HEART-MELTING REAL LIFE
Jaylynn Stringer, 27, spent her entire pregnancy wondering what would happen next –now she knows the incredible answer.
Rushing straight to the bathroom, I had an urge to be sick.
‘I’m really nauseous,’ I said, calling my mum Kari, now 51, at the start of 2021.
‘Are you sure you’re not pregnant?’ she asked.
With my partner Chris, now 29, and our daughter Ariah, then eight, sound asleep, it was the perfect chance to find out.
Not opposed to having another child, Chris and I weren’t necessarily trying, but I did have astash of pregnancy tests in our Tennessee home.
And with not one, but two positive tests staring back at me, I couldn’t quite believe it.
Creeping back into bed, I knew what Iwould say next was going to startle Chris.
‘Heyyy,’ I whispered. ‘We are having a baby!’
Still half asleep, it wasn’t until afew moments later that my words had kicked in.
We were both overjoyed and totally excited.
And our family and friends felt the same way, too.
Especially Ariah –she’d been asking for asibling for awhile.
Suffering from Type 1 diabetes, my pregnancy was deemed high-risk.
And from the moment I found out I was expecting, my morning sickness heightened – it was all day nausea instead. However, apart from that, everything was smooth sailing. Finding out that we were expecting a girl at nine-weeks, we started preparing.
Bursting into tears I was confused and upset
Buying pink clothes, small items like nappies and wipes and acot, too, Chris and I wanted to get our girl’s room ready to go.
Then, hitting 20-weeks, I attended ascan to see our girl’s development by myself at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Centre, Knoxville.
However, the scan was taking alot longer than I thought it would.
And with doctors coming in and out of the room, saying nothing to me, I started to become concerned.
‘What’s happening?’ Iasked as the medics got me to switch positions on the bed.
‘We can’t seem to get your baby’s bottom half,’ the medic answered. ‘We’re not seeing any growth on the lower half.’
And marking her toes, legs and feet as abnormal on ascreen in front of me, Ihad no idea what was going on.
Bursting into tears, confused, crying and upset, I called Chris.
‘You need to pick Ariah up from school, take her to a friend’s house and then come here, they are saying that something is wrong with the baby’s legs,’ I confessed.
Then, when Chris arrived, doctors gave us as many answers as they could.
‘We believe your baby has caudal regression syndrome, CRS,’ they announced.
With my mind racing, Ihad never heard of the condition.
Finding ou
