My name is Rachel. I've just turned 30 and I live in Northern Ireland with my Husband (Michael), our Cat (Shadow), our Rabbit (Sheldon) and our puppy (Maisie). Michael and I met in 2010, I took off travelling for 6 months and he waited patiently for me to return. We picked up right where we left off and have been inseparable ever since. We were married in New York on Christmas Eve 2015 and decided to start a family in the summer of 2017.
We were delighted to fall pregnant very quickly and got our two pink lines in August 2017. We affectionately referred to our little baby as Bean and excitedly tracked his/her growth on every website and app we could get our hands on. However, the day before my 12 week scan I suffered a miscarriage. Baby only measured between 8 & 9 weeks - our baby's heart had stopped weeks before there were any signs. A Missed, or Silent Miscarriage.
We decided to try again after New Year's and again, fell pregnant the first month of trying. We were super cautious, keeping the secret close to our chest for the first while. But everything was great, we passed all our scans and appointments with flying colours and began to relax and tell people about our Baby.
On 5th June we had a private Gender Scan that revealed extra fluid on our baby girl's neck and we were referred to the Ulster Hospital for further investigations. On 12th June our baby was diagnosed with a large Cystic Hygroma on her neck and Fetal Hydrops, dangerous levels of fluid around her tiny organs. I underwent an Amniocentesis on 14th June and one week later the results revealed that our girl had Turner Syndrome. The expectation was that her heart would stop at any moment and she would be delivered after she had passed away. I began this blog at 21 weeks pregnant, just 3 weeks before we eventually lost our daughter.
Hallie Archer was born at 11.25pm on the 16th of July 2018 by Emergency C-section after I went into preterm labour. Hallie was born alive and she stayed with us for 3 miraculous hours before passing away in our arms at 2.30am on 17th July 2018. We miss her every single second of every day.
I decided to track our journey for personal reasons, yes, but also in the hope that someone else facing a similar diagnosis will stumble upon this blog while Googling (The Google addiction is real) and will find me, and know that they are not alone.
With love,
Rachel
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