On Saturday March 10th 2007, 2:41 PM, Danielle Jane Nicora was born in suite 10 at the Kadlec Medical Center. She was 7 lbs 4 oz. Shortly after she was born her pediatrician noticed a few minor problems. Her smallest and next smallest toes were fused, her foot and arm reflexes were slow and she had trouble maintaining her temperature. He had some blood cultures done as well and sent out a chromosomal test. By Sunday, signs of jaundice started to appear and it became more difficult for her to keep her temperature up. As it turned out, her blood oxygen saturation was below 90%, normally newborns are able to keep theirs at ~98%.

 Later that night she was moved to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) where she was hooked up to monitors that watched her blood oxygen saturation, respiratory rate and heart rate. Her jaundice was getting worse as well. She tested coombs positive, which basically means that Carries O blood type had produced antibodies that were breaking down Dani's B blood type. So she was placed under bilirubin lights for photo treatment. We were told that more blood tests were done to check for possible infection, apparently her white blood cell count was very high. It was at this point the NICU nurse explained to us that they had identified numerous Down Syndrome markers. This news absolutely crushed us, like nothing else has ever before.

We spent the next day in the hospital fighting through shock and grief all the while visiting Dani whenever we could to hold and feed her. It was later that day the results came back with a positive result for Down Syndrome.   Luckily by Wednesday she had made huge advancements in her health, her jaundice started to clear up, she was regulating temperature and had maintained a blood oxygen saturation of ~96%. It had also given us some time to start to deal Dani's condition. We are home and things are looking up. And although the news we got feels tragic, Dani was born and there should be a celebration for this, shes healthy and starting her journey in this world. We have no doubt she will become the best she can be with what she was given and all of us could use support and encouragement as we begin to make decisions that will chart her course.

So, Carrie and I present to you, Danielle Jane Nicora

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