We had had difficulty getting pregnant with my oldest and with Amelia, and a short while after being home from her first surgery, I found out I was pregnant, and that was a joy. We had planned on waiting a while because we had just been through everything with her, but God had other plans and blessed us with him. It was scary as all heck, because the risks are higher with every child you have after a child with congenital heart defects. But our youngest, has no heart issues. I had done normal ultrasounds and then I went to Boston and had Level two ultrasounds to check his heart. Initially they did think that there was something wrong, and I had to go back for another ultrasound to try and get better views of his heart while in utero, and then he was finally cleared, and he has been checked after birth too and has no heart problems. But that was scary. I’ve never known any different than to be in the position that I’m in. It was busy when they were all young, to be dealing with a child with heart problems and then an infant and then a toddler on top of that.
– Roxanne, mother of Amelia, age 7, Dextrocardia
Frankly, I think Diane would say this, we wanted to have three or four kids. We had genetic counseling and they gave us the percentages of having another child with this disease and that didn’t seem fair, so we’re stuck on two. But we’re waiting for grandchildren.
– Bill, father of Jake, age 21, HLHS