics concerned with the care of the fetus and complicated, high-risk pregnancies.} to come try he also measured and remeasured diligently. I at this time had no idea something was “wrong” the Doctor then asked if had I done the blood work yet? I told him yes!
Four weeks later at my regular prenatal visit with my Ob (which I will call Dr. Superman) asked me “if they (at the Prinatologist) had informed me that my baby’s neck measured a little big?” I answered “No”He left the office. He came back into my room again sat down and said in a very kind tone “I’m sorry that they didn’t call you with your results sooner, but the screening test show that your baby has a 1 in 73 chance of being born with DOWN SYNDROME.” As soon as I got into my car I just started BAWLING!! like a baby, my poor daughter was in the back seat listening to me I told her that mommy’s tummy was hurting.
We did the Amino the next day it came back 2 weeks later confirming our baby was in fact going to be born with Translocation Down Syndrome then 2 weeks after that we found out that I was born with a chromosomal abnormality myself and so on and so on…..So as you can see there were a lot of twists and turns or “signs” whatever you want to call them, everything happens for a reason God was in control and he knew what he was doing even if I at first didn’t want to follow the path he set for me.
To check out more on their story or to follow their blog: Open Muffins Gift
